The Umbrella Revolution has been lasting for almost 10 weeks. The police has forced out protesters from some of the occupied areas with unconscionable violence, which has made the sad and angry protesters even more determined to fight till the end, despite the risk that they could be badly beaten by the police. In front of the “Lennon wall” in Admiralty, a wide variety of plants are growing in “The Organic Guerilla Garden of Plurality”, as resistant to the elements as the different kinds of protesters staying on in the occupied areas.
”The Organic Guerilla Garden of Plurality”
The “Organic Guerilla Garden of Plurality” (hereafter called “the Garden of Plurality”) once consisted of only shrubs. On 28 September, the police fired tear gas on the protesters in Admiralty. Protesters scampered over the shrub accidentally, and the residue of the tear gas inflicted harm on the shrub ecosystem. As a result, all the shrubs died and were ruined a few days later. Rishi, who is an environmentalist, then decided to cultivate and revitalise the area. One day, Christine, who is interested in planting, happened to walk past the garden and joined the farm work.
Christine（L）and Rishi（R） on the farm
Rishi is a Hong Kong-born German with an easy-going personality. Christine just know a little bit about farming before, but after practicing farming on the garden for days, she is able to explain the details of the garden clearly. “Plurality” in the name of the garden is in opposition to “monocultures” or “monocracy”. Rishi emphasises diversity is essential to both society and nature. Every citizen can donate and grow a plant in “the Garden of Plurality” and contribute to the diversity of the garden, which in political terms represents the concept of public nomination, something being denied despite massive public calls for it. As a result of everyone being able to participate, the garden grows more diverse, as diverse ecologically as the Nomination Committee should be politically, housing people of different opinions and viewpoints (as opposed to the one-sided political affiliation of the Nomination Committee currently).
Organic waste could be used as fertilizer after decomposition in the compost bin.
There are publications about organic farming and the importance of agriculture on “the Garden of Plurality”, which invite people to think deeper about food and food supply in Hong Kong. On the day of the interview, there was scattered rain, and Rishi and Christine were packing the materials in “the Garden of Plurality” in preparation of the upcoming work, while other Occupy volunteers passed ginger tea around. When Rishi received the tea, he asked “Is this organic?” People around smiled. In “the Garden of Plurality”, there is a big white compost bin collecting organic waste. Rishi states that organic waste is different from food waste in general, as organic waste represents the natural by-products as a result of the preparation of fruits and vegetables, and though they cannot be eaten they can still be used as fertiliser after decomposition (food waste in contrast is edible food leftovers from cooking or plates thrown away rather than saved for another time). “The food only becomes “wasted” because we dispose of them on landfills, which is not the right platform to dispose of them.” Rishi feels sorry about the amounts of food Hong Kong people keep wasting, and their lack of awareness about the challenges in food production and that food waste can actually be turned into organic matter for new life. Also, Rishi observes that the Hong Kong government keeps rezoning agricultural land in Hong Kong for commercial use, even though Hong Kong has the perfect climate for year-round production of a wide variety of crops. This has severely affected Hong Kong’s agricultural development. “If Hong Kong people could grow their own food, we could have a chance to shake off our food dependency and control by China,” Rishi said lamentably.
The plants are donated by the citizens
“The Garden of Plurality” is mainly divided into four areas. The first phase consists of row planting. Next came “the green umbrella”, which is composed of mung beans. The third element is a whirling-shaped garden called “Keyhole Garden”. Fourth is the “Spiral Garden”, which was built using glass bottles. Most of the plants in “The Garden of Plurality” are donated by citizens, including chillies, aloe, corn, pineapple, choi sum (flowering cabbage), snake plant, etc. Each plant has its own story. Chilli symbolically represents the pepper spray used by police liberally. Patchouli smells nice and has a great therapeutic anti-inflammatory effect, which people can pound and apply on the skin irritated by pepper spray to ease the hot and painful feeling.
Movie: N+N
The lucky bamboo on “The Garden of Plurality” is from Choi Yuen Village. In the Anti-XRL Campaign, a short film called “1+1” was produced by director Lai Yan Chi. The film is about a little girl and her grandpa who live in Choi Yuen Village. When their homeland is destroyed as part of the construction of the Hong Kong Express Rail Link, they take lucky bamboo (which abounds in Choi Yuen Village) to different meaningful places in Hong Kong and plant them there. The film is very touching and tends to let the audience know more about Choi Yuen Village, and lead the audience to rethink environmental conservation and lifestyle liberty. The Movie “N+N”, which is the sequel of “1+1”, is still shown in local cinemas occasionally. Two years ago, an audience took one lucky bamboo each from the Tsoi Yuen villagers’ home after a film show, and were told to plant the lucky bamboo somewhere meaningful just like what the little girl and her grandpa do in the film. During the Umbrella Revolution, a member of the audience thought of planting the lucky bamboo somewhere in the occupied area, and donated the lucky bamboo to “The Garden of Plurality” once she discovered it.
”The Green Umbrella”
“The Green Umbrella” is composed of mung beans, which are easy to grow and can help fix nitrogen in the soil so as to revitalise it. The soil was in a poor state not only due to the trampling and pepper spray on 28 September, but also as a result of the mismanagement by the government with pesticides. Crops growing among the mung beans such as choi sum (flowering cabbage) and kale benefit from the mung beans’ nitrogen-fixing properties and resulted in a good first harvest. Sunflowers are grown in “the Green Umbrella”, which represent the spirit of the “Sunflower Movement”: “Let the sun shine to light up the darkness”, “Defend democracy”, “With a hope that the future would be bright”.
The “Keyhole Garden” is constructed by bricks arranged in a circular shape, while the “Spiral Garden” is made up of glass bottles collected in the occupied areas. Both are elements of “Permaculture”, and used to turn the place into a sort of demonstration garden showcasing different agricultural techniques and philosophies, in order to inspire and educate people. Permaculture is the acronym of “permanent”, “agriculture” and “culture”. “Permaculture is a more nature-based process of farming where you let nature do its thing and take care of itself in the process of planting and harvesting, as opposed to the more hands-on management style, as in the case of row planting.” Rishi said.
Christine states that organic waste can be put in the “Keyhole”, and after putting some hay and soil over it the organic waste would eventually become fertiliser and permeate the keyhole garden to become a ground for rich soil. Christine states excessive pesticides are applied in farming nowadays, which accelerates the plants’ growth, enhances agricultural output and makes the plants look good, but negatively affects biodiversity and the surrounding ecosystem, as well as reduces the nutritional content of the plants. Organic farming is slow, but the crops healthier and sturdier, and more nutritious.
“Keyhole Garden”
Rishi has a clear understanding of democracy and freedom. “Democracy is more than just being able to elect your leader. It also involves giving people the chance to stand for election and having a genuine choice of candidates. As such, it represents power by the people, and is a system based on majority rule, but with respect for minorities and which grants minorities platforms to express their views and practise their ideologies. Freedom is that people are able to make real and meaningful choices for themselves and their development, and also entails free access to information, the right to free expression without fear of persecution and the freedom to express one’s self, including one’s personality, ability to pursue hobbies, beliefs, one’s sexual orientation, etc.” Rishi thinks that if the government keeps on ignoring the massive public showing for genuine universal suffrage and keeps on telling lies to the people, the Umbrella Revolution will continue, though there would be clampdown eventually.
“Spiral Garden”
After these ten weeks, the potentate has used all possible tools to control the situation: ignoring people’s opinion, suspending communication, prohibiting British MPs from entering Hong Kong, using the media as a tool to discredit the protestors, prohibiting protesters from entering China, and using the police as a political tool. The war for democracy was not expected to be victorious after just one battle, and the stepping up of the protest action did not really have a great effect on the government, but the public has to stay united and trust each other, and keep the faith for the next generation.
Special thanks to Rishi for helping to correct the English error in the article.
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Chinese version: 綠色抗爭 全民種植——專訪「抗命有機豐富之園」