Society

On Sundays, foreign domestic helpers from South East Asian countries usually gather next to Victoria Park for recreational activities and to share their culture delicacies. But finding a safe place to meet has become increasingly challenging since the anti-extradition bill protest in June. Organisers of Indonesian Martial Arts have been holding events every Sunday in Victoria Park since October 2009, but that stopped. "Sometimes we can't meet our friend," said Nuki, IMA's spokeswomen who only gave her first name, "we have almost 300 people in our group." she said. Nuki has  been living in Hong Kong since 2008. "I never felt scared, but this time I [am] really scared." She feels "caught in the middle" when violence erupts on weekends.  Demonstrations have spread across the city every weekend since June and the violence has intensified, forcing domestic workers to change their schedules on their only day-off to avoid high-risk areas.  The Cabinet Secretariat of Indonesian issued a travel advisory in August to Indonesians concerning Hong Kong's protests. According to the Immigration Department’s data in 2018, there were about 165,000 Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong. "The way of Hong Kong’s protests won’t happen in our country. The police won’t let it," said Nuki. Maya, another Indonesian helper, sat on the ground at Victoria Park, chatting and eating with her friends. "Hong Kong is too dangerous, if I have no place to go, I will just stay at home," Maya said,  "we have to work the whole week, we need to enjoy (our holiday)." Some domestic workers have had their days off cut short by the protest. On 15th August, protesters dressed in black were at a rally organized by the Civil Human Rights Front on the 15th of August, despite the march being banned by the police.  "Go quickly, otherwise you would …

After a fatal building collapse in To Kwa Wan, the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) has announced a number of redevelopment projects in the district since 2016. While most residents accepted the government's compensation, many say moving away from the neighbourhood is not about money.

Fishermen's ballads are a form of oral history of Hong Kong's dwindling fishing community. Our reporter, Zinnia Lee tells the story of how these songs have become a form of Intangible Cultural Heritage for Hong Kong and what the younger generation is doing to preserve them.

The frilly, dark lace trimmings embroidered around Tsang Ching’s knee-length, eccentric red dress stood in stark contrast to the modernity of the bustling streets of Mong Kok. With immaculate makeup and long, soft curls fanned over her shoulders, Tsang Ching strutted past the sardine-packed markets in a pair of black suede knee-high boots. Biologically male, Ms. Tsang identifies and dresses as female. She first started crossdressing began when she tried on her first pair of stockings at the age of six. During secondary school, she would crossdress at home borrowing clothing from her family members, only to put them back when she felt satisfied. But as she did not have the money to buy shoes and wigs until she turned 23. Now, Ms. Tsang, 33, works as an organising secretary for a labour non-profit organisation and dresses as a woman every day. Her colleagues are largely accepting of her identity, she says, and adds that the major objection comes from her wife. "Some think crossdressers are gay, and that’s the reason why they do crossdressing. Or they would straight up think that I am a pervert because I was dressing so femininely", said Ms. Tsang, "I want to be treated as a female even though I don’t hate being male." With increased LGBT exposure in recent years, whether or not Hong Kong has progressed into a safe place for men to publicly crossdress remains a question. "Each time crossdressing is used in Hong Kong and Chinese media, it is sometimes laughable. It is used as comedy." said Brenda Rodriguez Alegre, a transgender lecturer of Gender Studies at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Hong Kong. "I think socially, logically and psychologically, safe is a complex term to use. Maybe you will be safe in the sense that you …

The much-anticipated match commenced with "Brooms Up!" Players darted towards the balls in the centre of the field, makeshift broomsticks held between their legs.  On both sides of the pitch stood three ring-shaped, silver goalposts of different heights. Quidditch is a familiar sport for Harry Potter fans, but now, the fictional game has been brought to life. Full-contact and physically intense, the magical sport leaped off the pages in 2005 when freshmen Xander Manshel and Alex Benepe of Middlebury College in Vermont, US, co-created the rules of land-based Quidditch and dubbed it "Muggle Quidditch". A myriad of university teams are playing the sport from UC Berkeley in the US and McGill University and Carleton University in Canada  to recently in Asia, the University of Hong Kong. J.K. Rowling's wizarding world of Harry Potter continues to strike a chord with aficionados across the world, though the last installment of the fantasy series was in 2011. Fusing together a variety of elements from rugby, dodgeball, volleyball and tag, a Quidditch team has seven players per team on the field, who must keep a makeshift broomstick - usually a plastic bar or light metal stick - between their legs at all times during the game. In order to score, chasers of each team throw the quaffle (a volleyball) through the hoops as the keepers race to ward off their attacks. Beaters can attack players' of the opposing team using bludgers (two dodgeballs). The job of the seeker, the position that Harry Potter himself held, is to catch the "golden snitch" - a neutral player who has a yellow tennis ball attached to the back of his or her pants. The International Quidditch Association says the sport is gender inclusive with no more than than four players of the same sex allowed on the …