Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower

Greetings, my fellow citizens.

I am Joshua Wong, founder of Scholarism.

The warning light of Hong Kong's political system is flashing red.

At 9:30, Joshua made his speech,

and we are getting ready for Joshua to lead us.

I feel so sick.

You know, when you can't breathe,

because you're too nervous.

A crowd of 1500 is more than I expected here today.

I want to know, where are the adults?

No matter what the price,

we can't dump this on the next generation.

This generation must complete our mission!

Now let's go take Civic Square together!

Have you been to Mr. Siu's class?

Can I see your paper?

No, he hasn't given the paper back yet.

Oh, he hasn't graded it yet?

Before I was involved in politics I was just a normal student, a normal kid.

I went to school, put effort in my studies, but those days are now gone.

Instead of just focusing on GPA,

why don't we try to care about the city that we live

and the city that we love?

Hello, Hong Kong.

We are Scholarism, a student organization.

Please take two seconds and sign your name

to demand the government withdraw National Education.

Defend freedom of thought.

Oppose brainwashing education.

The mainstream and the teachers just teach us,

if you become an accountant or doctor,

or even you become the management trainee of the investment bank,

you gain a successful life and future.

However, instead of asking society to define what is success,

I would just ask why I can't define what is valuable for myself

and what is important for the society?

It's the time for us to show our disagreement

against interference from the Communist Party of China.

I founded Scholarism when I was 14 years old.

What we hope to do is just demand

for freedom of mind and freedom of speech.

To show our disagreement to brainwashing education.

When I founded Scholarism, I knew it was important to recruit members.

I met Derek because actually we knew each other

from the Christian fellowship in our high school.

and join the fight against the National Education?"

China is a rising darkness

that destroys the things in Hong Kong.

But if you want to defeat Darth Vader, then you have to train some Jedi.

We are totally not Chinese people.

We are unique.

Hong Kong people is Hong Kong people.

Bruce Lee is Hong Kong people.

Hong Kong is the place that I'm born, I live, and the place that I love.

And the future of Hong Kong should be decided by Hong Kongers

instead of the Chinese government.

The first time for me to meet CY Leung

is in March of 2012 because he organized a Facebook event,

and if your post under that Facebook event can get the highest number of likes,

you can get a chance to meet with CY Leung.

I just shared to my Facebook and shared to Scholarism's Facebook page.

And finally, I get around a few thousand likes

and I can meet CY Leung and ask him,

"Why do you still need to implement the National Education?"

Hello, CY Leung.

I'm Joshua Wong and a sophomore.

Maybe you find it odd that students show up at an event like this.

And we have exams, too.

Actually, I have one tomorrow.

We are from Scholarism, the alliance against National Education.

What's the name?

Scholarism.

CY Leung just responded, "Oh, what is Scholarism?

I haven't heard this name before."

And he pretend that Scholarism is not a matter for him.

What do you have in mind?

We demand the government withdraw National Education

and the brainwashing curriculum.

What are your reasons?

It says you'll get good grades if your answers match the government's view.

If you cry when the Chinese flag is raised,

you'll get a better grade.

Does it really say that?

Yes.

CY Leung was not interested to what I say about National Education.

He just thinks I'm a troublemaker.

Why is it sagging?

Testing. One. Two.

Hello, citizens of Hong Kong.

We are Scholarism, the group against National Education.

We have to spend a lot of time campaigning in different neighborhoods.

Every day we have to hand out flyers.

I didn't realize it would be so hard.

Please take a look at our leaflet.

It's really unusual for students to distribute leaflets on the street.

We're just trying to push forward to gain more people's support.

But the problem is we still haven't grabbed the general public's awareness.

I remember that I visited a poor family when I'm 13 years old.

While I visited them, we would preach the gospel

and also pray for them because I'm a Christian.

And one year later, I went back to that family and visited them again.

During that moment, I just realized that

just trying to pray for them would not bring the change.

It's necessary for us to change by action.

Only independent thinking is the truth!

It's been a long day for everyone.

We'd like to thank everyone for participating in Scholarism's rally.

What are you demanding from the government?

We demand the government withdraw National Education.

We can't have Communist China dictating what is taught in Hong Kong schools.

Will you act more radically in the future to stop them?

That depends on the government's response.

If the government insists on implementing National Education,

Scholarism will have to consider our next steps.

Yeah, the video really makes us very popular.

And over a hundred students applied and say, "Oh, we want to join you

and we want to join the fight against the National Education."

Sit down. Let's start the meeting.

Forget about pouring water.

Everyone has to be more serious.

President, why would we be serious?

If you are serious about your position, then lead the meeting.

How is everyone?

My name is Joshua Wong, and I'm the founder of this group.

I'm the one most newspapers have written about.

I'm Derek Lam.

I'm studying at United Christian College.

I'm repeating my senior year.

What's your job in Scholarism?

Making jokes.

He's responsible for announcing through the loudspeaker.

According to the procedure, everyone should introduce themselves.

I'm Agnes Chow.

Tonight, our guest is Joshua Wong.

He's everywhere these days.

If you don't know him, you will after this show.

Scholarism must take all of your time.

It's true. I feel like I'm working on Scholarism full-time lately.

I always forget that you're still a student.

How do you balance your time?

When I'm not on Facebook dealing with Scholarism, I'm studying.

My grades are not too bad.

It's impossible that your grades aren't bad!

Are you in a relationship?

No, because I focus on my work.

My mom keeps telling me not to date until college.

I should focus on studying now.

Everyone values youth, but there's a difference

between how China and Hong Kong value youth.

Youth in China do everything their country tells them to do.

They are one with the country.

But you're different.

You encourage people to go on the street, to protest, to be radical,

to object to National Education.

Our situation makes it necessary.

If the government didn't push for National Education,

I wouldn't ask people to join us

and there wouldn't be these interviews.

Allowing the Communist Party to create our curriculum is a huge problem.

The attitude of the police forces is quite negative towards the activists.

The policemen will come and ask a lot of questions.

Which organization are you from?

We are an organization called Scholarism.

You aren't going to have a rally here?

No, we definitely won't.

Of course our regime and government try to scare us

from not joining social movement.

But I think, as an activist,

one of the things which is very important for us

is not to be scared.

You don't have to surround us with so many officers.

We're here every day.

We'll leave if nothing's happening.

It's cool. Continue.

It's really ridiculous for the policemen to come and tell the activists that,

"We want to protect you. That's why we keep our eyes on you."

Because what they want to do is just protect the ruling class

instead of the grassroots in Hong Kong.

Defend freedom of thought!

Withdraw National Education!

Today we've successfully occupied government headquarters.

We have over 100 Scholarism members, citizens and volunteers gathered here.

What we're fighting for is plain and simple.

We hope that the next generation will have freedom.

Do you worry about the police using force?

The police do not need to use force.

Scholarism insists on being peaceful, rational and nonviolent.

So, we hope the police can also be peaceful, rational and nonviolent.

We are occupying a public area outside of the government headquarters.

And we named that place Civic Square.

I feel really excited, but I also feel a bit nervous

because of the people's expectations of me and Scholarism.

Around 6:30 in the morning, someone woke me up

and told me that CY Leung come to the square.

It's the second time for me to have the discussion with the chief executive.

These students are not camping out for fun.

Why are you neglecting the public's opinion?

This is a three-year initiation period.

Scholarism objects to National Education's "initiation period."

If we agree on the initiation period,