(30 Sep 2019) Since June, thousands of protesters have been streaming onto main roads of Hong Kong every weekend, as part of a movement sparked by a now-shelved China extradition bill.
They've been using various means to spread their messages - from joining anonymous telegram channels, making posters and painting graffiti, much of which criticizes the Hong Kong government and police.
Graffiti is visible on major roads and tram tracks, overpasses and bridges.
Some, drawn by artists like Charm, are more elaborate and sizable, painted in secluded parts of the city, inside industrial buildings and on rooftops - well away from the eyes of authorities.
Charm is a Hong Kong programmer in his 20s, who asked to be called by his graffiti name out of fear of arrest.
He says graffiti is a "visual way" for young people like himself to express their feelings.
"Teenagers or young people, (when) they have no way to speak their own mind, or (when) others are not listening, the graffiti is kind of like a visual way to express their ideas and feelings."
Government workers have been tasked with removing various graffiti around the city by painting them over, washing them off with high-pressure water guns and covering them over with sheets of plastic, if all else fails.
According to Charm, protesters hesitated at using non-removable paint to spray their messages during the 2014 Umbrella Movement due to the extra work for cleaners. But not this time around:
"During the time in 2014, Umbrella Revolution, they (protesters) did stick some stickers or slogan(s) on the wall but those are not permanent paint, like you can remove it easily. I think at that time, people still had the mind that "OK, so that wall is not mine (and) I cannot do whatever I want on it. So I'd stick a paper, but it was easy for workers to clean it afterwards. So they still had the mindset that, 'OK, I don't want to bring trouble to the workers, but I want to express my mind.' But now they don't care because (of) the strong urge they want people to see it (graffiti) is more important than, OK, so afterwards (consequence of how) it will bring trouble to the workers."
Charm's graffiti adorns the rooftop of a building in Kwun Tong.
"Who do we call when police murder?" he questions, referring to one of the five demands from protesters - an independent investigation into allegations of police brutality.
"Through these words, (I am) not saying OK, I know police is murdering. I am not saying this. But I want to write a question to ask people - so police are supposed to be the people who investigate crimes. But what if police themselves are doing crime? So who takes this job to investigate them?" he says.
Elsewhere, a Hong Kong teenager with graffiti name 'J.I.M.J.A.M.S' has been saving up his pocket money and wage from his part-time job to buy spray paints.
He says it took around two weeks to save up around 2,462 Hong Kong dollars ($314) for his latest message - "Free HK" - painted inside an abandoned industrial building in Tsuen Wan.
"Some is my pocket money, and some of them, I gained it through my part time job, so yeah, it takes me like one or two weeks to actually save up the money to paint this."
He says he couldn't participate in the recent protest because of "personal problems" and this is his way, as an artist, to support the movement.
Hong Kong authorities on Monday rejected an appeal for a major pro-democracy march on China's National Day holiday which this year celebrates 70 years of the People's Republic.
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