【CNN 20150130】全面占领——香港的抗议主题宾馆

满仓

【中文标题】全面占领——香港的抗议主题宾馆
【原文标题】Fully occupied? Hong Kong's protest hotel
【登载媒体】CNN
【原文作者】Sarah Chakales
【原文链接】http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/29/world/hong-kong-occupy-central-hotel/index.html



香港居民史蒂芬•汤普森在2014年12月初，在铜锣湾一幢住宅楼的13层开了一家名为“占中”的宾馆。


客人可以租用带有抗议活动名称的帐篷，比如“自由屋”和“外国势力总部”。


除了香港民主抗议期间使用的一些道具装饰品，“占中宾馆”还让一些活动人士创作了抗议过程中值得回忆的艺术作品。


宾馆老板史蒂芬•汤普森说，他在中国订做了1000卷印着香港特首曾荫权头像的厕纸。


这位拒绝与抗议活动领导人见面的特首，是抗议者主要愤怒的对象。


防毒面具、警戒线和香港抗议活动中的其它道具，填满了汤普森在铜锣湾600平方英尺的公寓。


有关香港三个主要抗议地点的剪报、海报和艺术作品贴满了占中宾馆的厨房。


在宾馆的浴帘上，习被描绘成举着抗议活动雨伞的样子。


汤普森说，到目前为止，已经有40个来自世界各地的客人在他的占中宾馆里住宿，同时了解香港的民主抗议详细情况。


26岁的英国人尼古拉斯•沃特摩尔在接受CNN的采访时说：“我目前正在环游世界，想看到的就是这样的东西。这也算是我对这场运动的小小的致敬，因为自己无法亲身参与。”


29岁的法国人维克多•高米说：“我的（中国）学校在雨伞革命期间禁止我来香港，他们说：‘别去，你会遇到麻烦。’但我的确想看看这些报纸、旗帜和标语。”


汤普森说，邻居曾经抱怨他在房门口拉上的警戒线，大楼保安警告他移走这些东西。


香港特首的头像印在厕纸上；你洗澡的时候，中国领导人就站在你旁边。毋庸讳言，这不是一家寻常的宾馆。

地处香港繁忙的铜锣湾一处僻静街道中的一所公寓中，这家小宾馆可以说是雨伞革命的圣地。自由职业者史蒂芬•汤普森在12月初租下这间公寓，当时警方正在清理城市街道上民主革命后的混乱。

纪念物

汤普森说：“我拿到钥匙的第二天就来到金钟（主要抗议场所）。警察冲过来，我能抓到什么就都拿回来。”

海报、绘画和三个抗议地点的其它纪念物，占满了这个600平方英尺公寓的每一个角落。建筑工地头盔整齐地安装在墙壁上；防毒面具就像装饰品一样挂在门框上；新闻剪报变成了厨房的壁纸；黄雨伞是窗帘的一部分，遮挡室内的阳光。

汤普森说：“我本来是想办个展览，之后他们（警察）把帐篷给我，我就想，好吧，我把帐篷也摆出来。”于是就有了占中宾馆这个念头。

客人只需要通过“空中食宿”支付港币78元（10美元），就可以睡在一个抗议帐篷里。这个两居室的公寓最多能同时容纳8名访客，但是他最多一次接待过5个人。每个帐篷都有一个与运动有关的名字，比如“自由之家”和“外国势力总部”。

26岁的尼古拉斯•沃特摩尔从家乡曼彻斯特来追寻香港抗议活动的踪迹，最近造访这家宾馆。他说：“我上网查了查，价格不贵。我觉得很有趣，这是个物有所值的体验，我支持抗议的理由。”

来自世界各地的客人

宾馆近期的入住者有乌克兰人、法国人和墨西哥人。汤普森说也有来自中国大陆的客人，但是他们入住的条件是要给他发短信说他们反对×××统治。汤普森来自伦敦，他说自己是“白皮肤的中国异见者”。他操一口流利的中文，在中国从事写作工作已经三十年，直到政府因为他的政治批判文章而威胁要取消他的签证。

他在香港已经居住了8年，希望能尽快获得永久居留资格。他说：“我觉得香港就是中国的自由和人权的象征。”他觉得持续了11个星期的民主革命非常令人振奋。

29岁的维克多•高米怀着极大的兴趣在远方关注占领运动，他说他所任教的中国大学不允许他来香港参加抗议活动，所以这才来到这家宾馆体验一下。高米说：“史蒂芬保留下这些回忆是件好事。在中国，学生们不知道1989年发生了什么，所有的记忆都被清除了。”

现年50岁的汤普森说，保留这些回忆，让民主运动永不熄灭，是他心之所想。

但是，香港民政事务总署要求住宿业经营者必须要向资质审核办公室申请证照。汤普森说他不需要，因为他会精心挑选住宿客人。尽管他这种行为的合法性存在着疑问，但是汤普森说，他希望再开两家占中主题宾馆，分别在两个发生抗议活动的地段。

目前为止，民主支持者可以继续在铜锣湾的一家小公寓中回味抗议活动——用他们自己的行动反对香港特首曾荫权，当他们冲马桶的时候。



原文：

Hong Kong resident Stephen Thompson opened the Occupy Central Hotel on the 13th floor of a Causeway Bay residential building in early December 2014.

Guests can rent tents with names from the protest movement, such as "Freedom House" and "Foreign Force HQ."

In addition to original posters from the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, the "Occupy Central Hotel" is decorated with artwork by activists depicting some of the demonstration's memorable moments.

Owner Stephen Thompson says he had 1,000 rolls of toilet paper printed in China with Hong Kong Chief Executive CY Leung's face.

The chief executive, who refused to engage with the movement's leaders, was a focal point for the protesters' frustration.

Gas masks, police tape and other Hong Kong protest artifacts fill Thompson's 600-square-foot apartment in Causeway Bay.

Newspaper clippings, posters and artwork from Hong Kong's three main protest sites wallpaper the kitchen of the Occupy Central Hotel.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is depicted holding an occupy movement umbrella on the hotel's shower curtain.

Thompson says he has had about 40 guests so far from all over the world come and stay at his Occupy Central Hotel to learn more about Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests.

Nicholas Watmough, 26, England, told CNN: "I'm traveling around the world at the moment and this was something that I wanted to see -- a minor gesture in support of the movement since I couldn't be here for the actual protests."

Victor Gaume, 29, France said, "My university (in China) forbade me to come to Hong Kong during the Umbrella Revolution. They told us, 'don't come -- you will have problems.' But at the same time I wanted to see all the papers, all the flags, all the slogans."

Thompson says he has been warned by the building security guard to remove the police tape outside his door, after neighbors expressed concern.

The face of Hong Kong's chief executive covers the toilet paper and China's leader lingers next to you in the shower. Safe to say -- it's not your average hotel.

Tucked away in an apartment building on a quiet side street of Hong Kong's busy Causeway Bay district, this small hotel is a shrine to the Umbrella Revolution.

Freelance translator Stephen Thompson rented the apartment in early December, in the same week that police began clearing out the city's pro-democracy protest sites.

Memorabilia

"I literally got the keys and then the next day I went down to Admiralty (the main protest site) and the police were coming and I just grabbed as much as I could," says Thompson.

Posters, artwork and memorabilia from all three main protest sites now plaster every inch of the 600 square foot abode.

Rows of construction helmets are mounted neatly on the wall, gas masks hang like ornaments around a door frame, newspaper clippings wallpaper the kitchen and a yellow umbrella serves a partial curtain, shielding the living room from the sun.

"I had the idea at first of an exhibition," Thompson says, "and then when they (police) gave me the tents I thought, well, I'll put the tents in here too."

And the idea for Occupy Central Hotel was born.

For as little as HK$78 ($10) per night, guests can pay via a listing on Airbnb to sleep in an original occupy tent. The two-bedroom apartment accommodates a total of eight, Thompson says, but five is the most he's rented at once. Each tent is adorned with a name relating to the movement, such as "Freedom House" and "Foreign Force HQ."

Nicholas Watmough, 26, followed the Hong Kong protests from his hometown of Manchester, England, and recently extended his visit at the hotel.

"I had a look online. There are cheaper places to stay, but I thought this would just be more interesting. It's an experience worth having and it's a cause worth supporting," says Watmough.

Worldwide guests

Visitors from Ukraine, France, and Mexico round out some of the hotel's other recent occupants.

Thompson says he has also hosted guests from mainland China, but only after they sent him messages saying they opposed Communist rule.

Originally from London, Thompson describes himself as a "white-skinned Chinese dissident." A fluent Mandarin speaker and writer, he spent three decades in and out of China before the government threatened to revoke his visa for writing politically critical articles.

He has been living in Hong Kong for eight years now -- and hoping to gain permanent residency soon.

"I feel Hong Kong is a kind of bubble of freedom and human rights in China," he says, which is why he found the 11-week-long, pro-democracy demonstrations so inspirational.

Victor Gaume, 29, watched the Occupy movement with interest from afar. He says the Chinese university where he teaches French and history forbade him to come to Hong Kong to see the protests in person, which is why he is now staying at the hotel.

"It's always good to have people like Stephen who keep the memory," Gaume says. "In China, students don't know what happened in (the Tiananmen Square incident in) 1989, because all the memories have been deleted."

Preserving the memory and keeping the democracy movement alive is something the 50-year-old Thompson says he is passionate about.

However, the Hong Kong Home Affairs Department requires anyone running a guesthouse to apply for a special permit from the Office of the Licensing Authority -- something Thompson says he doesn't need to do, because he is selective about who he allows to stay.

Despite questions over the legality of his venture, Thompson says he hopes to eventually open up two more Occupy-themed hotels - one for each of the main protest sites.

Until then, pro-democracy supporters can continue reliving the protests in a tiny Causeway Bay apartment - having their own movement against Hong Kong's Chief Executive CY Leung, one flush at a time.

爱中华里的财哥

香港居民史蒂芬•汤普森