After vandals trash Canadian university's Hong Kong-protest Lennon Wall, student society blasts 'bullying' and vows to set up mobile replacement

The student society at a Canadian university has voted to stand up to "bullying" and "harassment" in which a "Lennon Wall" of messages supporting Hong Kong protesters was repeatedly trashed, announcing it will install a mobile version of the wall on wheels to thwart the vandals.

A video posted on YouTube on Wednesday shows a Mandarin-speaking young man methodically ripping apart the wall at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia as someone pleads for him to stop.

"I don't understand," says the unseen person making the video. "What did we do wrong? We are just expressing our opinions."

The vandal responds: "I didn't say anything. Call security if you like. I'm not scared."

The society's response to the wall's destruction was made late on Thursday after an hours-long meeting of the board of the Simon Fraser University Student Society, the elected body that represents the 25,000-plus undergraduates at the Vancouver-area institution.

The society "stands firmly in support of the right of all Simon Fraser University students to peacefully, respectfully and freely express their views regarding the ongoing political situation in Hong Kong", says the resolution.

The new Lennon Wall will be installed with "the shortest delays possible" outside the society's headquarters at SFU's Burnaby campus.

It will be mounted on wheels and rolled behind locked doors every night to protect it from whoever tore down the messages in support of the protests on at least four nights this past week.

The destroyed notes had been posted on a message board outside SFU's main WAC Bennett Library since July 22.

Students at Simon Fraser University on Thursday inspect the tattered remains of a previous "Lennon Wall" that was once covered in messages about the Hong Kong protests. Photo: Ian Young alt=Students at Simon Fraser University on Thursday inspect the tattered remains of a previous "Lennon Wall" that was once covered in messages about the Hong Kong protests. Photo: Ian Young

"[The] Simon Fraser Student Society condemns any attempt to censor or dissuade through threats, harassment or bullying such expression," the society's resolution adds.

The three-minute video showing the wall's destruction depicts a burly young man in a dark shirt selectively pulling down the colourful messages on the library wall, helped by a second man in a yellow hoodie.

The person apparently shooting the video says: "If you are going to tear them down, why not tear everything down ... we hope you look at the news and understand what's happening ...

"You've come out [to Canada], there's press freedom, you can see what's happening in the world."

The large man ignores pleas for him to stop and continues stuffing the messages in a garbage bag, as the man in yellow responds: "We know what's been happening."

A young man, helped by a second person in a yellow hoodie, rips apart a Lennon Wall of messages about the Hong Kong protests at Vancouver's Simon Fraser University, in a video posted on YouTube on Wednesday. Photo: YouTube alt=A young man, helped by a second person in a yellow hoodie, rips apart a Lennon Wall of messages about the Hong Kong protests at Vancouver's Simon Fraser University, in a video posted on YouTube on Wednesday. Photo: YouTube

The voices in the video have been digitally altered. A member of the university's Hong Kong Society told the South China Morning Post that the student who filmed it fears being put in danger by identification.

Student Kayli Jamieson, 20, who is half Chinese and has relatives in Hong Kong, proposed the mobile Lennon Wall to the student society in response to the destruction. She said she was "shocked, angry and saddened" about the repeated vandalism of the original wall.

Lennon Walls " usually made up of messages on colourful Post-it notes, and named after a wall that sprang up in Prague in tribute to the late Beatle John Lennon in 1980 " have been a key feature of the ongoing Hong Kong protests, in opposition to the government's now-suspended extradition bill. They have been adopted by supporters of the protests around the world.

But the original SFU wall was repeatedly vandalised. Messages were torn down, defaced or pasted over with rival messages condemning the Hong Kong protesters as "rioters" and "thugs".

Little remains of the previous Lennon Wall of messages about the Hong Kong protests that once covered this message board outside Simon Fraser University's main library. Photo: Ian Young alt=Little remains of the previous Lennon Wall of messages about the Hong Kong protests that once covered this message board outside Simon Fraser University's main library. Photo: Ian Young

On Thursday morning, just a handful of rumpled messages about the Hong Kong protests remained on the library message board. Even notes that warned students not to vandalise others' posters were ripped and rumpled.

"Condemn terrorism in Yuen Long," said one of the few remaining messages, referring to an attack on Hong Kong protesters on July 22. "Police = triad," said another.

A few curious students inspected the tattered remnants, now hard to spot among fliers advertising guitar lessons, tutors and campus activities.

Mainland Chinese student Lance, 22, who declined to give his surname, was unimpressed. He said the messages criticising Hong Kong police were "disgusting".

A third-year business administration student from Guangzhou, Lance said of the Hong Kong protesters: "They are just teenagers ... those attacking the police, someone is behind them."

Asked who, he had no hesitation: "It's the United States."

Regarding fellow SFU students who supported the Hong Kong protesters, he said: "They are only getting a part of the story ... they have that stereotype that everything about the Chinese Communist Party is bad. It's a wrong stereotype."

Sylvia Ceacero, executive director of the SFU Student Society, said in an interview before the board meeting that campus security would be consulted about the new rolling Lennon Wall.

"Whatever we implement must be safe for everybody," said Ceacero. "This is on the heels of the difficulties we are seeing around the world," a reference to physical clashes between mainland Chinese and Hong Kong students at the University of Queensland in Australia and New Zealand's Auckland University.

She added: "The goal is to respect peaceful political expression."

Simon Fraser University's WAC Bennett Library, where students had set up a Lennon Wall of messages to support protesters in Hong Kong. The messages were repeatedly destroyed. Photo: Ian Young alt=Simon Fraser University's WAC Bennett Library, where students had set up a Lennon Wall of messages to support protesters in Hong Kong. The messages were repeatedly destroyed. Photo: Ian Young

Jamieson, a communications student, said those who tore down messages on the library Lennon Wall "don't have a proper understanding of the situation; maybe they are misinformed about what Hongkongers are fighting for".

"Democracy is an important right. Freedom of expression is an important right," she said.

Jamieson said she was particularly upset by Chinese-language messages circulated last weekend on an SFU student WeChat group with almost 500 members, boasting of the destruction and calling for more volunteers to rip down the "trash" posters.

"It made me really angry, so I started thinking about what we could do about it," she said, describing how the idea for a wheeled wall came about.

An executive member of the SFU Hong Kong Society (HKS), who did not want to be named, said the group did not set up the library Lennon Wall, but was disappointed to see it repeatedly trashed. She said it had been torn down at least four times.

"We are upset more than angry," said the 19 year-old Hongkonger, who is studying health sciences. "Everyone should respect freedom of speech."

The HKS had told students via social media not to put up inappropriate messages, and had circulated details about how to respond to violence. The society also posted a Facebook message about the wall that ended with the invocation, "Stand with Hong Kong".

Like Ceacero, the HKS executive said the group was mindful of physical clashes at universities overseas.

"Our role is to prevent anything violent happening here," she said. "I'm worried. I just hope that something like that doesn't happen in Canada."

Another message shared by the HKS on its Facebook page quoted two former presidents of the group, who condemned the defacement of the library Lennon Wall: "We highly commend SFU's Hong Kong students for their peaceful struggle ... [they] will never bow down to atrocities."

Lance, the mainland Chinese student, found some common ground with the HKS and the SFU Student Society. He agreed that everyone should be free to express their views at SFU.

"They can bring their opinion," he said. "But that doesn't change people's minds ... [mainland Chinese] students will just think 'It is disgusting'. But we respect that other people have that opinion."

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2019 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.