Resistance is nice according to Peter Weiss – Marko Martin shows in his new book The last days of Hong Kongthat resistance can also be sexy. The reporter, essayist, writer and literary critic, he was most recently seen in Literary Quartett, was born in 1970 and gained fame with his debut novel The Prince of Berlin (2000), followed mostly by travel and reflection books that deal primarily with life in Tel Aviv, Central America and Southeast Asia. Martin’s trademark in all of his volumes: He doesn’t mince his words and stands up for freedom, abhores all isms.
At the turn of the year 2019/20, Martin and his husband H. are in the Chinese Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, where mass protests have been taking place since the extradition law was announced in June 2019. After the New Year’s demonstration on January 1, 2020, which was brutally broken up by the police, Martin and H. had to get to safety. You will be guided to the nearest gay sauna – this gives the shelter a new meaning …
That the model of general and free elections, of free press and separation of powers is not exclusively Western, but universal, “that Hong Kong has a right to it as well. And of course China too, ”says the young Hong Kong activist and figurehead of the democratic protest movement Joshua Wong at this demonstration. Because even if the extradition law has been withdrawn, the protests will continue. The movement continues to fight against the erosion of its democracy and calls for more autonomy. Martin is overwhelmed that over a million people gather on New Year’s Day. A “sea of people” who take to the streets for the freedom of Hong Kong.
However, the author also observes how divided the city is, which places are close to Beijing or the protest movement. Or how heterogeneous and sometimes divided the protest movement is, for example when some of them accuse the majority of being cowards. Or how it makes a clear difference whether you are rich or poor. There are families who expel their children when they take part in protests. They fear repression or that siblings will not be able to continue their expensive studies.
Martin collects many of these stories in gay saunas and bars. It’s just a shame that the descriptions of the gay milieu, the winding corridors, darkrooms, et cetera still seem so distant from the middle that the observations are not clearer or more precise. Is there any sex furniture like slings, St. Andrew’s crosses? Are drugs used? Instead, the author flees from the first-person to the first-person perspective, then in a conspiracy: “Not that looking at the modest moaning and measured – like a ballet in slow motion – is merely sublimating.”
French people write better
It is frightening that gay authors in German-speaking countries, be it fiction or non-fictional, write so badly about sex (places). And not just gays! Everyone should learn a sensual slice from the French, for example with David Lopez and his debut Aus of cover (Hoffmann and Campe, 2020), who finds an impressive sensual and rhythmic style for heterosexuals, or for example in Arthur Dreyfus, whose books have unfortunately not yet been published in German, in one of his texts he once describes gay chemsex.
Nevertheless: Martin succeeded in taking a fitting, partly gay snapshot of the degree of freedom in Hong Kong at the time. Because the corona pandemic, which Martin does not give much importance to at the beginning of January 2020, brought fewer people to the streets and the new National Security Act led to thousands of arrests from the end of June 2020. Activist Joshua Wong was sentenced to 14 months in prison. Martin would do well to remember him and the Hong Kong democracy movement.
The last days of Hong Kong Marko Martin Tropen Verlag 2021, 320 pp., 22 €
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