It’s no longer a SS or KGB movie scene, but an actual occurrence in HK that someone wakes up to a heavy door bang, finds a uniformed gang gathering outside the doorway claiming to make an arrest for offenses he/she hasn’t expected or doesn’t remember committing, and gets taken away in handcuffs in a rush. Only then does he/she realize that the family supper last night was a finale, at least in the foreseeable future, as no one knows how long this person will be detained or if bail will be granted at all. That dinner was an unforeseen finale that he/she regarded as just another routine and didn’t particularly pay attention to. Ex-Demosisto’s Agnes Chow, People Power’s Tam Tak-chi (aka Fast Beat), RTHK producer Choy Yuk-ling, radio host Wan Yiu-sing (aka Giggs) and numerous pan-dem ex-lawmakers were all arrested under similar shocking circumstances for offenses they found to be a surprise within the last 3 months.

More tragic and drastic is the case of the 12 HK youths, who set out on a refuge voyage to Taiwan but ended up intercepted by the mainland police, taken into custody and remanded in the Yantian Detention Centre, and are now on their 102nd day of disappearance. Would any one of them have imagined such notorious misfortunes of a typical mainland detainee as the total denial of the right to be visited, to remain silent and to appoint his/her own lawyer would one day happen to him/her, let alone the phone call with his/her lover before departure was actually the last one for quite some time?

The reporters of the Cable News who were either dismissed or have resigned in protest are the latest victims of an abrupt deprivation, in their cases, of jobs, of official capacities to investigate, and of positions to excel their journalistic skills to serve HK. None of them would have expected that the story that he/she did and got broadcasted last night was his/her final one in this corporation. Similarly, a teacher of liberal studies, though prepared for some kind of curriculum “reform” ahead, shouldn’t have predicted that this semester would be his/her last one on the subject (and probably in the school) as a result of its forthcoming brutal disfigurement as announced by the Secretary for Education. Even a drama practitioner gets crushed by this tsunami of unforeseeability,  learning suddenly that the industriously rehearsed show will after all not go public because of the government’s “swift” counter-COVID measure in closing performance venues, and the rehearsal last night became the show’s finale.  As a candidate of the 2016 LegCo election (running for the seat in the functional constituency of culture), my experience is even more peculiar: only after 4-plus years do I realize that the 2016 election was most likely the last “still-sort-of-honest” LegCo election in HK.

Uncertainty is the new and only certainty in HK. Did you think that throwing eggs at the walls of the police headquarter is less culpable than publicly holding a knife in a threatening manner? No, a recent court case told you otherwise, depending on which side you’re with. Similarly, you thought that it’s totally fine going downstairs having a dessert while dressing in black and carrying a laser pen? No, judges told you that you can be put to 6 months’ jail for that. You thought that sentencing should be considered in accordance with what you’re charged? No, you can be sentenced according to the scale of rioting if your conduct is analogous to one, even if you’re not charged with riot.  With so many uncertainties around, every encounter, experience, or even action can be your last without you knowing. They can all be finales in hindsight.

To avoid regrets, you have to seize the moment, devote yourself to the matters you find worthy while you still can, no matter how minute or trivial they may seem. Try finishing an unfinished book or jigsaw puzzle that you long abandoned for work, or writing letters to those unacquainted but heroic youngsters who fought for HK but are now in jail. You also have to constantly reflect on yourself and make amends to those you hurt, so that you can be in peace when the finale comes. Those who are incapable of self-reflection, feel no guilt  and keep asking “what wrong have I done” are doomed to be the most confused, troubled and self-condemning ones at the final moment.  Lastly but most importantly, you have to treasure your loved ones always. You never know when it is your last gathering with them. So no matter how busy and workaholic you are, spend time and connect with them. It is absolutely toxic to just work and not talk to your husband or wife.

(Adrian Chow Pok Yin, qualified HK lawyer, composer/lyricist/arranger/music producer, CASH music award winner, and Council Member (and Music Group Chairman) of the HK Arts Development Council.)

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