Sing & Discuss Glory to HK, the Anthem Banned by Chinese Authorities - Censored Memories London Live

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As a guest performer, I had the honour of performing "Glory to Hong Kong" and giving a short speech about it last month at the Censored Memories Exhibition & Forum in central London. This song, initially widely used as an anthem during the 2019 Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, has been banned by the Chinese authorities.

00:00 Music
02:24 Discussing the song's background
03:55 About its censorship

The event at St John’s Waterloo, commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Protests, featured artists, writers, activists and intellectuals facing transnational repression from the Beijing regime. It highlighted 35 years of artistic expression in support of democratic constitutionalism and human rights. Many thanks to Index on Censorship (@indexoncensorship4370 ), Human Rights in China (@hrichina) and Hong Kong Watch (@HongKongWatch ) for organising the event. It was filmed by NTD News.

This song initially represented Hongkongers' artistic expression of constitutionalism and the rule of law, has gained significant popularity among pro-democracy supporters worldwide, including many on the Chinese mainland. As a result, its growing popularity has led to censorship beyond the borders of Hong Kong and China. Recently, the original versions by @Dgxmusic were repeatedly removed by UK and US-based music distributors due to pressure from the Hong Kong government and the distributors' fear of losing significant revenue from the Chinese music industry. Fortunately, they were eventually restored after several twists and turns.

Now, more than ever, it is crucial to perform this song again to preserve our censored memories of how the once-thriving civil society of this indelible city profoundly impacted the world through music.

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作為表演嘉賓，我有幸在倫敦南岸艺术中心聖約翰堂的“被審查的記憶”藝術展&沙龍上彈唱《願榮光歸香港》，並發表了簡短的演講。這首歌最初廣泛用作2019年香港反送中示威的主題音樂，現已被香港和北京的政權禁播。

這次沙龍旨在通過藝術、音樂與論壇的形式紀念1989年中國各地的民主抗議示威，參與者包括自我放逐離開中國的藝術家、活動家、作家和學者。在35周年紀念之際，這些藝術表達凝聚了人們對憲政、法治和人權的訴求。非常感謝查禁目錄（@indexoncensorship4370）、人道中國（@hrichina）和香港監察（@HongKongWatch）組織這次沙龍。攝影：NTD新聞。

這首歌最初代表了香港人透過音樂傳達的對憲政法治的訴求，後來在全球獲得廣泛普及，包括受到無數來自防火墻内的中國網民青睞。因此，其日益增長的受歡迎程度導致了超越香港和中國國境的審查。最近，@Dgxmusic 的原版本被英國和美國的音樂發行商多次下架，這全因來自香港政府的壓力以及發行商擔心失去來自中國音樂產業的可觀收入。幸好，經過波折，音樂終於恢復上架。

現在，重新演唱這首歌顯得尤為重要。希望能藉此保存我們被審查的記憶，讓人們記住這座“不可磨滅的城市”曾經繁榮的公民社會，記住它如何透過音樂給世界留下深刻烙印。