坐牢考驗香港年輕民主人士的勇氣

Hong Kong student leader Joshua Wong is trying to put on a brave face behind bars, joking with a friend that he found it harder to sleep in a tent during the 2014 Occupy protests, for which he was jailed, than he does in his cell at Pik Uk Correctional Institution.

香港學生領袖黃之鋒(Joshua Wong)試圖在獄中表現得勇敢一些，他跟一個朋友開玩笑稱，他發現在2014年“佔中”(Occupy)抗議活動期間的帳篷裏，比在香港懲教署(Pik Uk Correctional Institution)的牢房裏更難入睡。黃之鋒因“佔中”抗議而被判入獄。

“The toughest thing is passing the time as he is a very hyperactive person who spends a lot of time on social media and being cut off from the outside world is a challenge,” says Jason Ng, who recently visited the 20-year-old democracy activist.

最近看望了這名20歲的民主活動人士的Jason Ng表示：“最艱難的事情是打發時間。他是一個極其活躍的人，長時間泡在社交媒體上，與外部世界隔絕對他來說是一個挑戰。”

But while Wong’s sentencing has earned him supportive missives from international politicians such as Marco Rubio, Nancy Pelosi and Chris Patten, the Hong Kong government’s intensifying crackdown leaves the city’s once vibrant democracy movement with a bitter dilemma: continue to oppose Beijing and face ever tougher consequences, or back down and watch Hong Kong’s autonomy disappear at a faster pace.

但是儘管黃之鋒被判刑讓他贏得了馬可?魯比奧(Marco Rubio)、南希?佩洛西(Nancy Pelosi)和彭定康(Chris Patten)等國際政界人士的聲援，但香港政府加大打擊力度讓這座城市一度蓬勃發展的民主運動陷入痛苦的兩難境地：繼續反對北京將意味着面臨更爲艱難的處境，退縮則意味着眼睜睜看着香港自治地位以更快的速度消失。

Mr Ng, a lawyer and writer, says the jailing of Wong and 15 other young activists for unlawful assembly has divided the semi-autonomous Chinese territory of 7m people and had an immediate deterrent effect on young people.

律師兼作家Jason Ng表示，黃之鋒和其他15名年輕活動人士因非法集結被判監禁，促使香港700萬人口產生分化，並對年輕人產生了立竿見影的威懾效應。

“Now they feel they need to be extremely careful or risk derailing their education and ruining their future,” he adds.

他補充稱：“現在他們覺得需要極其小心，否則就可能影響學業，毀掉自己的前途。”

Wong and his friend Nathan Law, who was elected as Hong Kong’s youngest ever legislator last year and later ousted for failing to show loyalty to Beijing, may find that their jail sentences — of six and eight months respectively — boost their credentials as freedom fighters against the dictatorial Chinese regime. Wong is already the subject of a Netflix documentary, Teenager v Superpower.

黃之鋒和他的朋友羅冠聰(Nathan Law)可能發現，他們被判刑——分別被判刑6個月和8個月——提升了他們作爲反對中國威權體制的自由鬥士的資歷。羅冠聰去年當選爲香港有史以來最年輕的立法會議員，但後來因未向北京方面效忠而被剝奪了議員資格。黃之鋒已經成爲Netflix紀錄片《少年VS超級大國》(Teenager v Superpower)的主角。

But family members of lesser known activists who have been jailed — and several dozen who face possible convictions on similar charges — fear they will receive less public support and struggle to rebuild their lives.

但那些不太知名的被捕活動人士以及數十位可能面臨類似指控的活動人士的家人們擔心，他們不會獲得那麼多的公衆支持，也將很難重新開始新的生活。

“Joshua Wong still has a future,” says Lily Chiu, whose 22-year-old son David Chu was jailed for 13 months alongside 12 other activists for their role in a land rights protest in 2014. “Even if one day he steps down, there would still be a lot of people to help. But this group of people, if they want to get a normal job, how will the bosses view them?”

Lily Chiu表示：“黃之鋒還有未來，即便有一天他退下來，仍會有大量的人幫助他。但這羣人如果想要得到一份正常的工作，老闆們會怎麼看他們？”Lily Chiu的22歲的兒子朱偉聰(David Chu)和其他12名活動人士因參與2014年的一個土地權利抗議活動而被捕入獄。

Ms Chiu, who recently visited her son, says he is looking healthier these days because he “wakes up and sleeps much earlier in prison than he did when he was a social activist”.

最近探望過兒子的Lily Chiu表示，如今他看上去更健康了，因爲他“在獄中的起牀和入睡時間都比做社會活動人士時早多了”。

But she worries about his future and fears his sacrifice may be for nothing if others give up hope in the fight for change.

但她擔心他的未來，而且她擔心，如果其他人在爭取改變的抗爭中放棄希望，他的犧牲可能變得毫無價值。

“If they arrest all the people on the front line now, I can’t see anyone who will be willing to stay at the front,” she says.

她表示：“如果他們現在逮捕所有處在前線的人，我不知道還有誰願意留在前線。”

Many Hong Kongers and international critics have argued that these young people have become the first political prisoners of the city’s modern era. A fund set up by local pop star Denise Ho and several pro-democracy politicians has raised more than HK$250,000 ($32,000) to support the 16 jailed activists and their families.

很多香港人和國際上的批評者認爲，這些年輕人已成爲香港現代社會首批政治犯。一隻由香港流行歌手何韻詩(Denise Ho)和其他親民主政治人士設立的基金，已籌集逾25萬港元(合3.2萬美元)，以支持這16位入獄活動人士和他們的家人。

But the government insists they have been jailed for breaking the law through deliberate civil disobedience rather than for their views.

但香港政府堅持表示，他們是因爲故意的公民抗命、違反了法律而入獄，而不是因爲他們的觀點入獄。

Chua Han Teng, an analyst at BMI Research, a political risk analysis company, argues that the imprisonment of the activists shows authorities are “increasingly intolerant of rising dissent” and that China is unlikely to yield further democratic reforms, instead increasing its interference in Hong Kong.

政治風險公司BMI Research的分析師Chua Han Teng稱，這些活動人士入獄說明當局“越來越容不下日益增多的異見”，中國不太可能實施進一步的民主改革，而是會加大對香港的干預。

He warns that this “continued suppression” will in fact increase the “risks of larger scale protests in Hong Kong, which could undermine the city’s business environment and economic activity”.

他警告稱，這種“持續壓制”實際上將加大“香港爆發更大規模抗議的風險，這可能會破壞香港的營商環境和經濟活力”。

Lily Wong, whose 23-year-old boyfriend Ivan Lam was jailed alongside Chu, believes many activists had accepted that they would end up in prison as Beijing has pushed the Hong Kong government to punish the increasing number of radical young democracy campaigners.

黃莉莉(Lily Wong)認爲，很多活動人士原本就明白自己最終將坐牢，因爲北京方面一直要求香港政府懲罰越來越多的年輕激進民主活動人士。她的23歲男友林朗彥(Ivan Lam)與朱偉聰同一批入獄。

But as she contemplates life without him for 13 months, she is trying to fight off the sense of powerlessness.

然而，在考慮這13個月沒有他的生活時，黃莉莉還在強自振作。

“It is a good opportunity to open up discussions and to think about what else we can do,” she says.

她說：“這是一個展開討論以及思考我們還能做什麼的好機會。”

Additional reporting by Nicolle Liu

Nicolle Liu補充報道