Music in American Culture

In September 2014, the Umbrella Movement started in Hong Kong, as many protestors

gathered together in the government district of “Admiralty”. These protestors made up a total

gathering of about tens of thousands of people occupying the streets. The reason it was called the

Umbrella Movement was because of the umbrellas used as a way to shield and protect the attacks

of tear gas used by the police. The umbrella became a symbol of the movement, as many people

began to show their support by carrying umbrellas to the gatherings, or posting images through

social media. Later, the yellow ribbon was used as a symbol as well to show support towards the

rallies. This also symbolized the protesting towards the use of police violence throughout the

rallies, which lasted almost 3 months.

The reason why this rally is significant for me, is that it happened in the city I am from,

Hong Kong. I came to the United States to study during the time of the protest, so I was not able

to be back home to experience what was going on. I was also unable to participate in the rallies

that took place in a few of the districts in Hong Kong. If I was still there, I would have

considered participating along with my other friends. I was only able to follow the news of the

events through my friends and families that were there.

The main issues that these rallies were about was because of the political situation in

Hong Kong was changing. Since 1997, Hong Kong was no longer a British Colony and was

given back to the People’s Republic of China. In 2014, the chief executive of Hong Kong, CY

Leung, declared that open nominations for the city’s next leader in 2017 and 2020 were rejected.

Instead, the candidates would be considered and voted by a chosen elite group, which mostly

contained pro-China leaders. This angered many citizens of Hong Kong, who felt that this

system was not fair to the people of the city. Therefore, protests and rallies began to take place to

show the displeasure towards the new system. This later resulted in the Umbrella Movement and

the Occupy Central movement, where the tens of thousands