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Some of this criticism has reached the level of harassment, Mok says, but she’s determined to use the disagreement as an opportunity for discussion rather than animosity.

“Instead of telling them to get out, I try to have that conversation with them, because it is a lot of misunderstanding, and I don’t want to create more hate between the two groups,” she said.

“I have had many conversations before and it’s very back-and-forth. One group says, ‘The police are violent,’ and then someone says, ‘Well the protesters were violent first.’ It ends up being like a tit-for-tat argument about who was more violent.”

While Mok says she maintains her position of support for the protesters, she considers it important for the two sides to spend time trying to listen to each other.

“This story is not just about Hong Kong. It’s about so many different conflicts around the world where people kind of hate each other, and there’s a divide and we dehumanize each other, and it gives us a sense of justice to put them down, whereas we should really be listening to each other and finding where that misunderstanding is.

“Obviously I have my own perspective, but if we’re both watching different sources of media, then we’ll have different perspectives on who was more violent versus who. So I find it really unproductive to argue about that.”

The protesters in Hong Kong have been described broadly as pro-democracy and have made a list of demands, including the withdrawal of proposed extradition legislation, release of arrested demonstrators, and implementation of universal suffrage. In Mok’s words, the cause boils down to a preservation of “one China, two systems,” keeping Hong Kong within Chinese borders but maintaining its governmental autonomy.