Denise Ho, singer and pro-democracy activist, pauses while speaking during the Stand with Hong Kong, Power To The People Rally at Chater Garden. Credit:Bloomberg

Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Denise Ho's dark kohled eyes are bright with hope, although what lies ahead for her and the Hong Kong protesters remains highly uncertain as we meet in Hong Kong's Soho. "Stay safe" has become the standard Hong Kong street greeting these days. It is two months into democracy protests that stunned the world when 2 million people marched, peacefully and without pushing, even picking up rubbish, to call for their government to listen. They were ignored. Earlier this morning, several busloads of mainland Chinese destroyed a Lennon Wall – an outpouring of Hong Kongers desire for democracy and their dismay at police violence, written as personal messages on hundreds of colourful Post It notes. These Lennon Walls have multiplied across Hong Kong, at train stations, pedestrian footbridges and university campuses, and take their name from the wall in Prague graffitied with John Lennon's lyrics during the 1989 Velvet Revolution. Denise Ho performing during a pro-democracy rally in Hong Kong. Ho has also become a target for pro-China demonstrators after a funeral wreath with her face printed on it was left near a protest wall. But the vandals this morning have also left behind a funeral wreath with Ho's face printed on it. At the Canadian consulate, another pro-Beijing group is picketing outside, holding signs denouncing Ho, who is a Canadian citizen.


The Canto-pop star, a household name here for her music and film roles, has become a target of Beijing's wrath because her latest gutsy performance was on the world stage – at the United Nations Human Rights Council. Ho had 90 seconds to make her plea for the UNHRC to call an urgent session "to protect the people of Hong Kong". She was interrupted twice by angry Chinese officials. Ho denouncing "deceitful promises" by Chinese authorities at the UN prompted a Chinese diplomat to interrupt her twice. Credit:AP Rubber bullets and tear gas had been used against people protesting China's tightening grip on the city, she told the diplomats, in rapid-fire speech. Six lawmakers popularly elected were disqualified from parliament on Beijing's decree, she said. Her performance, and China's attempt to block her, made international headlines. Ho tells me she wrote two drafts of that speech. The first was "polite and diplomatic". Then she decided she had to make the seconds count. Draft two was "aggressive and direct". She anticipated the Chinese diplomats would respond. "Them interrupting me was them showing they just don't allow freedom of speech," she says. But she was surprised by the ferocity of the Chinese government's attack on her afterwards. Ho was labelled "delusional" by China's foreign ministry. A poet in mainland China was arrested for transmitting a video of Ho's UN speech on social media. Sitting in the cramped offices of her LGBTI advocacy group, Big Love Alliance, Ho is wearing a dark suit jacket over a black T-shirt. She says solemnly she is prepared for the consequences of being the most high-profile celebrity to take a stand for the democracy movement.


Her acting and singing career on the mainland of China, and lucrative big brand sponsorship deals, abruptly ended when she first took to the protest frontlines during the 2014 Umbrella Movement. Ho, also known as singer HOCC, being escorted by police officers after a protest in 2014. Credit:Lam Yik Fei/Bloomberg Ho was demonised by Chinese state media. Cosmetics giant Lancome cancelled a Hong Kong sponsorship event in 2016 after a major Chinese newspaper attacked Lancome for associating with "Hong Kong poison". Ho says she remains frustrated with how multinational brands respond to Beijing's boycott threats and thinks it is "spreading fear into society". Ho is courageous, but she doesn't see it that way. She goes to the frontline of protests when she thinks she can calm the situation. "I believe my celebrity and also the fact that people recognise me – especially the police recognise me – is something that can protect the people," she says.


Ho was among those caught in the gas on June 12, a pivotal day in this year's protests. Debate on a controversial extradition bill – that would allow a Hong Kong person to be sent to mainland China to face trial under the communist legal system - was due to be held in the Legislative Council. Tens of thousands of people occupied the streets around the chamber. Police suddenly fired 140 rounds of tear gas, as well as rubber bullets, directly into the largely peaceful crowd. Denise Ho was among protesters who were tear gassed by Hong Kong police outside government headquarters on June 12. Credit:AP/Vincent Yu "You can say I was pushed to the frontlines on that day… people just came running and they tear gassed everyone. I was one of those who was crushed onto the side of the building," she recalls. "Most were really just normal citizens. Some of them were really young girls, and some were just office ladies. They had no gear and nothing to protect them. It was very enraging to see how the police were treating the people," she recalls. The event lit the fuse of Hong Kongers, and protests ever since have called for an independent inquiry into the heavy-handed police tactics. Since then, police action against the protesters has escalated, with some 1800 rounds of tear gas fired, often in residential areas, even into underground subway stations. Ho thinks it is "a very crazy thing" that Hong Kong people have started to get used to weekly tear gassing.


Her singing career was launched after she won a Hong Kong television network's singing competition in 1996 at the age of 19. As a teenager in Montreal, where she grew up after her family left Hong Kong when she was 11, Ho had idolised Canto-pop star Anita Mui. She moved back to Hong Kong in 1997, the year of the handover to China, for the chance to work with Mui – the Madonna of the east – who became her mentor. Mui's influence extended beyond the music industry and helped shape Ho's social conscience. Ho's creative range is impressive: She conquered Hong Kong's pop world, has toured a critically acclaimed theatre production across Asia, acted in a string of films and was nominated for best actress at Taiwan's Golden Horse film festival. Attesting to her household name status in Hong Kong, she is also the voice of Tigress in the Cantonese version of the blockbuster animated film Kung Fu Panda. Denise Ho voices Tigress in the Cantonese version of Kung Fu Panda. Her career in mainland China was burgeoning in 2013 as she toured in a theatre adaption of the Chinese literary classic Dream of the Red Chamber, playing the male lead, Jia Baoyu (Precious Jade). She had come out publicly as a lesbian the year prior, the first major Hong Kong singer to do so.

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