Hong Kong’s unpopular Beijing-backed leader, known to many as “the wolf”, has called on residents of the city to be more like “mild and gentle” sheep in a clumsily worded appeal for citizens to consign the tensions behind the pro-democracy protests of 2014 to history.

Leung Chun-ying made the appeal in his lunar new year message to welcome in the year of the sheep, which begins on Thursday.

Tensions continue to simmer after the protests ended in December without Leung, the city’s chief executive, having offered any concessions to the student-led demonstrators.

“Sheep are widely seen to be mild and gentle animals living peacefully in groups,” said Leung, who has been nicknamed “the wolf” by critics who see him as cunning and untrustworthy.

“Last year was no easy ride for Hong Kong. Our society was rife with differences and conflicts. In the coming year I hope that all people in Hong Kong will take inspiration from the sheep’s character and pull together in an accommodating manner to work for Hong Kong’s future,” Leung said.

Thousands of Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters occupied streets across the Asian financial hub for 11 weeks in the autumn, in what came to be known as the umbrella movement. The demonstrations were punctuated by violent scuffles with police, who fired teargas and pepper spray.

The activists were protesting against Beijing’s proposed curbs on planned 2017 elections for Leung’s replacement.

Although authorities broke down the last protest camps late last year, tensions between Hong Kong and Beijing remain intense.

Early this week a small group of Hong Kong residents demonstrated against mainland shoppers at a mall, leading to chaotic clashes between protesters and baton-wielding police.

Organisers of last autumn’s protest continue to receive a constant barrage of intimidating phone calls and emails, including threats directed against their family members. Police have detained a handful of top organisers for inciting “unauthorised assemblies”, although none remain behind bars.

“What happens to Chinese activists is now being replicated in Hong Kong – we’re now facing the same thing,” protest leader and university professor Chan Kin-man told the Christian Science Monitor.