In his speech for the Jerusalem Prize for Literature in 2009 (the Guardian, 2009), Haruki Murakami included a quote that he used as a motto for Hong Kong people during Umbrella Revolution, and the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement, which many people may not know came from Haruki Murakami's mouth.
"To strike a stone with an egg, between a tall, hard wall and an egg, I will always stand on the egg side ."
No matter how right the high wall is and how rotten the egg is, I will always be on the side of the egg.
What is right and wrong is for others, time and history to decide. But if a novelist, whatever reason, writes a work that is on the side of the high wall, is that work of any value?
What does this mean? The bombers, the chariots, the rockets and the white phosphorous bombs are the high wall; the civilians they crush, burn and shoot are the eggs. This is one of the layers of meaning of the metaphor.
On a deeper level, each of us is also an egg to a greater or lesser extent. We are all unique, souls in fragile shells. To a greater or lesser extent, you and I have to face a wall called "the system". The system is supposed to protect us, but sometimes it kills us or forces us to kill others in cold, efficient, and systematic ways. "
The Israeli government's airstrikes on Palestine at the time of the award resulted in numerous civilian casualties, and some voices wanted Haruki Murakami to protest by refusing to receive the award. But Haruki Murakami chose to attend the award ceremony, and in front of the senior Israeli officials on stage, Murakami, who has never been one to speak openly, spoke out fearlessly for the lives of those who had been innocently sacrificed in the war.
But unfortunately, Hong Kong people, who often focus only on "soundbite" and "slogans", did not read Murakami's speech further: "Yes, no matter how proper the high wall is and how rotten the egg is, I am still on the side of the egg. The point is not to be on the egg side; the point is to be on the egg side even if the egg is wrong.
Hong Kong people are often confused about who is the high wall and who the egg is. Obviously, the government and the regime are the high walls first, but they choose to be tolerant of the high wall and think of it in every way. For example, the government has apologised, what else do you want? Another example is that the government is willing to suspend winning some goodwill and not to win too much. The government has ignored public opinion, the police have abused violence and used more force than necessary against the protesters, the Department of Justice has arrested and charged them indiscriminately to suppress the protest, etc. However, over 2 million people have taken to the streets peacefully without getting a response to their demands, and the police's violent behaviour has not yet yielded any results. The police have not developed their violent actions, but the demonstrators have been arrested in hospitals with their heads broken and bloodied, shot and injured.
"The people should not be afraid of the government; the government should be afraid of the people." In the anti-utopian political thriller V for Vendetta. (V for Vendetta, 2005) the government derives its power from the people, so it should be afraid of the people, but in Hong Kong reality, the opposite is true. You can disagree with the way things are done, but you should stick to the principle of "not stopping, not condemning, not tampering with and not cutting the seat" and support each other. If Hong Kong people do not change their way of thinking, and if they do not put obstacles in the course of the protesters and protect the high walls, the road of protest in Hong Kong will only become a ditch of desperate stagnant water that cannot make a single ripple.
Haruki Murakami is not a philosopher, he is a Japanese writer, but his talk brought a lot of warmth to my heart, knowing that the egg is a fragile and robust being, and because of this talk, I was curious about the structure and construction of the eggshell.
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