[@1843mag: Gaming with Joshua Wong]
1/ Wong lives and breathes politics – even in his choice of video game. After his release from prison in 2017, he posted a picture of himself playing “Gundam Versus”, which came out while he was inside, alongside a caption, “Let’s battle”.
1/ Wong lives and breathes politics – even in his choice of video game. After his release from prison in 2017, he posted a picture of himself playing “Gundam Versus”, which came out while he was inside, alongside a caption, “Let’s battle”.
2/ “Gundam Versus” is part of a sprawling franchise that began 40 yrs ago in Japan, with animations, comics, games & merchandise featuring giant humanoid robots controlled by human pilots. It is spread across dozens of planets; each setting has an intricate political backstory.
3/ But Gundam’s appeal is about more than the drama of battle. Wong appreciates the “more boring” storylines about interplanetary diplomacy. His current favourite iteration of Gundam “Iron-Blooded Orphans” begins on Mars, where a 300yr colony is seeking independence from Earth.
4/ The corrupt adult leaders force children to fight. The youngsters are “soldiers born out of the Earth sphere’s oppressive rule,” explains the fictional leader of the Mars independence movement: “They embody the problems burdening each one of us.”
5/ After taking a swing at an enemy robot, Wong pauses the on-screen carnage to discuss the off-screen violence. He himself would never resort to such lengths. “Of course, I can’t,” he says. But he won’t publicly denounce such acts either. “I understand the root cause,” he says.
6/ “It’s the desperation of the millennials who are even younger than me.”......The protest will face similar dilemmas if it ever achieves its aims. “A lot of people imagine that democratic reform…means ‘win back the system’ and that’s all.”
7/ But there is no guarantee HK would escape the tensions the Martians faced. Paradoxically, it’s in these notes of caution that Wong’s belief in the movement comes through most clearly. To more world-weary observers, full democracy in Hong Kong seems a remote prospect.
8/ Only an implacable optimist – and a young one at that – could worry about what might follow. It takes a special kind of faith to fret about the milk curdling in the promised land. When you get knocked down in one game, you just have to start another. 1843magazine.com/upfront/the-18…
