User:Nataliekk966/sandbox

Origin of the term
On 3rd October 2014 in Mong Kok, one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the world, members of organized crime gangs tried to remove the barricades set up by protesters and the situation soon escalated into fights. A policewoman used her body to protect the gangsters from the protesters. Andy Tsang Wai-hung, the current Commissioner of the Hong Kong Police Force, spoke in a live interview show ‘On the Record’ in TVB, a local TV channel, on 20th December 2014. When he spoke of citizens’ discontent towards the conflict, Tsang mentioned that the police acted like a “kind mother’’ protecting her children. Many Internet Users were shocked by this argument; as they felt that police using tear gas against demonstrators in an effort to disperse protesters did not match with his stance. The expression became a major source of discussion among HK citizens.

People’s interpretation of ‘kind mother’

 * Leung Kwok-hung, a Left-wing political activist in Hong Kong, also known as “Long Hair”, who is a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong representing the New Territories East constituency, in a retort to Tsang’s speech said that the police were being the ”stepmother” instead of ”kind mother” as they fought those students who were not their own children . (1)
 * Denise Ho Wan Si, a pop star in Hong Kong, also disagreed with the term ”kind mother” . She uploaded a photo depicting a hand embracing a cat on the Internet . Denise Ho used this ironic way to express her anger towards the police.
 * Starry Lee Wai-king JP, a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, representing the constituency of Kowloon West thought differently from Leung Kwok-hung . She agreed with what Tsang had said as she saw quite a lot frontline police really did not want to hurt the students and even protected and took care of them.

Impact
After Our Chief of Police, Andy Tsang Wai Hung’s words, large numbers of posts and comments were published online to some local forums by netizens right after his speech. Many of them criticized that it was not appropriate for him to use such a phrase, “a kind mother”, to describe the violent acts of the police in handling the protestors. Some argued that his words were an analogy trying to conceal the police violence and create some sort of positive image of the police force to the general public in order to gain back their credibility, confidence and reputation lost during the 79 days of the Occupy movement.

Besides, the phrase “kind mother” became a popular theme for internet re-creation. Netizens made some derivative works which criticized the speech of Tsang and expressed their disatisfaction against him in an ironic way. Those derivative works can be seen in the editorial parts of newspapers and some online forums. Here are some examples.

For literary creation, a netizen transformed the traditional Chinese saying: “慈母手中線，遊子身上衣”into ”慈警手中棍，遊子身上傷”. The original sentence refers to a kind mother who weaves clothes for her beloved son laboriously, which symbolises that a kind mother would always try her best to provide the best for her son regardless of how hard the process can be. While the netizen’s version literally means “the wand which hits on protesters’ bodies was held by the police”. This was made to create a contrast between the actions of the police with the benign behavior of a kind mother in order to satirize Tsang’s inappropriate choice of words.

Apart from literary creations, some of the writers also created cartoons with an ironic purpose. Just like the photo shown above, the armed man with a wand in his hand is symbolizing the police who hit the protesters, represented by the girl dressed in yellow. Through their dialogue and behavior, the creator was trying to convey a message that the protesters are not satisfied with the police’s behavior and they are not going to give up no matter how violent the police’s act can be. This can also reveal that the relationship between the police and some citizens has deteriorated.

After the broadcast of the talk show, the term “ kind mother” became a hot topic in the local society and one of the ‘Slanguage’ phrases in Hong Kong. Some locals started to use “kind mother’ to call the police in mockery of the police. After the end of the Occupy movement, some protesters tried to continue their action by showing banners and yelling their slogans at the pedestrian zone in Mong Kok. When they saw the police, they would say “the kind mothers are coming!” instead of “the police are coming”. Apart from the general public, some of the media also use the phrase “kind mother” to represent the police. It has penetrated society and gradually became a commonly recognized term to represent the police.