坐牢考验香港年轻民主人士的勇气

Hong Kong student leader Joshua Wong is trying to put on a brave face behind bars, joking with a friend that he found it harder to sleep in a tent during the 2014 Occupy protests, for which he was jailed, than he does in his cell at Pik Uk Correctional Institution.

香港学生领袖黄之锋(Joshua Wong)试图在狱中表现得勇敢一些，他跟一个朋友开玩笑称，他发现在2014年“占中”(Occupy)抗议活动期间的帐篷里，比在香港惩教署(Pik Uk Correctional Institution)的牢房里更难入睡。黄之锋因“占中”抗议而被判入狱。

“The toughest thing is passing the time as he is a very hyperactive person who spends a lot of time on social media and being cut off from the outside world is a challenge,” says Jason Ng, who recently visited the 20-year-old democracy activist.

最近看望了这名20岁的民主活动人士的Jason Ng表示：“最艰难的事情是打发时间。他是一个极其活跃的人，长时间泡在社交媒体上，与外部世界隔绝对他来说是一个挑战。”

But while Wong’s sentencing has earned him supportive missives from international politicians such as Marco Rubio, Nancy Pelosi and Chris Patten, the Hong Kong government’s intensifying crackdown leaves the city’s once vibrant democracy movement with a bitter dilemma: continue to oppose Beijing and face ever tougher consequences, or back down and watch Hong Kong’s autonomy disappear at a faster pace.

但是尽管黄之锋被判刑让他赢得了马可?鲁比奥(Marco Rubio)、南希?佩洛西(Nancy Pelosi)和彭定康(Chris Patten)等国际政界人士的声援，但香港政府加大打击力度让这座城市一度蓬勃发展的民主运动陷入痛苦的两难境地：继续反对北京将意味着面临更为艰难的处境，退缩则意味着眼睁睁看着香港自治地位以更快的速度消失。

Mr Ng, a lawyer and writer, says the jailing of Wong and 15 other young activists for unlawful assembly has divided the semi-autonomous Chinese territory of 7m people and had an immediate deterrent effect on young people.

律师兼作家Jason Ng表示，黄之锋和其他15名年轻活动人士因非法集结被判监禁，促使香港700万人口产生分化，并对年轻人产生了立竿见影的威慑效应。

“Now they feel they need to be extremely careful or risk derailing their education and ruining their future,” he adds.

他补充称：“现在他们觉得需要极其小心，否则就可能影响学业，毁掉自己的前途。”

Wong and his friend Nathan Law, who was elected as Hong Kong’s youngest ever legislator last year and later ousted for failing to show loyalty to Beijing, may find that their jail sentences — of six and eight months respectively — boost their credentials as freedom fighters against the dictatorial Chinese regime. Wong is already the subject of a Netflix documentary, Teenager v Superpower.

黄之锋和他的朋友罗冠聪(Nathan Law)可能发现，他们被判刑——分别被判刑6个月和8个月——提升了他们作为反对中国威权体制的自由斗士的资历。罗冠聪去年当选为香港有史以来最年轻的立法会议员，但后来因未向北京方面效忠而被剥夺了议员资格。黄之锋已经成为Netflix纪录片《少年VS超级大国》(Teenager v Superpower)的主角。

But family members of lesser known activists who have been jailed — and several dozen who face possible convictions on similar charges — fear they will receive less public support and struggle to rebuild their lives.

但那些不太知名的被捕活动人士以及数十位可能面临类似指控的活动人士的家人们担心，他们不会获得那么多的公众支持，也将很难重新开始新的生活。

“Joshua Wong still has a future,” says Lily Chiu, whose 22-year-old son David Chu was jailed for 13 months alongside 12 other activists for their role in a land rights protest in 2014. “Even if one day he steps down, there would still be a lot of people to help. But this group of people, if they want to get a normal job, how will the bosses view them?”

Lily Chiu表示：“黄之锋还有未来，即便有一天他退下来，仍会有大量的人帮助他。但这群人如果想要得到一份正常的工作，老板们会怎么看他们？”Lily Chiu的22岁的儿子朱伟聪(David Chu)和其他12名活动人士因参与2014年的一个土地权利抗议活动而被捕入狱。

Ms Chiu, who recently visited her son, says he is looking healthier these days because he “wakes up and sleeps much earlier in prison than he did when he was a social activist”.

最近探望过儿子的Lily Chiu表示，如今他看上去更健康了，因为他“在狱中的起床和入睡时间都比做社会活动人士时早多了”。

But she worries about his future and fears his sacrifice may be for nothing if others give up hope in the fight for change.

但她担心他的未来，而且她担心，如果其他人在争取改变的抗争中放弃希望，他的牺牲可能变得毫无价值。

“If they arrest all the people on the front line now, I can’t see anyone who will be willing to stay at the front,” she says.

她表示：“如果他们现在逮捕所有处在前线的人，我不知道还有谁愿意留在前线。”

Many Hong Kongers and international critics have argued that these young people have become the first political prisoners of the city’s modern era. A fund set up by local pop star Denise Ho and several pro-democracy politicians has raised more than HK$250,000 ($32,000) to support the 16 jailed activists and their families.

很多香港人和国际上的批评者认为，这些年轻人已成为香港现代社会首批政治犯。一只由香港流行歌手何韵诗(Denise Ho)和其他亲民主政治人士设立的基金，已筹集逾25万港元(合3.2万美元)，以支持这16位入狱活动人士和他们的家人。

But the government insists they have been jailed for breaking the law through deliberate civil disobedience rather than for their views.

但香港政府坚持表示，他们是因为故意的公民抗命、违反了法律而入狱，而不是因为他们的观点入狱。

Chua Han Teng, an analyst at BMI Research, a political risk analysis company, argues that the imprisonment of the activists shows authorities are “increasingly intolerant of rising dissent” and that China is unlikely to yield further democratic reforms, instead increasing its interference in Hong Kong.

政治风险公司BMI Research的分析师Chua Han Teng称，这些活动人士入狱说明当局“越来越容不下日益增多的异见”，中国不太可能实施进一步的民主改革，而是会加大对香港的干预。

He warns that this “continued suppression” will in fact increase the “risks of larger scale protests in Hong Kong, which could undermine the city’s business environment and economic activity”.

他警告称，这种“持续压制”实际上将加大“香港爆发更大规模抗议的风险，这可能会破坏香港的营商环境和经济活力”。

Lily Wong, whose 23-year-old boyfriend Ivan Lam was jailed alongside Chu, believes many activists had accepted that they would end up in prison as Beijing has pushed the Hong Kong government to punish the increasing number of radical young democracy campaigners.

黄莉莉(Lily Wong)认为，很多活动人士原本就明白自己最终将坐牢，因为北京方面一直要求香港政府惩罚越来越多的年轻激进民主活动人士。她的23岁男友林朗彦(Ivan Lam)与朱伟聪同一批入狱。

But as she contemplates life without him for 13 months, she is trying to fight off the sense of powerlessness.

然而，在考虑这13个月没有他的生活时，黄莉莉还在强自振作。

“It is a good opportunity to open up discussions and to think about what else we can do,” she says.

她说：“这是一个展开讨论以及思考我们还能做什么的好机会。”

Additional reporting by Nicolle Liu

Nicolle Liu补充报道