The third Hong Kong Human Rights Art Exhibition in Taipei is using art to preserve memories of the 2019 protest movement and reflect the homesickness felt by the Hong Kong diaspora. The exhibition, which opened last week at the National 228 Memorial Museum, features dozens of works under the theme “Protection, Hope, and Resistance.”

Curator Kacey Wong (黃國才) told Rti on Wednesday, June 10, that many of the works reflect Hong Kongers’ longing for home after emigrating. Hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers have left the city for the UK, Taiwan, and elsewhere amid political repression by Chinese authorities.

“The battle in here is really about forgetting versus remembering,” Wong said. “Art is that bridge to allow people to visualize it, to not forget.”

One prize-winning photograph, titled “Carrying Hong Kong,” shows an artist in London carrying a sculpture shaped like the city. “We are all carrying Hong Kong on our back,” Wong said.

The exhibition, which runs through August 30, is co-organized by the 228 Memorial Foundation, the New School for Democracy Association, and the Hong Kong Human Rights Front. It features photographs, paintings, and audio-visual installations.

There is also a drawing by Jimmy Lai (黎智英), the media mogul and pro-democracy activist who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in February under national security legislation imposed by Beijing.

Many Hong Kongers overseas remain afraid of the law and may avoid public commemorations or protests out of fear, Wong said. He pointed to the door of a Hong Kong activist in Taiwan that was vandalized in an act of “international repression” and was later turned into an art installation.

“Through art, we successfully transformed it into a door of courage,” Wong said.