Passersby transform a wall of a New York City subway tunnel with sticky notes carrying all sorts of messages.Īs Hong Kong took inspiration from Prague, other cities have followed Hong Kong’s lead.
It’s another way the movement is expressing its motto, “ Be water,” signifying that the protesters’ actions should be adaptable, tactical, fast and spontaneous – the way water flows through cracks in a structure. However, new notes, posters and other displays reappear in a matter of hours. Hong Kong’s authorities have removed some of these walls over objections from protesters. The walls themselves have become an exercise in democracy. But the community has apparently developed a tacit agreement that people won’t take down or cover over messages they disagree with. The messages on the walls are not exclusively in support of the protest movement – one note read “Hong Kong belongs to China,” a view decidedly opposed to many of the protesters. The simple and highly adaptable technique has allowed multitudes of citizens, visitors and tourists to participate in the movement and the political debate. The Lennon Walls in Hong Kong have transformed nondescript walkways, sky bridges and tunnels into spaces of gathering and exchange where ordinary people would pause, read, write, and engage others in conversations. Like the rivers of protesters flowing through Hong Kong’s urban canyons, these sticky notes have covered all sorts of surfaces, including storefronts and freeway pillars. In 2019, as anti-government protests spread throughout Hong Kong, more than 100 Lennon Walls, covered in sticky notes and other creative displays, appeared around the city. In Hong Kong, pedestrian tunnels and other public walls have become Lennon Walls, spaces of protest and political engagement. The colorful mosaic became one of the most memorable sights of the movement. This wall of an outdoor staircase in the city’s Admiralty district, near the Central Government Complex, was covered by handwritten sticky notes supporting the protest. In Hong Kong, the first Lennon Wall appeared during the 2014 Umbrella Movement protests – named for their participants’ use of umbrellas to shield themselves from police pepper spray. It became a location for community-generated protest art that endures – yet is ever-changing – today. In time, messages evoking Lennon’s common themes of peace, love and democracy covered the space.
After Beatles legend John Lennon’s murder in 1980, someone painted a portrait of Lennon and some of his song lyrics on the wall. Since the 1960s, the wall had been a location for romantic poems and anti-government messages. The original Lennon Wall was in central Prague, west of the Vltava River and south of the iconic Charles Bridge. These spaces, which locals call “Lennon Walls,” have sprung up on buildings, walkways, sky bridges, underpasses and storefronts and carry messages like “Hong Kongers love freedom,” “garbage government” and “We demand real universal suffrage.” As a scholar of urban landscapes, I have been interested in how the citizens and activists made use of the urban environment during the movement, including walls of Post-it sticky notes and other creative displays. Months of anti-government protests in Hong Kong have physically reshaped the city.
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