Recorded on November 10, 2023.
Among the Braves: Hong Kong’s Struggle for Democracy
Friday, November 10, 2023
12:30 pm - 2 pm Eastern Time
Furman Hall Room 120 and on Zoom
This event is co-sponsored by the APEC Study Center at Columbia University.
About the event
In 2019, the world was transfixed by the sight of normally tidy, peaceful Hong Kong wracked by months of massive protests. Youths dressed in black and wearing masks for protection against tear gas hurled paving stones and sometimes Molotov cocktails at police, who fired off tear gas, rubber bullets, and even live ammunition. At stake was Hong Kong’s future, in which many youth had lost hope. Journalists Shibani Mahtani and Timothy McLaughlin will tell the story of the protests and immediate aftermath mainly through the eyes of four participants, drawing on their new book, Among the Braves: Hope, Struggle, and Exile in the Battle for Hong Kong and the Future of Global Democracy.
About the speakers
Photo courtesy of the Washington Post
Shibani Mahtani is an international investigative correspondent for the Washington Post. She was previously the Post's Hong Kong and Southeast Asia bureau chief and a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal based in Singapore, Yangon, and Chicago. Her Hong Kong coverage won including a Human Rights Press Award for an investigation into police misconduct. She is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Photo courtesy of Timothy McLaughlin
Timothy McLaughlin is a contributing writer for The Atlantic. He previously worked for Reuters news agency. His work has also appeared in WIRED, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Prospect, and other publications. He has won multiple awards for his Hong Kong coverage, including two Best in Business Awards from the Society for Advancing Business Editing, and is a two-time finalist for The Livingston Award for International Reporting. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California. Mahtani and McLaughlin live in Singapore with their adopted Hong Kong village dog, Bean.