In a recent eight -hour shift in McDonald’s in Hong Kong, Luke Ching, 52, wiped the tables, cleaned the drawers of seminetic fries, emptied the cups of soda and milky tea and pushed bullets of garbage.
For him, the main goal of part -time work was not a meeting with the end. It was a research for his main search: the use of art to advocate better treatment with people in places in the city with one of the widest revenue defects in the world.
This project was abruptly completed last month when he was discharged after he publicly called McDonald’s Hong Kong to bring a paid break for a meal for employees at his local outlets. The undecided, Mr. Ching pushes forward – even while the scope for a broader political protest has decreased in the city.
“Many have accepted that they are not allowed to talk critically about their workplace. But employees do not exist just to make a profit,” Mr. Ching said in an interview. “We have the right to express ourselves in public.”
In the last two decades, his campaigns have been crossed by worlds of art and activism, gaining a wide monitoring of supporters, as well as some internet villains, who call him care and jerk.
The workplace was a muse and a canvas because he upset everything, from chairs for museum guards to multiple considerations for people who clean the subway.
Minimum wage Hong Kong – about $ 5 per hour – barely covers the basic life expenses. No Co -Collective Law Law, and Employers are is not legally obliged to acknowledge unionsSo relatively little does that.
The unions, however, have long been politically active, regularly joining the demonstrations to press the local government. Such protests became more frequent because the people of Hong Kong resisted what they considered to be imposed to impair “High degree of carY “Chinese leaders promised after Britain returned its former colony in 1997.
But a year of antigoven protests, sometimes violently, led to Break of Beijing 2020 and imposing a national security law that cooled disagreement and led many activists Unions for dissolution.
Some work organizers in Hong Kong have been convicted of a violation of the law over their pro-democratic activism and sentenced to prison. Lee Cheuk Yan, a former MP and Champion of Labor, has been closed since 2021 waiting for trial, and the government offered a Bounty for arrest Another such activist, Christopher Mung, who now lives in the United Kingdom.
Steve Tsang, Director of the Soas China Institute in London, said that, on its own, Hong Kong activism, Hongbong activism, would not see as a potential threat to national security, especially if the target of large companies, not government body.
“The difficulty is that in Hong Kong, what you do and how to be treated is not always so clear“ he said. “Therefore, people become much more careful in what they can and what I cannot say.”
The pressure is still increasing: the city suggested on Wednesday Amendments This would strengthen the government to reject new unions based on national security.
Mr. Ching said his activism always focused on the issues of life, and he does not think that something is not bad or risky in what he does.
Things sometimes tensed during a coined pandemic, he said, when the authorities fired at everything that could attract the crowd. Police searched and questioned him, he said, as he stood in the subway station, wearing a trash bag over a cleaner uniform, with “with” with the lowest salary. The highest risk. The smallest support ”written on a cassette.
A company that runs an underground rail, MTR, later increased its salary to clean the contract.
Mr. Ching received his master’s degree in fine arts from Chinese University of Hong Kong and participated in exhibitions and residences around the world, including last year New Yorkwhere he collected cans and other items that can be recycled as part of the effort to understand “an artist as a citizen.” Some of his works – video, photos and sculptures – are housed in museum collections, including M+ In Hong Kong AND Open eyes In Liverpool, England. His project “Secret Worker” was In a narrow election for a visible rewardAward for socially engaged works of art, 2019.
For about a decade, he taught art part -time in his Alma Mater and on Hong Kong Polytechnic, including popular “Creative citizen“The course, where his students were trained to become security guards and report their experiences. (His inspiration for community activism, he said, dates back to 2007, when people connected together to try to save the historical ferry dock from demolition.)
He singled out classes last August and raised $ 25,700 donations that funded the crowd so he could spend more time making art, working briefly on fast food chains, a Chinese butcher shop and a cleaner at Disneyland Hong Kong. Although he uses his real name, he said that his managers were usually not aware of his activism and that they were more concerned about filling up vacancies.
While working at McDonald’s, Mr. Ching, who is married to a teenager’s daughter, has announced his entries like a diary Instagram and Facebook. Illustrate a repetitive effort during a typical shift,, He followed his number of steps and made pictures of himself picking up endless rows of half -empty cups.
Mr. Ching said he was attracted to studying McDonald’s because customers used it from all layers of life as a municipal space, bringing him a Hongonjag flair. In their former middle -class branch, the older monks brought their own isolated wings, newspapers and novels as they placed themselves on their regular seats, so often charging from free hot water.
Mr. Ching said he also admired that, like him, the McDonald’s Hong Kong CEO, Randy Lai, spent several months working as a low -level employee. Presented this experience in an open letter that was Posted in Hong Kong Broadsheet Ming fell in January.
“You need to know that without a salary during a meal, countless colleagues return to work after a busy meal or give up the rest time,” he said.
Was discharged within a few weeks. Company representatives, owned by a Chinese company for private capitalI didn’t respond to the New York Times requests For comment. McDonald’s spokesman said local media that Mr. Ching had leaked internal operational and commercial information and had been advised against it. Mr. Ching denied these allegations, saying that he only shared his observations about his workplace.
Some observers say Mr. Ching’s ambitions have spread, his work has become less focused. Wong Wai Yin, an artist in Hong Kong who wrote a doctorate. The dissertation on Mr. Ching, she said it was sometimes difficult to understand his goals in McDonald’s – until she was discharged.
“There were many ketchup packages and selfies,” Mrs. Wong said.
Wan Kin, organizer for employees of Catering and Hotels Industries General Union, said Mr. Ching’s tactics balanced the hard approach of traditional work unions. “He knows how to find the middle between praise and criticism,” Mr. Wan said. “Examinations of relationships and connection between colleagues. Becomes part of the community. “
This month, Mr. Ching, Mr. Wan and three other organizers representing working and ecological groups, said they would form a coalition called the Alliance for my McDonald’s. Wearing McDonald’s party hats at a press conference, the organizers said they hoped to encourage McDonald’s to pay attention to the proposals and employees and the general public.
Mr. Ching said he was planning to spend more time on the front lines to make a campaign for small and meaningful changes and strengthen relations between workers. “I want the revolution to be in our daily work,” he said.
