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Hong Kong protests: chef at PolyU siege recalls trauma of cooking for more than 1,000 protesters before being taken to hospital
- Chef Sunny Zie had about 50 volunteers helping him at first, but numbers dwindled rapidly as the police siege of Hong Kong Polytechnic University went on
- Initially vowing to stay and cook until the last protester left, emotional problems stemming from sleep deprivation saw him eventually leave in an ambulance
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Chef Sunny Zie lived a lifetime in those seven days. Cooking non-stop, he says, he survived on barely any food and no more than nine hours’ sleep in total on a cold, tiled floor, on the verge of liver failure.
“I was afraid that if I ate too much I would fall into a relaxed state and then a deep sleep. But I had to stay awake to cook for the protesters and help them recharge their batteries,” Zie says.
The 39-year-old Hong Kong chef remembers his “cooking battle” in a Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) kitchen a year ago this month, when more than 1,000 radical anti-government protesters occupied the 10-hectare, red-brick campus, which was then surrounded by police officers.
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The almost two-week stand-off saw young protesters barricade themselves into the campus, turning it into a fortress. It came after months of anti-government protests, originally triggered by discontent over a since-withdrawn extradition bill that could have allowed criminal suspects in the city to be sent to mainland China for trial, which later morphed into a wider call for greater democracy in Hong Kong.
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The PolyU stand-off also saw running battles and violent clashes involving protesters using bows and arrows, a variety of projectiles, bricks, and petrol bombs against police, who responded with tear gas.
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