Getting bored of your old Occupy Central board game? Who isn’t! Don’t fret though politically-minded idle people, as there’s a new kid on the block.
Check out this rather educational offering from Hong Kong artist Siumup Chow, who uses his cutesy illustrations and a “Snakes & Ladders” setup to take you through the many incidents of the Umbrella Movement so far.
Although notably pro-Occupy, each active square depicts a real happening, such as “Get pepper sprayed in the face – miss two rounds”; or an Occupy in-joke, such as “Being a YouTuber – go back to box 28”, referring to a protester jibe that Hong Kong Chief Executive CY Leung has given up running public office and is instead sat at home watching videos. You can hardly blame him. There’s some really great cat stuff on there.
There’s also “Carrying a lethal weapon – retreat to box 5”, referring to that hilarious moment when a Hong Kong lawmaker said umbrellas are more aggressive than tear gas; “Activate bus N680 – move forward to square 25”, referring to the bus that became stranded in the Mong Kok protest site and was subsequently renamed after the measly number of votes CY Leung got in the last election; and “Sing Happy Birthday – move forward to square 28”, referring to the way protesters drowned out the Blue Ribbon bunch with the world’s best-known song.
The game ends somewhat poignantly on square 49, which is captioned, “The movement has yet to succeed – rest until the game is finished”. We guess Chow is eventually hoping he can add anther square saying: “Democracy achieved – Game Over!”.
You can download the game here. Unfortunately for non-Canto speakers, the captions will be all Dutch to you (or Chinese, at least). There is a probably fuller-than-needed explanation for each box here, though.
