Eating at Cha Chaan Teng (茶餐廳) - as protest

For years, my wife, like many people, refused to eat at a cha chaan teng.  I suspect it was because the food weren’t particularly attractive to them, the quality of the ingredients were not particularly high, the places were not particularly clean, etc..  

But lately, we have been eating at some of them a lot, sometimes 2 or 3 times a week, for lunch.  Why?  It is because those are the “yellow” shops that support the protests.  They provide water to the protesters, they post slogans in support of the protests, they donate funds and material, they sell cakes with the proceeds going to support the cause, …  

My wife still does not particularly like the food.  But she does find something she can eat.  More importantly, she feels good eating there.  She feels she is doing her part to keep them in business.  She is expressing her dissatisfaction against the establishment by eating there.  The food becomes less important in this light.  The action of eating there itself provides its own satisfaction. 

I have been a regular at cha chaan tengs since I was a kid.  The clientele at some of the cha chaan tengs has certainly changed.  There are customers there, like my wife, who have not been there before. 

The political establishment may not realise it.  But their intransigence has changed the behaviour of many of the people of Hong Kong.  By suppressing the cry for freedom in more and more draconian ways, they have succeeded in mobilising a large segment of Hong Kong who has not been mobilised before.  Eating at cha chaan teng is only one of the multiple facets of the mobilization.  More is going to come.  

It is about freedom!  We will never give up!