Andrew Lok Hang Chan is the former president of Societas Linguistica Hongkongensis.
Every day, I am inundated with news about Hong Kong’s national security law — but I never imagined becoming ensnared in its grasp. That changed when the police arrived at our front door and told my father they would search our apartment without a warrant. Until then, I had naively believed that their focus was on politicians and protesters, never nerds like me. The police’s concern was stranger than fiction: They had taken umbrage at 11 essays submitted to a Cantonese writing competition that I had organized in 2020.
