Which Mayer Brown Asia lawyers composed HKU's letter to the HK Alliance demanding the removal of the Pillar of Shame?
As readers of this column will know, I am dedicated to ensuring that people engaging in repression or the promotion of self-censorship are unable to hide behind the protective veil of anonymity.
In that spirit, let’s take a look at who seems to have written the Mayer Brown letter to the Hong Kong Alliance demanding the removal of the Pillar of Shame from the university grounds (this is a horrible move, for reasons that I explain here).
The letter can be seen here:
Reading the letter, one thing that stood out is the “Our ref” section, which reads AMJS/JSYW/AFK/21690549.
The first three groups of letters in this ref, according to my understanding, should refer to the lawyers involved in the drafting of the letter.
Conveniently for us, Mayer Brown Asia has an online list of all of its employees. The link can be found here.
These abbreviations would appear to refer to:
AMJS: this would appear to refer to Alison M. J. Song (Associate)/ 宋明洁
JSYW: this would appear to refer to Julianna S. Y. Wong (Counsel)/ 黄淑仪
AFK: This one was a little more difficult, but would seem to refer to Fun Kuen Au (Partner)/ 歐訓權. I thank a reader for generous help with this.
I consider the Pillar of Shame to be such an evocative symbol of the shameful history of 1989, and have paused to look it any time that I passed it, reflecting on this moment and all that it means.
I consider the Pillar of Shame’s proposed removal to be a clear symbol of the shameless nature of both the current Hong Kong government and the Hong Kong University administration.
I share these names from Mayer Brown Asia so that people can know which lawyers were involved in this shameful turn in Hong Kong’s history.