University of Hong Kong to convert ‘Democracy Wall’ into digital display

The University of Hong Kong has decided to convert its historic "Democracy Wall," a bulletin board that has remained largely empty for years, into a digital display. Situated outside the main library, the wall was boarded up on Friday, with a notice stating "sustainable campus, smarter billboards" and "coming soon." The university informed media outlets that it intends to digitise its bulletin boards and continue publishing information about student life.

The "Democracy Wall" was once a space where students posted notices, including pro-democracy posters and slogans. However, the university stripped it bare in July 2021, following the resignation of student union leaders in the wake of criticism from the Security Bureau over their comments praising the "sacrifice" of a man who ended his life after stabbing a police officer.

The university's decision to remove the "Democracy Wall" was part of its broader move to assert management rights over its premises and cut all financial support for the student union, following its severing of ties with the union in April 2021.

Other landmarks of student activism, such as the Pillar of Shame monument commemorating the Tiananmen crackdown and a section of a bridge with a Tiananmen memorial slogan, have also disappeared. The Pillar of Shame was removed in late 2021 and replaced by a seating area, while the bridge section was covered in January 2022. Currently, the university no longer has a student union, as it stopped recognizing the union in 2021 and barred it from using campus facilities.