Chess for Democracy
I was so inspired by the Occupy Central movement fighting for democracy in Hong Kong, that I wanted to create something for their community. So I tried to make a Chinese Chess set which illustrated the political situation in Hong Kong, and went to show my work at the six-month anniversary event of the start of the movement.
I was participating the workshop ‘Intencity’ on urban design at Connecting Spaces in Hongkong. We kicked off on Monday with our mentor Michael Leung who is a local designer, beekeeper and urban farmer, and as we learned during the first two days, very active in his local neighbourhood of Yau Ma Tei and is involved in many community art projects. Michael led us through his Hongkong, allowing us to gather impressions, talk to locals and get to know his design practice. It was an intense and pleasurable experience which completely transformed my view on Hongkong. It stopped being a concrete jungle, and started to be a real city with real people with real interests and problems – and dreams. A visit to the Occupy Central site in Admiralty clearly showed that the movement had all but died down.
When Wednesday morning rolled around, I was kicking around some ideas in my head, and didn’t know which one to pursue. Should I work on the architectural density of the city and really leave my comfort zone by doing a very graphic or even artistic project, or should I pursue an idea more closely related to game design? But then again, I didn’t really want to choose. And so I started creating a Chinese Chess set that is adapted to current political realities in Hong Kong. I have posted about the production process before; here, I want to tell you about the design process.
Actually deciding the basic setting was probably the hardest part: Who was playing against who? Hong Kong as a whole against China? The democratic movement against the authoritarian movement? I decided for the first, so the black side – black is the color Hongkongers usually dress in – got its pieces replaced with the figureheads of the movement. The general became the chief executive, the advisors became legislators, the cannon was turned into the free press and the soldiers into protesters with yellow umbrellas. On the red, i.e. the Chinese, side, I only changed one piece: I turned the general into the president, to showcase that he was stronger than the head of the Hong Kong government.
A Chess Game for Democracy from sutee on Vimeo.
After the exhibition at Connecting Spaces I took my set to the Occupy Central site on Saturday afternoon, when they were just celebrating their six month anniversary of the start of the movement. I talked to a few people, but quickly found Abby, who was running the movement’s library stand who was very interested in showcasing the game. So we set it up, and I started to be quite worried after seeing all the police on the bridge with their video cameras and directional microphones capturing everything that was happening below them. Soon people started looking at the game, and immediately started discussing with me. Nobody wanted to play, it really became a discussion piece. It turned out I really should have made the game about yellow (democratic) against blue (authoritarian), as everybody could identify much more with that concept.
Never did I think that this game was going to be anything. But it was. I really want to continue developing it, and will soon put the second version of the chess set online, for everyone to be able to produce the set themselves.
