She is no longer able to book any public performance venue. A live-streamed concert in a private one was interrupted by the police citing the Noise Control Ordinance.
by Gladys Kwok
There is no peace in Hong Kong for talented pro-democracy singer Denise Ho. She reports that she cannot sing in public venues, since none would rent to her in Hong Kong. She cannot sing abroad either: she is a Canadian national, but her passport has been confiscated and she cannot leave Hong Kong. What is left to Ho is to sing in private venues and live-stream her concerts. But this is also becoming impossible, as the police stop her performances under various pretexts.
On June 30, Ho was live-streaming a concert from the Mount Zero Bookstore, a highly symbolic location. It was an oasis of freedom selling books not allowed elsewhere until it had to close down in December 2023 following continuous “safety” and other inspections and harassment.
While Ho was singing, the police arrived and interrupted the concert, claiming she was performing in public without a license and was also making too much noise, which is forbidden by Hong Kong’s Noise Control Ordinance. Neither charge was true. Only her recording crew was inside the bookstore. A group of fans had gathered to applaud her outside the shop, but they were not allowed inside Mount Zero and had to stay on the street. The noise, Ho’s followers claim, was within the limits of the Ordinance.
Clearly, the problem had nothing to do with noise or failure to get a performance license. The police is harassing Ho for her pro-human-rights and pro-democracy views.
In 2022, Ho was arrested as one of the former trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, together with human rights lawyer Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, then 90-year-old Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, and cultural studies scholar Hui Po-keung. Established in 2019, the fund provided emergency relief, legal assistance, and psychological counseling to pro-democracy protesters mistreated by the police or arrested. It was compelled to disband under the new National Security Law in October 2021.
The continuous harassment of Denise Ho confirms that in Hong Kong speaking out for democracy and human right is never forgotten—nor forgiven.
Uses a pseudonym for security reasons.
