flâneur

The Dismantling of Hong Kong

nymag.com · 3,992 words · saved by 1 readers

Since 2019, my hometown has slowly transformed into a brutal, unrecognizable place. Then came Omicron.

Photo: Hemis/Alamy/Alamy Stock Photo Throughout February and March, as Omicron cases in Hong Kong climbed to tens of thousands a day, I’d leave my apartment every evening for a stroll along the waterfront in Sheung Wan. The sky was a wallpaper of twilight blue; being shut indoors felt like a waste of spring. The promenade bustled with others who had permitted themselves these daily masked excursions: children speeding past me in rollerblades, burning off excess energy from school days spent on Zoom, and office workers sitting on benches clutching plastic containers of takeaway dinners. Across

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