Since 2012, the Taiwan Association for International Care of Organ Transplant (Taicot) has initiated a petition campaign against live organ harvesting by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Subsequently, they organized the “Stop Live Organ Harvesting by the CCP Poster Exhibition,” collecting designs globally through submissions and evaluations. One hundred selected designs have been exhibited in numerous locations, including Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.
This year’s event made its debut in the UK with a joint exhibition with The Hong Kong Scots. Featuring artist Lumli Lumlong, the exhibition showcased over 50 artworks focusing on organ transplantation and human rights issues in Hong Kong. In addition, the exhibition displayed some of the news clippings collected by the Ficus Support Fund, providing visitors with an insight into the increasingly serious human rights situation and the history and memories of persecution in China and Hong Kong.
Lumli Lumlong is the shared name of a pair of Hong Kong artists who made waves when they left the city two years ago. They are now in the UK continuing to speak out for the people of Hong Kong. They said, “In the past, we often saw Falun Gong practitioners’ booths and posters depicting organ harvesting on the streets of Causeway Bay in Hong Kong, which seemed like a mysterious form of performance art. However, since 2019, with so many people in Hong Kong disappearing or being arrested, we began to understand that the suffering endured by mainland Chinese people started much earlier than ours...”
“We believe that ‘live organ harvesting’ is not just about organs. Today, the loss of press freedom in Hong Kong and the national security education imposed on children is also another form of ‘live harvesting’ and ‘transplantation’ on a different level.”
The Controversial Topic of Organ Transplantation
Nov. 11 this year was Hong Kong’s “Organ Donation Day.” The Hospital Authority noted a low number of organ donors in Hong Kong, with only five per million people. As of Oct. 31 this year, the number of registered organ donors in the Centralised Organ Donation Register (CODR) stood at 363,104.Earlier this year, a significant number of Hong Kong residents withdrew their registrations from CODR. The reason given was public concern over the implementation of the “organ sharing” mechanism under the Greater Bay Area plan, causing anxiety among Hong Kong citizens.
The issue of cross-border “joint organ transplantation” between Hong Kong and Mainland China has attracted considerable attention. In December 2022, the Hong Kong Children’s Hospital performed a heart transplant operation on a 4-month-old girl named Zhi Xi. This was Hong Kong’s first case of organ transplantation from mainland China, with the heart coming from the University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Hospital.
This case was highlighted by the Hong Kong government’s Secretary for Health, Dr. Lo Chung-mau, as a typical example, and he advocated the accelerated implementation of the “organ sharing” mechanism between mainland China and Hong Kong.
The source of organ transplants in China has long been a subject of controversy. Over the past decade, practitioners of Falun Gong have consistently presented evidence suggesting that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) extensively harvests organs from living individuals, including imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners and other political prisoners, for profit. This was said to be based largely on the extensive ten-year investigations and publications by David Kilgour (ex-Canadian member of parliament), David Matas, a human rights lawyer, and journalist Ethan Gutmann, but also based on their own investigations, intelligence, and information.
‘Live Organ Harvesting’ Extends From The Physical Realm to the Mental
Curated by Yeh Shang-da, one of the organizers of the Art Festival on Human Rights of China and Hong Kong, this exhibition features a focal collection of award-winning posters from the “2020 Poster Design Contest to Stop Forced Organ Harvesting in China.”The three-part art design series titled “Red Scars,” which won the Gold Award, portrays sutures on the human skin, providing a layer of protection to the gruesome and brutal, creating a visual that evokes a sense of pain while leaving room for contemplation. The three symbols composed of sutures represent the Chinese yuan, the five-star flag, and a prison. The Gold Award winner, Bahram Gharavi Manjili of Iran, wrote, “The combination of money, ideology, and oppression will undoubtedly lead to catastrophic consequences.”
Mr.Yeh stated that this exhibition in the UK marks Taicot’s first venture into holding such an event there. He mentioned, “Our collaboration with the Scottish Hong Kong groups is aimed at amplifying our voice. The various human rights violations Hong Kong people have faced in recent years, for example during the Umbrella Movement and protests against the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill, are well-known to everyone, which have allowed the world to see that the CCP’s infringement on human rights is pervasive. Since forced organ harvesting is a global issue, it naturally includes Hong Kong. The significance of this collaboration is to strengthen our international cooperation, and to jointly call for an end to the crime of organ harvesting, wherever it occurs.”
Artists Lumli Lumlong presented six related artworks, including “Blindfolded Man,” “Conspiracy Man,” “Brainwashed Man,” “Whitewashed Man,” “Apple Man,” and “National Education Man.” In addition to addressing the issue of illegal organ transplantation, their primary focus is to convey the perspective of “live thought harvesting.”
Lumli Lumlong hope that these artworks resonate with the audience, emphasizing that addressing this issue is not a pessimistic stance but rather an effort to expose the atrocities happening in Hong Kong. They aim to make more people aware of the threatening tactics employed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and, in turn, steer away from this “monstrous” influence.
Beyond Art, Exploring The Political Situation in China and Cybersecurity
“The Hong Kong Scots” founder Kwok Tsz Kin mentions that as carriers of Hong Kong culture and stories, Hong Kong people can casually share Hong Kong stories with their neighbors in daily life. This helps prevent the Hong Kong government and the Chinese Communist Party from monopolizing the narrative of “Hong Kong stories.” The goal is to showcase the cultural pursuits and aspirations of Hong Kong people in terms of human rights, democracy, and freedom. While the group has organized film screenings in the past, this event marks the first attempt at hosting an art exhibition and poster exhibition.He believes that the creations of artists around the world can provide people with a different perspective to observe wounds and perceive pain. Through more intuitive and vivid forms of expression, these artworks aim to give the audience insight into the human rights issues faced by both Hong Kong and China.
In addition to the art exhibition, “The Hong Kong Scots” also organized a “China’s Situation Symposium” with guests to discuss the recent global infiltration by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the origins of the fears it brings to people worldwide. Another initiative is the “Cybersecurity Workshop,” which aims to provide participants with practical information to avoid falling victim to cybercrimes and to prevent surveillance by state machinery.
