Periscope

A recent mass prayer gathering to oppose any consultation on legislation to outlaw discrimination against gays has sparked discussion about the participation of Hong Kong's evangelical Christians in politics and social affairs. It also highlighted the growing gulf between evangelical and liberal Christians on social issues such as gay rights and political reform. Are we witnessing the beginning of a culture war?

For years, Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement has concentrated its efforts on winning office through the ballot box. But more than 15 years since the handover, democratic reform in the city remains stalled. Increasingly, democrats are fed-up with trying to change the system through participating in it. As society debates plans to Occupy Central to, many have already taken their demands and protests out of the Legislative Council and onto the streets, organising campaigns of civil disobedience and seeking more radical means of resistance.

This issue of Varsity looks at the relationship some Hong Kongers have with the places they call home: Many young Sheung Shui residents say they feel...

Scenes of locals protesting against parallel traders outside Sheung Shui station caused a stir back in the Autumn and focused attention on complaints that the traders' activities have changed the character of the town. But as Varsity discovers, even before Sheung Shui became a hub for such trading activity it had already undergone dramatic transformation from a rural backwater into one of Hong Kong's so-called new towns.

To casual passers-by, the area outside the Jade Market in Sham Shui Po may be just a dumping ground of mattresses and random objects belonging to a bunch of homeless vagrants. But to the community of street-sleepers who live there, this is home, with its own unwritten rules regarding space and property. Varsity listens to the voices of the homeless in Sham Shui Po.

They found themselves in the headlines when they fought to save their homes in Choi Yuen Village. But their houses and farms were finally demolished to make way for the controversial Guangzhou-Hong Kong Express Rail link. Now, the TV cameras have left and some of the original villagers are stuck in temporary houses while their dreams for a new model village are held up by red-tape.

This issue of Varsity looks at books and reading in Hong Kong. The city is often described as a cultural and literary desert whose...

When Taiwan's leading bookstore opened its first Hong Kong branch this summer, it became the place to see and be seen. The hype surrounding the bookshop led people to ask whether it could be a boost to Hong Kong's flagging reading culture.

In recent years, Hong Kong has become a shopping paradise for people from the mainland. They are eager to snap up genuine brands of everything from milk powder to toiletries and cosmetics. But there is another thing visitors are keen to buy - books that have been censored and banned back home.

Today's young people have grown up in a digital age and are just as likely to read online articles as books. They're often accused of not reading enough or at all. Is this accusation fair? Varsity explores and conducts a reading habits survey of our own.