Lau Siu-lai

Lau Siu-lai (born 3 August 1976) is a Hong Kong educator, academic, activist, and politician.

She is a sociology lecturer at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University's Hong Kong Community College and the founder of Democracy Groundwork and Age of Resistance.

There have been calls for the government to buy back properties owned by the Link REIT, most of which were divested from the Housing Authority in 2005.

Lau said that allowing more hawking and street markets would provide more choice and spur competition.

She gained prominence establishing Democracy Groundwork to hold "Democracy Classrooms" during the 2014 pro-democratic protests, teaching protesters about social justice and democracy.

In this role she earned the moniker "Teacher Siu-lai".

Lau has challenged the Hong Kong government's suppression of hawking, and the crackdown on the traditional Kweilin Street Night Market, on the grounds that government policies toward street trading serves to bolster the hegemony of Hong Kong's dominant property conglomerates while unjustly persecuting the poor.

Lau has hawked food herself, as an act of civil disobedience, in support of hawkers.

She has organised street markets in Mei Foo, Sham Shui Po and Wong Tai Sin to demonstrate that hawking can be conducted in an orderly manner.

She urges the government to once again issue hawker licences, and to allow street markets throughout the territory to provide more choice to consumers.

Until 2016, authorities had turned a blind eye to the Lunar New Year market on Kweilin Street, considered a staple of Hong Kong culture.

On 7 February 2016, the eve of the Lunar New Year, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) officers took a hardline stance against the market, chasing away the vendors.

Lau set up a stall in the street and sold squid in defiance, and was arrested.

In response to the crackdown, localist group Hong Kong Indigenous called on supporters to come out on 8 February to help "protect" the hawkers and the night markets.

The FEHD and police again took action against the markets, resulting in a major civil disturbance.

In response to her arrest, Lau said the government's stance was unreasonable, as hawking provides jobs, lowers the cost of living, and gives residents choice in the face of neighbourhoods dominated by corporate powers.

Lau appeared at Kowloon City Magistrates' Court on 20 June 2016.

Two officers from the FEHD testified that they saw Lau heat up squid with a frying pan and sell a man a skewer for HK$10.

She was convicted on three counts, namely: obstruction of a public space, hawking without a licence, and cooking food for the purpose of hawking without a licence.

She was fined HK$1,800 and her hawking gear was seized under the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance.

Lau stated that she would continue to hawk and would continue to support hawkers.

Lau's educational career is under jeopardy due to her hawking-related activism.

In mid-2016 the Hong Kong Polytechnic University launched a disciplinary hearing against her for "moonlighting" as she reportedly earned HK$10 selling snacks.

Lau said that the university's actions were politically motivated, stating that senior figures at the institute had told her that the president was under pressure from the university's governing council to take action against her.

Lau donated the $10 to her Democracy Groundwork and defended herself, stating that there was no conflict of interest, that hawking does not constitute formal employment, and that the ban on moonlighting applied only to full-time faculty (while she was a part-time lecturer at the time).

Running under the banner of Democracy Groundwork, Lau was elected to the Legislative Council in the 2016 election, representing the geographical constituency of Kowloon West.

During her election campaign, Lau stated that if elected her top priorities would be to "push back on 'white elephant' infrastructure projects, implement a universal pension scheme, legislate standard working hours, reform housing policy, and restart electoral reform."

Lau calls for the reform of Hong Kong's political system.

She believes it is ineffective to fight against Leung Chun-ying on the grounds that, "You kick away Leung and Beijing will give you another one as bad as him, if not worse. We need to reform the system."

She has rejected the idea of Hong Kong independence as "unrealistic", but says the issue should be open for discussion.

She advocates a "very high" degree of autonomy for Hong Kong and the protection of local culture.

In addition to her above views on hawkers, Lau is critical of Link REIT, a private real estate company whose assets primarily comprise shopping centres, markets, and car parks in public housing estates.

Link REIT exercises a de facto monopoly in many low-income areas, and has been subject to numerous protests due to rapid rent increases, eviction of local shops in favour of chain operators, and property management outsourcing.

The election was held on 4 September 2016, with a total of 36 candidates standing on 15 party lists in the Kowloon West constituency.

Standing alone on her list, Lau garnered 38,183 votes, the third highest at 13.69 percent of the total, and the best supported pro-democracy candidate.

She is regarded as a member of the localist camp, and pledged to work together with other newly elected localists Eddie Chu and Nathan Law.

In 2016, Lau was elected to the Legislative Council, representing the Kowloon West geographical constituency until she was disqualified by the court on 14 July 2017 over her oath-taking manner at the inaugural meeting of the Legislative Council on 12 October 2016.

Lau holds a bachelor's degree in social science, a master of philosophy in sociology, and a PhD in cultural sociology and historical sociology from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

She worked as a tutor at the Chinese University for a decade before joining the faculty of the Hong Kong Community College.

Lau taught a variety of sociology classes including Introduction to Sociology, Sociological Theories, Hong Kong Society, Medical Society, Social Problems, and Gender Issues.