Pro-democracy protests took on a festive atmosphere Tuesday, a day after police pulled back and the government offered minor concessions, with musicians entertaining the crowds and people decorating the umbrellas they had used to block pepper spray. But protesters worried about the possibility of a crackdown. Tens of thousands of people stretched across Hong Kong Island’s main shopping and business districts and across Victoria Harbour into Kowloon on Monday. Newcomers joined the protests, which took on an air of spontaneity, growing as the day progressed, with marchers walking and sitting on the city’s normally traffic-choked roads.
Crowds were thinner early Tuesday but were expected to grow again as the day progressed. Larger marches were expected on Wednesday, the National Day holiday, when the protests had originally been scheduled to begin. Protesters said they worried police would try to clear them out before the holiday.
“Tonight will be critical,” said Joanne Chung, a 24-year-old management trainee at a bank who joined the protest. “Everybody should be alert.”
In the Mong Kok district of Kowloon, a local restaurant brought fish ball noodles to protesters for breakfast and a man read one of the local anti-Beijing newspapers over a loudspeaker. Tension remained high even though there were few police in the area.
Full Article: Hong Kong on Edge as Protests Grow – WSJ.