HONG KONG -- All through the sweltering summer recess, Michael, 23, and Stella, 19, have gone together to protest on the streets of Hong Kong. Occupying the city's main thoroughfares, setting up barricades and choking on poisonous tear gas have become their "default dating activities on weekends," Michael said.
But as the citywide protests, sparked by a piece of legislation that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to be extradited to the mainland, entered their fifth month and morphed into a wider call for democratic freedoms, they realized that street battles alone would not be enough to sustain the movement's momentum.