DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Unfree Speech

The Threat to Global Democracy and Why We Must Act, Now

Jason Y Ng author Joshua Wong author Ai Weiwei editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Ebury Publishing

Published:6th Feb '20

Should be back in stock very soon

Unfree Speech cover

The urgent, first book from global phenomenon Joshua Wong - leader of the Hong Kong protests, Nobel prize nominee and TIME, Forbes and Fortune world leader - who will tell us how he took on the biggest country in the world, and why we all have a stake in the global fight for democracy.

'Joshua Wong is a brave and inspiring young leader.' - GRETA THUNBERG

Imprisoned on 2 December 2020 for the third time, read Joshua Wong's urgent and powerful story - the Hong Konger fighting for democracy.


INTRODUCTION BY AI WEIWEI, FOREWORD BY CHRIS PATTEN

Unfree Speech is Joshua's urgent call for us to defend our democratic values, whoever we are.

It chronicles Joshua's path to activism, collects the letters he wrote as a political prisoner, and closes with a powerful and urgent manifesto for us to defend our democracies at time of global flux and change.

Joshua Wong made history when he was 14. While the adults stayed silent, Joshua staged the first ever student protest in Hong Kong to oppose National Education - and won.

Since then, he led the Umbrella Movement, founded a political party, and rallied the international community around the Hong Kong protests, which saw 2 million people take to the streets. Now, he is in jail again. His actions have sparked worldwide attention and earned him a Nobel Peace Prize nomination, as he continues to fight for what he believes in.

His message is clear: when we stay silent, no one is safe. When we free our speech, our voice becomes one.

'If we want freedom, we need to learn from Hong Kong. With values, tactics, and courage, Joshua Wong shows us the way.' - Timothy Snyder, bestselling author of On Tyranny

'A guide to mobilising for democracy and representation in and far beyond Hong Kong.' - Julia Lovell, award-winning author of Maoism

- The Times Book of the Week -
- Observer Book of the Week -
- Named by the Financial Times as one of the 50 people who shaped the decade -

Joshua Wong is a brave and inspiring young leader. Together we are one loud voice that cannot be silenced. * Greta Thunberg, climate change activist and bestselling author of No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference *
If we want freedom, we need to learn from Hong Kong. With values, tactics, and courage, Joshua Wong shows us the way. * Timothy Snyder, historian and bestselling author of On Tyranny and The Road to Unfreedom *
Joshua Wong represents a new generation of rebel. All they require and demand is a single value: freedom. * Ai Weiwei, artist and activist *
One of the most prominent political activists in the world ... a powerful insight into the turbulence on the city's streets that made world headlines * Rana Mitter, Sunday Times *
A call to arms for the Snapchat generation ... This book is a memoir of an extraordinary decade in which Wong went from a nerdy obsession with Marvel comics to a Netflix documentary in which he was characterised as a superhero for democracy. * Tim Adams, The Observer (Book of the Week) *

ISBN: 9780753554791

Dimensions: 198mm x 126mm x 18mm

Weight: 226g

288 pages