This book is a novel modelled on Plato’s Republic as a series of dialogues between a half-retired college professor and his former student, taking place in several weeks in a row on various scenic and memorable locations in Hong Kong – in Central, on the Peak, on Repulse Bay and in Stanley on Hong Kong Island, as well as in Cheung Chau, an outlying island of Hong Kong. The story starts by the professor greeting and receiving his former student Julian to tea and for a friendly chat in the professors’ favourite old teahouse in Central. Their conversation, initially centring around the current events taking place in Hong Kong, soon evolves into an in-depth discussion of the immediate and subtler causes and factors leading to such a state of affairs that has been described by the local media and the Government as ‘public activities’. Since both the professor and Julian find their discussion and exchange very interesting and fruitful, they decide to continue with it in the weeks that follo