Besides the self-inflicted wounds of the Democratic Party in HK elections and a few logistical cock-ups, the one angle the media has been able to latch onto is the election of Leung "Long Hair" Kwok-hung (you can see a photo here). A man best known for wearing chic Che Guevara t-shirts (an ironic mockery of what the man actually stood for) and making a fuss over anything and everything, he has now become part of the system he "struggles" against. This co-opting usually signals the beginning of the end of any activist's career. The smart ones are able to turn it into a political career, occassionally even one of substance. But if you are starting out as a "Marxist revolutionary" who's a political superstar best known for being against everything but for nothing, in Communist China's capitalist outpost, the odds are stacked against you.

Things will go one of two ways with Long Hair. He'll be out on his ear after 6 months for doing something or other - this is the most likely scenario. After all, revolutionaries don't make their names by attending committee meetings. Indeed the SCMP reports this is exactly what he predicts himself:

Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung yesterday predicted that he might not finish his term in the Legislative Council because of his anti-establishment attitude and regular clashes with the law.

"Being a revolutionary and a legislator has no contradiction. As a revolutionary, I oppose the government but not the system, although sometimes it is the system which is the root of the problem...Fundamentally, the ultimate way to bring about change is outside the legislature."

All of this is in aid of a single thing: Slate has a long article on Long Hair that is well worth reading. It concludes Maybe the fatal flaw of Democrats, in Hong Kong as in the United States, is that against a street-fighting foe, they refuse to take the low road. They are too polite, which is entirely accurate and besides the point. The journalist had the privilege of enjoying an ale of two with Hemlock:

Of course, Long Hair's take on what happened in the election is self-serving—he's an activist, a gadfly who relishes the role of fighter and who can afford to be one, unlike members of the higher-profile democratic parties who must work within the system and have more to lose.

But then I remembered the afternoon I spent a few days before, sitting in Staunton's Bar beside the Mid-Levels Escalator on Hong Kong Island with Hemlock, the British expat whose delicious and vicious blog is the best source anywhere for inside information on Hong Kong's social and political life—he's Hong Kong's answer to James Wolcott.

As I was drinking with Hemlock, he gave me the long and unpleasant rundown of the dirty campaign tricks allegedly pulled by the mainland since the beginning of the campaign season in March.