Before the Hong Kong protests began in June, Chris Ngai spent most of his free time playing World of Warcraft and finding new cocktail recipes. Now the bespectacled 24-year-old junior engineer is launching a trade union.
His aim is to ramp up pressure on Hong Kong's government, which has so far made no political concessions to protesters' demands for greater democracy in the Chinese-ruled city, despite millions of people marching in the street.
"The ongoing pro-democracy movement has fundamentally changed people's lives," Ngai said, the day before he set up a booth along the route of a Jan. 1 march, to sign up new members. "It has forced many who were ignorant about society to stand up."