Howey Ou: China’s First Climate Striker 🇨🇳

When it comes to activism, China is probably one of the last countries you'd think of. Yet Howey Ou, China's first climate striker, is defying that narrative daily.

Howey hails from Guilin, a southern city in China, where she was raised on a university campus with beautiful natural scenery. Growing up, she had a strong connection to nature; she took her first tangible action towards a sustainable lifestyle by turning vegan in the 8th grade. That's when she learned how veganism affects your health, animal welfare, and the climate. Since then, she also influenced her parents and friends to become flexitarians and vegetarians, a tangible feat considering that "there was no one around me who was vegetarian," as she recalled.

She got her first taste of activism in 2018, when she learned about plastic pollution through the National Geographic magazine (didn’t we all?). Seeing pictures of turtles choked by plastic made her very uncomfortable — nauseous even — and Howey felt a responsibility to do something about it. From there her actions took a dramatic turn: not only did she stop using single-use plastics, but she also started telling all her friends and family to do so as well. She distributed this National Geographic issue, the one that gave her a change of heart, to people on the streets, and piloted a project with the school canteen to stop single-use plastic (which, unfortunately, never materialized). She found herself constantly frustrated by the negative feedback she received: people would tell her it was more "convenient," or that plastic was "unavoidable," but nonetheless seized every chance to talk to people about these issues.

Then, on the fateful day of March 15th, 2019, Howey received a newsletter from the Climate Reality Project about the world's first global climate strike. On the newsletter, she saw 1.2 million youths from 120 countries around the world striking for the climate, but mainland China appeared nowhere on the list of countries. She felt disheartened, but knew she needed to do something about it. So she decided: she would be the first climate striker in China.

I would scroll and scroll through the long list of names on Wikipedia but... China was not there.

It took her several days to accept the reality that she was alone in this journey. But the future was too volatile for her to sit still. From May 26th to 31st of 2019, Howey would participate in her first strike, standing alone with her placard by the side of the road, taking a stand for the climate. She told us that, just two days before that, she had finally created a Twitter account and could see all the actions happening around the world. "Social media makes me feel not alone... I might be alone physically, but we are in this together." She has been striking since.

Struggles

Her journey is not without its difficulties. Without VPN and access to the Western World, she lacked a source of encouragement and support. Families and friends would discourage her, and her parents would even pull her aside to "warn her about the Chinese prison." On her seventh day of striking, the police took her away to interrogate her and her family for four hours straight. And after a German newspaper interviewed her, causing her story to go viral on Weibo (a Chinese social media site), thousands of people publicly condemned and criticized her work. But that did not stop Howey.

I might be alone physically, but we are in this together.

What still concerns her the most is the lack of awareness that people have around climate change. "Around 80% people don't know about climate change," Howey told us, saying that even leaders and officials often do not have enough knowledge. When she was at one of China's Civil Action Climate Network's events, she recalled that "one of the leaders didn't even know about the benefits of veganism!" She described how China's firewall continues to contribute to the lack of information and resources needed to learn about climate change and potentially participate in activism. And Howey wants to change that. She is currently advocating for climate action every Friday, increasingly in the form of non-violent civil disobedience, and hosting climate documentary screenings in cafes in big cities. Howey particularly wants to target youths, as "they are more courageous... They can call it as it is."

Advice

From our interview, we could see that Howey was the embodiment of "be the change you want to see in the world." She took a stance when no one else was ready to, and she has been fighting relentlessly for her dreams since. Yet, she also understood the importance of community. Especially in a place where most forms of activism are suspended, she recounted how even a small community of people can boost her mood and convictions dramatically. She also encouraged, after the pandemic subsided, to connect to people offline, as "offline interactions build stronger networks with more committed people."

Being a climate activist is stressful. Not only does Howey need to talk daily to people who do not see this as a big issue, but she is also constantly reminded of a gloomy future unless more people take actions. In this regard, she has found meditation to be especially helpful. "It helps you accept people with different levels of participation... it helps you see the positive side," Howey said. Connecting to nature was also important, because she felt calmer and more rooted in the work that she was doing.

Finally, she added, "Just don't lose hope. Everyone we meet is our friend, everyone has a heart to save the future."

The Future

"Just don't lose hope. Everyone we meet is our friend, everyone has a heart to save the future."

Howey is currently travelling across China to find other like-minded peers who will join her in the fight for the climate and build a robust network for more effective activism. She also plans to join forces with Extinction Rebellion in the near future.

Looking at Howey, I am in awe of her bravery. But after listening to her share her struggles, her fears, and her doubts, I realized there was only a single difference between a brave person and a coward when it comes to taking action: both are scared, but the brave person does it anyway.

Written by Ha Phuong