Long Hair joined the Revolutionary Marxist League in the 1970s, throwing himself into the social movement. Whereas mainstream democrats expressed their demands in a relatively gentle manner, he chose a unique way to carry out a social movement. In his early years, he was marginalized by the Hong Kong media. However the political landscape has shifted in Hong Kong. In 2004, he was elected by a large margin to the Legislative Council, and entered the system to continue to fight. In recent years, with the rise of radical localists, he is regarded as a "lefty pacifist" and again runs the danger of being marginalized.

At the same time, the relationship between Hong Kong people and politics has changed. When the economy took off in the seventies and eighties, Hong Kong people frantically made money and talked little about politics. Only around the handover did political consciousness gradually increase, and politics became something to be actively expressed and fought over, culminating in the Umbrella Revolution and other large-scale social movements, then falling apart, fragmented, and marginalized.

Long Hair's journey has been one of complex twists and turns. We have no intention of idolising him, nor can we convey Long Hair in his entirety. This is just Long Hair in our eyes. Regardless of whether or not we agree with his political actions, it is apposite, at this juncture of Hong Kong history, to review his political history, to illuminate the rapidly changing social and political environments of recent years.