Hong Kong (CNN)In the heart of the leafy, mountain-top campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong stands a replica of a giant statue erected by protesting students in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, before a bloody crackdown by Chinese troops.
A monument to freedom, the "Goddess of Democracy" has long been a symbol of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement, and a testament to the freedoms the semi-autonomous city has enjoyed compared to the rest of China.
During anti-government, pro-democracy protests last year, when CUHK itself became a key battleground between demonstrators and police, the statue was topped with a yellow helmet similar to those worn by protesters, and bedecked with a placard reading "Hong Kongers, resist."
