Hong Kong's 'Umbrella Revolution'

Protests have continued in Hong Kong following mass demonstrations by students who staged class boycotts last week, calling for the region's right to freely choose and elect its own leader. Those events were seen as a warm up for the demonstrations organized by the more general movement, Occupy Central, which was planning protests for October 1. However, over the weekend, the protests intensified.

Tear gas was fired by riot police to disperse protesters, who began using umbrellas in an attempt to protect their eyes.

The hashtag #UmbrellaRevolution is now being used on social media in relation to the protests.

Global support for the protests

The events in Hong Kong, which are being dubbed "The Umbella Revolution" by some, are receiving support around the globe.

Students from universities in the US and Canada that have signed up for a campaign supporting the protests, started at Harvard University, will wear yellow ribbons on October 1 - the main day for protests by the Occupy Central movement. The campaign at the participating North American universities will be used to show solidarity with the protesters and spread word about them.

While the world watches the protests in Hong Kong on TV and in their social network newsfeeds, people in China may be left out. Instagram, the photo-sharing app that has been used by several protesters to document the events, has reportedly been blocked in China. And with Twitter and Facebook already restricted in China, there's a good chance that people there may not be getting the same view of the protests in Hong Kong.

Ferguson inspires Hong Kong?

With the powerful images coming out of Hong Kong, social media users have been drawing comparisons with the recent protests in Ferguson, Missouri, where police also came out in force to disperse the protesters.

But the only similarity may be the ability of the images to speak and perhaps the amount of force being used by the police to disperse the crowds.

Related hashtags: #HongKong, #OccupyCentral, #Scholarism, #CausewayBay, #OccupyAdmirality

Dominique St. John contributed to this article