Outside the Mong Kok police station, the exit of the Prince Edward Station had transformed into a memorial, with hundreds of white flowers stuck into a fence and colorful Post-it notes covering a telephone booth.

Posters and graffiti question what happened on the night of Aug. 31, when police stormed into the subway station and onto the trains pepper-spraying and beating black-clad protesters as well as commuters.

It’s been 25 years since the TV show Friends was first broadcast in America, and one of its lesser-known legacies is the large number of Chinese millennials who have learned English by watching the show. Television shows allow language learners to hear English spoken in a native accent and used in an everyday context. Storylines also help students remain engaged and teach them about American culture (for better or worse).

On the road in front of the luxury mall Pacific Place in the central business district of Hong Kong, hundreds of young pro-democracy protesters, wearing hard hats and gas masks, began to yell and run in retreat. Behind them, tear gas canisters arched through the sky, leaving trails of white smoke. As police fired rounds of the acrid gas, members of an elite police squad known as raptors suddenly charged at protesters from both the main and side roads.

As the Hong Kong protests enter their fifth month, the clash between the democratic ideals of demonstrators and the authoritarianism of Beijing is now being felt in corporate America. This week, the National Basketball Association faces the choice all companies working in China must face: Free speech or access to the massive Chinese market?

After a day of protests and violence—including a police shooting of one protester—on Tuesday, Janis Fung looked at the devastation in the typically busy Hong Kong business district and said she felt more hurt than shock to see her homeland in such a state: “In my 30 years, I’ve never seen Hong Kong like this. We see how the government and police are treating the citizens, and it just doesn’t make any sense.”

In July, a 6-year-old Chinese Bible app called WeDevote marked a major milestone: 10 million installations. With its slick design, respect for copyrights, and curated Bible reading plans and devotionals, WeDevote stands apart from other Bible applications for smartphones and tablets available in China.

Week after week, black-clad protesters face off with riot police in Hong Kong’s neighborhoods and business districts. Tear gas haze, laser pointers, blockade fires, and mall sing-alongs of the newly minted anthem “Glory to Hong Kong” have become common occurrences in Hong Kong’s summer of discontent.

Protests that began as a pushback against a now-withdrawn extradition bill have transformed into a social movement urging greater democracy and denouncing the Beijing-backed government leaders in the city of 7.4 million.