The sun was oppressive that first day of June 2013. Outside a primary school in Hong Kong’s northernmost district bordering mainland China, hundreds of parents waited in a long queue with umbrellas and paper fans in hand.
An air of anxiety hovered in the heat.
It wasn’t long before a young mother in a greyish green baseball cap staggered out of the school. She slouched down in the middle of the pavement and broke into tears, her face buried in her palms and her black handbag slumping to the ground.