- China has suppressed large-scale commemoration of the Tiananmen Square crackdown within its borders, so commemoration outside China has become crucial to preserving it in history. Tuesday marks the 35th anniversary of the incident.
- On June 4, 1989, government troops opened fire on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, resulting in the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of people.
- Hong Kong’s decades-old annual prayer gathering to mourn the dead has ended following China’s imposition of a security law.
As the 35th anniversary of the crackdown on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square approached, Rowena He, a leading scholar of that bloody chapter in modern China’s history, was busy flying between the United States, Britain and Canada to deliver a series of lectures. Each lecture aimed at giving a voice to those who cannot raise their own.
The 1989 crackdown, in which government troops opened fire on student-led pro-democracy protesters, resulting in hundreds, if not thousands, of deaths, remains a taboo subject in mainland China. In Hong Kong, once a symbol of freedom remembrance, the huge annual vigil on June 4 that mourned the victims for decades has disappeared, a victim of the city’s crackdown on dissidents after huge anti-government protests in 2019.
He had still not recovered from losing his academic status after Hong Kong authorities rejected his visa renewal last year, which was widely seen as a sign of a decline in intellectual freedom in the financial hub. Despite an exhausting schedule of talks, the former protester in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in 1989 considered it his duty to speak out.
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He said, “We can no longer light candles in Hong Kong. So we will light them everywhere around the world.”
Since Beijing’s tough political stance has effectively put an end to any large-scale commemoration within its borders, commemoration events held abroad have become very important for preserving memories of the Tiananmen suppression. In the past few years, there have been a growing number of talks, rallies, exhibitions and plays on the subject in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and Taiwan.
These activities promote hope and counter aggressive efforts to eradicate negativity prevalent in society. Reminiscent of oppressionParticularly visible in Hong Kong. In 2021, the city’s police charged three of the group’s leaders with subversion under a sweeping 2020 national security law that has virtually eliminated public dissent. Later, the group voted to disband. Tiananmen-related statues were also removed from universities.
Rowena Hay poses for a photo on the set of the drama “May 35th” in London on May 30, 2024, the title of which is a roundabout way of referring to June 4, as the 35th anniversary of the crackdown on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square approaches. Rowena Hay, a leading scholar of the event, has flown between the United States, Britain and Canada to give a series of lectures aimed at speaking for those who cannot speak. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Last week, under a new, domestic security law, Hong Kong police arrested seven people on suspicion of alleged sedition for posting material on social media commemorating the Tiananmen crackdown. A Christian newspaper, which usually publishes material related to the event ahead of its anniversary, left its front page mostly blank. It said it could only change the words to empty squares and white space to respond to the current situation.
On Tuesday, a carnival will be held by pro-Beijing groups in the park where the commemoration used to be held.
However, attempts to suppress commemorations have failed to erase from the minds of a generation of liberal-minded Chinese the horrific memories of when tanks rolled into the heart of Beijing to quell weeks of student-led protests that spread to other cities and were seen as a threat to Communist Party rule.
He, who was 17 at the time, remembers that protesters like him took to the streets out of love for their country. When the crackdown happened, he spent the whole night in front of his TV, unable to sleep. After returning to school, he had to buy the official narrative to pass his exams – that the government had successfully put down the riot.
“I never killed anybody. But I lived with that survivor’s guilt for all these years,” she said.
To preserve the memories of this incident, a museum dedicated to the Tiananmen crackdown was opened in New York in June last year. It displays items such as blood-stained shirts and tents used by student protesters.
A similar museum run by vigilance organisers was closed in Hong Kong in 2021.
In early May, its board chairman Wang Dan, who is also a prominent former student leader of the Tiananmen protests, estimated that the New York museum attracted about 1,000 people, including Chinese immigrants, American citizens and Hong Kong people. To expand his audience, Wang said he plans to hold temporary exhibitions on university campuses in the US, and possibly in other countries in the long term.
He said that overseas memorial events are important as people in mainland China and Hong Kong can watch overseas memorial events online.
“It could have an impact In mainland China “Because young people there know how to use VPNs to bypass internet censorship,” he said.
Aline Sierp, professor of European history and memory studies at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, said commemorative activities held abroad provide an opportunity for memories to travel and become permanent, giving other people and future generations access to them.
But he said this could be a “double-edged sword”, as adapting memories to new places could put them at risk of becoming fragmented or decontextualised in the future.
Alison Landsberg, a memory studies scholar at George Mason University in Virginia, said foreign efforts have the potential to inspire people in other places who are facing their own challenges in the pursuit of democracy.
To carry forward memories, film and television dramas can be powerful tools for people to cherish memories of events they did not witness, he said.
He said overseas theater productions about the crackdown, which began last year in Taiwan and continues this year in London, are more likely to make those connections and potentially reach a wider audience.
“When you have a dramatic narrative, you have the ability to bring the viewer into the story in an intimate way,” Landsberg said.
Last week, the audience at a London theater became emotional, with some in tears, after watching the play “May 35th.” The title of the play makes a subtle reference to the June 4 actions.
This drama is produced by Lit Ming-wai, Hong Kong Migrants who moved to the UK after the 2020 security law came into force tell the story of an elderly couple who want to properly grieve for their son, who died in 1989.
Its director, Kim Pearce, who was born in the U.K. in the 1980s, said the tragedy had affected her since childhood and was moved to tears once she read James Fenton’s poem “Tiananmen.” She said working on the project deepened her connection to the stories.
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British theatre-goer Sue Thomas, 64, also found the play very touching. “Especially now as a parent, which I wasn’t before, the play made me think about it even more deeply,” she said.
At the theater, scholar Hay served as one of the speakers after the show, sharing with the audience his struggles and the inspirations behind his work. He said the play was so powerful that it made him relive the trauma of the past 35 years, bringing him to tears and causing him to lose his contact lenses.
“It shows how much suffering people have had to endure all these years,” he said. “If we can do something, I hope we can make the younger generation understand.”
