Thirty years on...
Hong Kong still remembers and mourns...
This not least because people in Mainland China, including
those who lost their children on that day, are not allowed to
Thirty
years ago today, the lives of thousands of young, idealist Chinese were
cut short by members of their country's military -- the so ironically
named, in this case, People's Liberation Army -- on the orders of their
country's Communist rulers. Also tragic was the loss to the country of hundreds of intellectuals, student activists and sympathetic government officials through exile
in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square Massacre of June 4th, 1989,
and the turning of many a dream of democracy, justice, freedom of speech
and such into nightmares.
In addition, in Hong Kong, there was the horrified realization that come July 1st, 1997,
the territory and its people would come under the rule of a repressive
regime that felt it was justified to get its military force to have its tanks run over unarmed civilians as well as get its soldiers to shoot to kill its own citizens. But rather than be cowed by Beijing, many Hong Kongers have responded by, among other things, making
a point to remember -- and publicly commemorate -- what the Mainland
Chinese authorities have tried very hard to get people to forget as well
as stop caring about and holding a candlelight vigil in Victoria Park every June 4th since.
What
with this year's being the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square
Massacre, hopes were high that attendance at this year's candlelight
vigil would be on the high side. In the weeks leading up to this
evening though, I had my doubts after discovering that -- in part
because this Friday is a public holiday (ironically, the
Tuen Ng Festival actually commemorates a Chinese patriot who commited
suicide after his kingdom was attacked, and many of its people massacred)
-- quite a few people I knew would be taking vacations away from Hong
Kong this week. In addition, I suspect that the Hong Kong Observatory's
forecast of rain for this evening caused some fair weather folks to
decide against going to Victoria Park at the last minute.
When I met up with the same friends I attended last year's June 4th commemorations
with in Causeway Bay this evening though, no drops of rain were
falling; and while some sections of ground were wet when got onto
Victoria Park's football pitches, they were dry long before the
ceremony's end tonight. Indeed, the most moisture I felt on my person
this evening came when, viewing a video of a representative of the Tiananmen Mothers,
tears welled up: particularly when she mentioned that, in the 30 years
since 1989, more than 50 of their members had passed away and she
thanked the people of Hong Kong for continuing to commemorate the events
of June 4th, 1989, and mourn the untimely deaths of their children.
Midway
through the event, I told my friends that I was disappointed that
the football pitches didn't seem as packed this evening as I had hoped
and worried that many Hong Kongers have stopped caring about what
happened in Mainland China all those years ago. (I frankly think this
would be far more likely than that their having turned pro-Beijing.) In
addition, I know of one localist friend who had opted to attend an alternative candlelight vigil over in Tsim Sha Tsui this same evening.
After leaving Victoria Park and returning home, however, I've learnt of latecomers (some of whom maybe decided to attend after this evening's thunderstorm warning was cancelled at 7pm) having had difficulty getting into the park because of the large crowds in the surrounding streets and heard of people being diverted to the grass lawn. I also saw with my own eyes people milling about on the sidewalk next to the football pitches (some with lit candles in hand) as well as still other people (also with candles in hand) sitting on the basketball courts next to the football pitches -- and realized that attendance this evening was actually pretty good (and according to the organizers, at a record high)!
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