Forgetting June 4th

In a year fraught with sensitive Chinese anniversaries, June 4th is by far the most resonant in the United States. I was eight years old when Hu Yaobang, a former Communist Party secretary and advocate of political reform that had fallen from grace a year earlier, died. Students gathered in Tiananmen to mourn and stayed to protest. I remember hearing about hunger strikes and not knowing what they were. I remember watching on the news as the June 4th crackdown proceeded and protesters fled the capital city. In Shanghai, none of my Chinese friends share these memories.

June 4th, for many Shanghainese people my age, carries only passing significance. School textbooks dedicate short passages to a student gathering that got out of control. The memory gap is so definite that one friend, after helping me translate an old recording on the topic, turned to me in shock and asked, "People got shot?" She came back a few days later, after doing some research and added, "Deng Xiaoping must not have known it was happening."

This blank spot in history is eerie when you run into it in friends. It has also been well talked-over on the internet leading up to the 20th anniversary of the crackdown. Yu Hua, the Beijing-based author of To Live and Brothers, wrote about his experience during Tiananmen Square in a recent NYT Op-Ed, describing the news coverage in the days that followed.

Every day the television repeatedly broadcast shots of students on the wanted list being taken into custody. Far from home, in my cheerless hotel room, I saw the despairing looks on the faces of the captured students and heard the crowing of the news announcers, and a chill went down my spine.

Then one day, the picture on my TV screen changed completely. The images of detained suspects were replaced by scenes of prosperity throughout the motherland. The announcer switched from passionately denouncing the crimes of the captured students to cheerfully lauding our nation's progress.

After this, the government was able, for many people, to simply erase the incident. The picture of tanks rolling down city streets is really not a part of the image China has been crafting in the last 20 years. So, censored in the media and left out of official histories, there has been little to keep memory of Tiananmen Square going. On top of that, times have changed so quickly, that a group of student protestors in 1989 hardly seem relevant to the lives of China's younger generations -- kids born after 1980 who enjoy a greatly expanded set of freedoms.

Media silence went a long way in dulling the memory of June 4th in China. Conversely, the day has earned infamy in the U.S. partly due to a twist of media fate. A visit from Gorbachev coincided with the student protests and many foreign journalists found that they had arrived in Beijing for one story and stumbled upon another. They stayed on after Gorbachev left and were there to film and photograph the incident. It's worth mentioning that China was not the only country cracking down on protestors in 1989. At a China-focused blog called the Black and White Cat, one recent post pointed out that a crackdown in Venezuela the same year has been largely forgotten in the West.

In China, there have been calls for the Chinese government to shine light on the events of June 4th, and recently the party-affilliated Global Times let loose an article on the changing intellectual climate that touched on the 1989 incident. "After 1989, intellectuals became "more moderate and rational," the article quotes Zhang Liping, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as saying. "People realized that China would not change overnight."

In general, however, officials have remained stubbornly tight-lipped. Their silence belies the continuing significance of Tiananmen, even in the face of mass forgetfulness. At the China Media Project, David Bandurski points out that "stability preservation" has become the buzzword of 2009 in Mainland China. "Clearly, officials at every level are under the strictest orders to take the anniversary very seriously," he writes, looking at a Beijing Daily article about Liu Qi, Beijing's party secretary, conducting an inspection of "stability preservation work" around Peking University and Tiananmen Square.

"One must wonder," Bandurski says. "Why is a generation of ostensibly indifferent university students of such concern to Beijing's party secretary?"

Comments

[TessClearman]

The following statement written by artist Tim Holmes regarding his involvement demonstrates the way one individual chose to help contribute in a lasting creative memorable way toward peace. www.timholmesstudio.com

When the tanks rumbled through Tiananmen Square, it wasn't just the dissident students who suffered. We all joined hearts in the Chinese students' movement for freedom. When I was asked by the China Information Center (formed by Chinese dissident students who survived the massacre and escaped to the U.S) contacted me to create a sculpture, I based my design for “China Peace” on the Chinese characters of the ts'ao-shu, or "grass" calligraphy style expressing the lust for freedom most gracefully.

From the front one can make out the characters for peace, From the side, the characters become a leaping figure, expressing the Chinese quest for liberty within the context of the desire of all living beings to breathe free.

For me, this was an extraordinary opportunity to use my art to help those engaged in one of the largest struggles for human rights in the 20th century.

Castings of China Peace were sold to fund "the fax revolution", in which photos of the massacre were randomly faxed to numbers throughout China to let the Chinese people know what really happened. Sculptures were also awarded to:
Li Lu, deputy leader of the Chinese Pro Democracy movement of Tiananmen Square, listed on the Chinese government's "most wanted" list,
Vaclev Havel, President of the Czech Republic,
Coretta Scott King

[CaliJim]

Part 2 of the post above regarding my boycott of Chinese made goods.

The Chinese government has shown itself to be belligerent, totalitarian and completely indifferent to human rights...both for the citizens of other countries and their own. When a country shoots down unarmed protesters in full view of the world, then justifies it and eventually denies it happened, people who believe in freedom and human rights MUST TAKE A STAND. Are those of you reading this article going to just talk about how bad this was (and is) or are you going to actually take some kind of action to protest it?

BOYCOTT CHINESE MADE GOODS! If not because of things like Tiananmen, forcing down a US military plane in international air space, illegally holding and interrogating the crew (and threatening us if we responded), the subjugation of Tibet and other hostile actions, then do it because of the shoddy products that contain lead and other toxins that they knowingly put in them.

Or, shrug, roll over and be more interested in saving a buck or two than in doing what's right.
Your choice.

[Amalek]

The China you are so angry about no longer exists. It was 20 years ago. The majority of Chinese were not born or were too young to have any recollection of it. Ask anyone under 35 in the US about Kent State and see if they know anything about it.

I know you hate China, but a visit to the modern China would really open your eyes. You will be amazed at how this government has somehow brainwashed 1.3 billion people to believe that their government is actually looking out for their interests.

[IsaacKuo]

I'm disappointed that people dare make the Kent State comparison. Besides the differences in scale and significance, the US government does not suppress open information and discussion of Kent State. There are no political prisoners related to Kent State languishing in prisons. In contrast, the PRC has suppressed even talking about Tiananmen, including arrests. This occurs even to this day.

Don't pretend this is just ancient history, because PRC suppression, arrests, and imprisonments over Tiananmen continue to this day.

As for your specific comparison. Really? Ask anyone under 35 about Kent State? Since that took place 39 years ago, I suppose the equivalent for Tiananmen would be asking anyone under 16 about Tiananmen. Really? Kids under 16? That's your argument?

Ridiculous. The mothers of the victims are still alive. They at least deserve the truth.

[CaliJim]

I had been opposed to China's totalitarian government and total lack of respect for human rights and the law prior to Tiananmen Square. Afterward, I started boycotting Chinese made goods and still do so, today...although it's gotten harder and harder to do, as more and more products are almost exclusively manufactured in China. For my most recent pair of shoes, I had to go to four separate stores before I could find some not made in China.

From the beginning, I've made a point of finding the store manager and telling them I'm not buying the item because it's made in China...not because I don't like it or it's too expensive. I'll tell them that I would have paid more for an item that was NOT made in China, but by depriving me of that choice, they lost the sale.

The most common response when I started this was a look from the manager saying "What are you...some kind of nut?" Over the years, I've explained my position to my family and friends, and now many of them do the same thing. The most common response I get when I refuse to buy something now is for the manager to say "You know, I hear that a lot." My hope is that my little protest action is at least partially responsible for that change in response and the increase in people refusing to by things and sending their money to support the Chinese government.

[BuddhaStar]

Do you remember the Kent State Massacre? 4 protesters were killed and 16 people injured...shot by National Guard troops. Next year on May 4th will be the 40 year anniversary. Do the student textbooks mention this event? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings

Ron Paul says "While we certainly do not condone government suppression of individual rights and liberties wherever they may occur, why are we not investigating these abuses closer to home and within our jurisdiction? It seems the House is not interested in investigating allegations that US government officials and employees approved and practiced torture against detainees. Where is the Congressional investigation of the US-operated “secret prisons” overseas? What about the administration’s assertion of the right to detain individuals indefinitely without trial? It may be easier to point out the abuses and shortcomings of governments overseas than to address government abuses here at home, but we have the constitutional obligation to exercise our oversight authority in such matters. I strongly believe that addressing these current issues would be a better use of our time than once again condemning China for an event that took place some 20 years ago."

[curiousdwk]

Thank you for bringing to attention that the Kent State Massacre was just as wrong as Tianaman Square. And how wrong we are to not include that in our educational system. I have talked to several college students who have never heard of Kent State Massacre.

Once I feel that we have assumed our share of shame, then I might consider what a shame other societies are worthy of.

[IsaacKuo]

The comparison is ridiculous. There is no government suppression of discussion about the Kent State massacre.

It's crazy to make the comparison while using a WIKIPEDIA link! I mean, really! If it's on wikipedia, then it's openly available.

[IsaacKuo]

The Tiananmen Square incident took place 20 years ago. The suppression of Tiananmen protestors, the hiding of the truth from the families of the victims, the censorship of discussion about Tiananmen...that has continued to this day.

[LMPE]

Here's an analogous situation.

Scottsboro, Alabama, became world famous in the 1930s. Several young African-American men were put on trial for supposedly attacking a group of white people on a train (all based on flimsy evidence). H.G. Wells, Thomas Mann and Albert Einstein wrote letters on their behalf. By the time that all the African-American men got exonerated, they had served a combined total of more than 100 years for a crime that NEVER TOOK PLACE. The case served to show the impossible legal situation that blacks faced in the US

And so what does Scottsboro say about this? Absolutely nothing. There stands not a single placard to show the case, there is not a single sign. The town totally denies that the case ever happened.

Similarly, a slave revolt in Laplace, Louisiana, was big news in 1811. The government sent in troops to crush the revolt. A witness called it "open season on black people". Today, Laplace totally suppresses any memory of it.

In conclusion, we're not the ones indebted to China. They copied us!

[BannedNBoston]

The Commie Party sells organs to people $100,000 for a kidney.
Thats how they make money and increase their Swiss bank accounts.

[BuddhaStar]

So the Commies are Capitalist???

Under Capitalism, man exploits man. Under Communism, it's the opposite.

[argyle]

They are of such concern because the Party understands that ultimately it's rule has no basis in legitimacy other than that which comes from the barrel of a gun.