For decades, Hong Kong was the only place in China where the victims of the 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy activists at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square could be publicly commemorated. in a candlelight vigil. This year, Hong Kong is notable for all the ways it is working to forget the 1989 massacre.
In the days leading up to the June 4 celebration on Sunday, even small shops displaying items alluding to the persecution were closely monitored, visited by police multiple times. Over the weekend, thousands of police patrolled the streets of the Causeway Bay district, which often holds vigils, and set up tents to search people suspected of trying to destroy the funeral. They arrested four people for “act with rebellious intentions,” and arrested four others.
Zhou Fengsuo, a student leader in the anti-Tiananmen movement, said that Hong Kong is now under the same “absolutist rule” as the mainland.
“Back in 1989, we didn’t realize the mission of a democratic China,” said Zhou, now executive director of Human Rights in China, an advocacy group in New York. “Thereafter, the Hong Kong protests faced similar suppression, the same defamation and the erasure of memory.”
In 1989, the pro-democracy movement in China gained great support from Hong Kong, then a British colony. After the Chinese military dispersed the student protesters who occupied Tiananmen Square, killing hundreds and possibly thousands, several student leaders in Beijing were moved to safety via Hong Kong. Kong.
On June 4 every year for three decades, Victoria Park in Hong Kong is where the Tiananmen Mothers, a group representing victims of the massacre, can publicly express their grief and expressed hope for a freer China. Gatherings have drawn huge crowds of tens of thousands of people, even over the past decade, some the city’s young generation activists have questioned the relevance of the mainland-centric movement as they adopt a distinct Hong Kong identity.
But since China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020, almost all forms of dissent have been criminalized in the city. Pro-democracy and anti-government protests like those that roiled the city in 2019 have been quelled.
Authorities have paid special attention to commemorating the Tiananmen massacre. They raided a museum dedicated to it, removed books about the persecution from libraries, and the organizers of the vigil were jailed.
For the past two years, authorities have invoked pandemic restrictions to ban any public memorialization of the persecution. Those Covid restrictions were lifted this year, but instead of celebrating Tiananmen, Victoria Park was occupied by a trade fair. The fair was organized by pro-Beijing groups to celebrate Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule in 1997, a month before that celebration.
The jailing of memorial organizers has raised questions about whether Hong Kong will ever allow residents to peacefully mourn the victims of the Tiananmen massacre.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee avoided giving a clear answer, saying only that “people should act according to the law and think about what they do, to be prepared to face the consequences”.
But Saturday’s arrests leave little doubt. Among those arrested were Lau Ka-yee, of the Tiananmen Mothers, and Kwan Chun-pong, a former vigilante volunteer; they carried notes saying that they were on hunger strike as personal mourners. Sanmu Chan, a performer, shouted “Hong Kongers, fear not! Don’t forget June 4th,” as a group of officers took him away. Police also arrested a man and a woman wearing chrysanthemums and white clothes, a symbol of mourning.
Several others were taken away by police on Sunday, including Chan Po-ying, a labor activist; Mak Yin-ting, former president of the journalists’ association; and Alexandra Wong, better known as “paternal grandmother“ a familiar figure in many protests, often waving British flags.
On the eve of the celebration, the authorities aimed for the smallest gestures of remembrance.
Debby Chan, a former pro-democracy county official, posted several photos on social media of the electric candles she displayed in her grocery store last Tuesday. She said police and representatives of three different government agencies visited her several times because of it. But she was not discouraged.
“The more we are not allowed to talk about it, the more they make these moves, the more I feel it is the right thing to do,” she said in a phone interview.
For Lit Ming Wai, a playwright, Hong Kong has a responsibility to preserve and pass on the memory of the persecution, especially when it has been distorted and then deleted elsewhere in China.
In 2009, she co-founded a community drama group called Stage 64, which aims to make the history of June 4 more accessible to young people in Hong Kong. The troupe’s most famous play is titled “May 35” — an euphemism for June 4 that some people in the mainland use to refer to the persecution.
“When we talk about June 4, we don’t just think about the Tiananmen Mothers. Moreover, we are thinking of Hong Kong,” said Ms. Lit, who was the MC at the June 4 vigils from 2004 to 2014.
That play can no longer be performed in Hong Kong without the risk of prosecution. Now based in the UK, Ms. Lit is looking to take the play abroad. The play was originally performed in Cantonese, and made its Mandarin debut in Taipei on Friday.
Mr. Zhou, the former leader of Tiananmen, said: “For us, the survivors of Tiananmen, to lose Hong Kong — the very important place that sheltered history and truth — is very painful. pain. Following the raid and forced closure of a Hong Kong museum on June 4 in 2021, Mr. Chu donated some Tiananmen artifacts to a newly established permanent exhibition in New York, including a bloodstained banner, a tent, and a screenwriter. Part of it is devoted to Hong Kong.
He added that he is involved in the wave of Hong Kong dissidents who have fled the city: the pain of exile and their struggle to keep the movement alive when far away. hometown. But their presence abroad has helped preserve the memory of persecution elsewhere, he said.
“On the other hand, many Hong Kongers are now enthusiastically participating in June 4 activities around the world, tripling attendance in some places,” he said. “Many cities are now starting to celebrate June 4 because of the arrival of Hong Kongers.”
