June 4
June 4th, 2009
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. I was only in grade school in Hong Kong back then, but I can still remember the sense of disbelieve and revulsion that I felt as I saw the atrocities unfold on the news. A blog on a little comic is probably not the right venue for discussing an event of that magnitude, so all I’ll say here is I hope those brave souls who perished that night are resting in peace, and I hope that one day soon the Chinese people would progress to the point where we can honestly admit to, and atone for, this dark episode in our history.
June 12th, 2009 at 7:51 am
AMANDLA AWHETHU
June 12th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Amen to that.
June 21st, 2009 at 9:08 pm
On this subject… just finished Prisoner of the State, the Secret Journal of the Premier Zhao Ziyang (http://www.amazon.com/Prisoner-State-Secret-Journal-Premier/dp/1439149380/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245636234&sr=8-1) on my Kindle… an excellent read if you get the chance… an interesting insight into what had happened behind the scenes… i was finishing HS when the events of June 4th happened… and it pains me to hear that much of the events of June 4th has been lost in the streams of time…
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:19 am
Oh I ordered that book, can’t wait to get it. Apparently when the Chinese version first came out in Hong Kong it sold out almost right away. It’s true within China a lot of the younger generations don’t know about what happened on June 4th, we have the Communist government censors to thank for that. Outside of China though a lot of us still remember (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/world/asia/05beijing.html).
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:41 am
We’ve just celebrated the anniversary of our version: Soweto Day on June 16. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soweto_uprising
I say ‘celebrated’ because it was an unofficial day of mourning during the apartheid years (I always bunked school), but it is now a national holiday called “Youth Day”, dedicated to remembrance of the tragedy, but more to the uplifting of our youth.
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:01 pm
That’s encouraging to know. Good for you guys. Unfortunately it seems this type of thing happens more often than anyone would like. Makes you wonder what it is about our species that makes us so determined to beat the crap out of each other. This stuff that’s happening in Iran is giving me rather unpleasant flashbacks… I can only hope it doesn’t end badly.
October 15th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Flying to China (HK), I met a business man on the plane who was at Tiananmen Square, or so he said. He also said that the massacre never happened. One person died, and Western media used it for propaganda. Our take, he said, was completely fictional. Take it or leave it, but that was from the horse’s mouth! I have no idea what to believe.