Subdued but Not Silenced, Hong Kong Tries to Remember Tiananmen Massacre
By Vivian Wang, 6/4/21, New York Times

HONG KONG — They had been barred from holding their usual
memorial, but that did not mean they would not remember.

They gathered online, to watch a reading of a play about the
massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing on June 4,
1989. They prowled bookstores, on a scavenger hunt for
protest-themed postcards hidden in the stacks. They scribbled
the numbers 6 & 4 on their light switches, so that everyday
actions would become small acts of defiance.

Democracy advocates in Hong Kong are grasping for new ways to
sustain the memory of the Chinese military’s bloody crackdown
on the Tiananmen Square protests, under a govt increasingly
bent on repressing dissent & free expression. The city’s
authorities, for the 2nd year running, banned a candlelight
vigil in Victoria Park in Hong Kong, warning that attendance
could lead to 5 years’ imprisonment.

Though the police sealed off the park on Friday afternoon,
small crowds tried to gather on its peripheries, some bearing
candles & others simply shining the flashlights from their
cellphones. A few people staged one-person protests: A man
played a popular Cantonese song promising eventual victory
from a speaker in his backpack, while a young woman simply
stood a short distance away from the police cordon line reading
a pamphlet featuring the photos of Chinese dissidents.

Still, phalanxes of police officers, who far outnumbered the
onlookers, successfully dispersed the crowd just after 8 pm,
the previously scheduled time of the vigil.

The annual vigil, which for decades drew tens of thousands
of people, has long been crucial to public memory of the
1989 killings. It was the only large-scale memorial to the
massacre on Chinese-controlled soil, as Beijing has silenced
any commemorations in the mainland.

But it also has huge significance for Hong Kong’s present.
As the city’s own democracy movement falters, whether & how
long residents continue to commemorate Tiananmen has become
a litmus test for their will to keep fighting for their rights.

“Hong Kong civil society has been quiet for so long already
under the fear of the national security law,” said Chow Hang
Tung, the vice-chairwoman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support
of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the activist group
that organizes the vigil. This year, its organizers called off
the event but encouraged people to light candles independently
in public places.

“If you can step out now & take this one small step & see
each other,” Ms. Chow said in an interview this week,
“I think this will boost the movement.”

Early Friday morning, the Hong Kong police arrested Ms. Chow
& accused her of publicizing an unauthorized assembly.

Still, in the days before the anniversary, several democracy
groups had appeared to heed the call to remember. They
organized film screenings & street booths, teach-ins & church
services, to show that the ban wouldn't have its intended effect.

“For various reasons, we may not be able to speak clearly,
but we must not forget history,” a branch of the Hong Kong
Catholic Diocese wrote on Facebook.

The promise of perseverance is also laced with anxiety. Some
of the city’s most prominent pro-democracy leaders were
arrested or jailed for attending last year’s banned vigil.
With the new national security law in the backdrop, the
authorities have targeted even peaceful protest against
Beijing.

The law grants Beijing broad powers to crack down on
a variety of political crimes, including separatism
and collusion.

On Sunday, a 65-year-old activist, Alexandra Wong, was
arrested after a solo demonstration in which she held a
placard referring to June 4. The police said she was
suspected of unauthorized assembly & inciting others to
participate; a police spokeswoman declined to answer how
one person could constitute an assembly. (Ms. Wong was
later released.)

The significance of the annual vigil comes from Hong Kong’s
unique position: The territory is part of China but was
promised civil liberties unheard of in the mainland after
its return from British colonial control.

In the mainland, the Chi-Comm Party has enforced widespread
public amnesia of the 1989 killings, which left hundreds,
if not thousands dead. But in Hong Kong, the massacre was
a watershed moment in the city’s political consciousness,
intensifying fear about Chinese control. For 30 years
afterward, the Victoria Park vigil was a marquee event on
many Hong Kongers’ calendars.

The vigil also came to signify more than the historical
event itself, as it became a barometer of public sentiment
toward the govt. Interest had ebbed in recent years among
some young people, who increasingly rejected the mainland
& distanced themselves from its tragedies. But in times of
political turmoil, turnout surged, including in 2019, when
anti-govt sentiment was on the verge of erupting into mass
protests.

Then, in 2020, the govt banned the vigil for the first time,
citing public health concerns during the pandemic. Thousands
turned out anyway.

The reason for this year’s ban was ostensibly public health
again. But the national security law, which went into force
last June 30, looms large over the anniversary.

Hong Kongers — who have become adept at finding new ways
to express themselves under the crackdown — have sought to
maximize the limited space that remains.

Stage 64, a nonprofit theater group, has streamed readings
& plays on Facebook Live this week, including “May 35” — an
imaginary date that would fall on the day of June 4, in a
nod to how the date is censored on Chinese social media.
Three independent bookshops announced a scavenger hunt for
political comics, which they said would be scattered among
their shelves.

In a column in a local newspaper, an artist suggested that
Hong Kongers write 6 & 4 on their light switches as a
replacement for lighting a candle in Victoria Park. “Think
of the daily act of turning on & off the lights as a ritual,
& connect your current life to history,” the artist, Tozer
Pak, wrote.

Others have tried to preserve as much of the usual rituals
as possible. Several prominent democracy groups have
organized booths on the streets, as they have done for
decades, to hand out candles & fliers promising never
to forget Tiananmen.

Ms. Chow, of the Hong Kong Alliance, had said before her
arrest that she still planned to go to the park in her
personal capacity. “It’s a public park, it’s open, & I just
want to do my commemoration there,” she said. “Why is that
against the law?”

But the space for these alternative commemorations is shrinking.

Hong Kong’s education secretary said on Sat that teachers
should consider “curriculum objectives” when deciding whether
to cover the events of June 4. Several teachers have already
said they won’t.

Officials on Wed accused a long-running museum about June 4
of operating without a license, leading organizers to
temporarily shutter it.

And over the past week, hecklers harassed activists at two
street booths, punching one volunteer, acc. to the League
of Social Democrats, the booths’ organizers. The Hong Kong
police confirmed they had arrested one man for assault.

“I think the whole environment makes them think it is easier
to resort to violence, because they think the govt & the
police are on their side,” Chan Po Ying, a leader of the
League, said of pro-govt residents.

The league also advised supporters to stay away from the
booth it planned to set up near Victoria Park on Friday,
Ms. Chan said, to avoid unnecessary risk.

The precautions have left many pro-democracy Hong Kongers
feeling that the city is increasingly indistinguishable
from the mainland. But others have tried to emphasize the
differences.

Rowena He, a history prof at the Chinese Univ of Hong Kong
who studies June 4, said she was planning to attend a
church service on Friday. Some students had suggested a
private gathering, she said. But that reminded her of her
own teenage years in the mainland, in the 90s, when she
paid tribute to the victims of the massacre in secret,
with shuttered windows and the lights turned off.

“In Hong Kong, I can still go out to mourn with the rest
of the people,” she said.

“Maybe next year, when we can’t even go to church, maybe
that’ll be the only option,” she said of a private vigil.
“I don’t want to do that yet.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/04/world/asia/china-tiananmen-massacre.html

On Wednesday, June 9, 2021 at 5:29:14 PM UTC-4, David P. wrote:
> Subdued but Not Silenced, Hong Kong Tries to Remember Tiananmen Massacre
> By Vivian Wang, 6/4/21, New York Times
>
> HONG KONG — They had been barred from holding their usual
> memorial, but that did not mean they would not remember.
>
> They gathered online, to watch a reading of a play about the
> massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing on June 4,
> 1989. They prowled bookstores, on a scavenger hunt for
> protest-themed postcards hidden in the stacks. They scribbled
> the numbers 6 & 4 on their light switches, so that everyday
> actions would become small acts of defiance.
>
> Democracy advocates in Hong Kong are grasping for new ways to
> sustain the memory of the Chinese military’s bloody crackdown
> on the Tiananmen Square protests, under a govt increasingly
> bent on repressing dissent & free expression. The city’s
> authorities, for the 2nd year running, banned a candlelight
> vigil in Victoria Park in Hong Kong, warning that attendance
> could lead to 5 years’ imprisonment.
>
> Though the police sealed off the park on Friday afternoon,
> small crowds tried to gather on its peripheries, some bearing
> candles & others simply shining the flashlights from their
> cellphones. A few people staged one-person protests: A man
> played a popular Cantonese song promising eventual victory
> from a speaker in his backpack, while a young woman simply
> stood a short distance away from the police cordon line reading
> a pamphlet featuring the photos of Chinese dissidents.
>
> Still, phalanxes of police officers, who far outnumbered the
> onlookers, successfully dispersed the crowd just after 8 pm,
> the previously scheduled time of the vigil.
>
> The annual vigil, which for decades drew tens of thousands
> of people, has long been crucial to public memory of the
> 1989 killings. It was the only large-scale memorial to the
> massacre on Chinese-controlled soil, as Beijing has silenced
> any commemorations in the mainland.
>
> But it also has huge significance for Hong Kong’s present.
> As the city’s own democracy movement falters, whether & how
> long residents continue to commemorate Tiananmen has become
> a litmus test for their will to keep fighting for their rights.
>
> “Hong Kong civil society has been quiet for so long already
> under the fear of the national security law,” said Chow Hang
> Tung, the vice-chairwoman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support
> of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the activist group
> that organizes the vigil. This year, its organizers called off
> the event but encouraged people to light candles independently
> in public places.
>
> “If you can step out now & take this one small step & see
> each other,” Ms. Chow said in an interview this week,
> “I think this will boost the movement.”
>
> Early Friday morning, the Hong Kong police arrested Ms. Chow
> & accused her of publicizing an unauthorized assembly.
>
> Still, in the days before the anniversary, several democracy
> groups had appeared to heed the call to remember. They
> organized film screenings & street booths, teach-ins & church
> services, to show that the ban wouldn't have its intended effect.
>
> “For various reasons, we may not be able to speak clearly,
> but we must not forget history,” a branch of the Hong Kong
> Catholic Diocese wrote on Facebook.
>
> The promise of perseverance is also laced with anxiety. Some
> of the city’s most prominent pro-democracy leaders were
> arrested or jailed for attending last year’s banned vigil.
> With the new national security law in the backdrop, the
> authorities have targeted even peaceful protest against
> Beijing.
>
> The law grants Beijing broad powers to crack down on
> a variety of political crimes, including separatism
> and collusion.
>
> On Sunday, a 65-year-old activist, Alexandra Wong, was
> arrested after a solo demonstration in which she held a
> placard referring to June 4. The police said she was
> suspected of unauthorized assembly & inciting others to
> participate; a police spokeswoman declined to answer how
> one person could constitute an assembly. (Ms. Wong was
> later released.)
>
> The significance of the annual vigil comes from Hong Kong’s
> unique position: The territory is part of China but was
> promised civil liberties unheard of in the mainland after
> its return from British colonial control.
>
> In the mainland, the Chi-Comm Party has enforced widespread
> public amnesia of the 1989 killings, which left hundreds,
> if not thousands dead. But in Hong Kong, the massacre was
> a watershed moment in the city’s political consciousness,
> intensifying fear about Chinese control. For 30 years
> afterward, the Victoria Park vigil was a marquee event on
> many Hong Kongers’ calendars.
>
> The vigil also came to signify more than the historical
> event itself, as it became a barometer of public sentiment
> toward the govt. Interest had ebbed in recent years among
> some young people, who increasingly rejected the mainland
> & distanced themselves from its tragedies. But in times of
> political turmoil, turnout surged, including in 2019, when
> anti-govt sentiment was on the verge of erupting into mass
> protests.
>
> Then, in 2020, the govt banned the vigil for the first time,
> citing public health concerns during the pandemic. Thousands
> turned out anyway.
>
> The reason for this year’s ban was ostensibly public health
> again. But the national security law, which went into force
> last June 30, looms large over the anniversary.
>
> Hong Kongers — who have become adept at finding new ways
> to express themselves under the crackdown — have sought to
> maximize the limited space that remains.
>
> Stage 64, a nonprofit theater group, has streamed readings
> & plays on Facebook Live this week, including “May 35” — an
> imaginary date that would fall on the day of June 4, in a
> nod to how the date is censored on Chinese social media.
> Three independent bookshops announced a scavenger hunt for
> political comics, which they said would be scattered among
> their shelves.
>
> In a column in a local newspaper, an artist suggested that
> Hong Kongers write 6 & 4 on their light switches as a
> replacement for lighting a candle in Victoria Park. “Think
> of the daily act of turning on & off the lights as a ritual,
> & connect your current life to history,” the artist, Tozer
> Pak, wrote.
>
> Others have tried to preserve as much of the usual rituals
> as possible. Several prominent democracy groups have
> organized booths on the streets, as they have done for
> decades, to hand out candles & fliers promising never
> to forget Tiananmen.
>
> Ms. Chow, of the Hong Kong Alliance, had said before her
> arrest that she still planned to go to the park in her
> personal capacity. “It’s a public park, it’s open, & I just
> want to do my commemoration there,” she said. “Why is that
> against the law?”
>
> But the space for these alternative commemorations is shrinking.
>
> Hong Kong’s education secretary said on Sat that teachers
> should consider “curriculum objectives” when deciding whether
> to cover the events of June 4. Several teachers have already
> said they won’t.
>
> Officials on Wed accused a long-running museum about June 4
> of operating without a license, leading organizers to
> temporarily shutter it.
>
> And over the past week, hecklers harassed activists at two
> street booths, punching one volunteer, acc. to the League
> of Social Democrats, the booths’ organizers. The Hong Kong
> police confirmed they had arrested one man for assault.
>
> “I think the whole environment makes them think it is easier
> to resort to violence, because they think the govt & the
> police are on their side,” Chan Po Ying, a leader of the
> League, said of pro-govt residents.
>
> The league also advised supporters to stay away from the
> booth it planned to set up near Victoria Park on Friday,
> Ms. Chan said, to avoid unnecessary risk.
>
> The precautions have left many pro-democracy Hong Kongers
> feeling that the city is increasingly indistinguishable
> from the mainland. But others have tried to emphasize the
> differences.
>
> Rowena He, a history prof at the Chinese Univ of Hong Kong
> who studies June 4, said she was planning to attend a
> church service on Friday. Some students had suggested a
> private gathering, she said. But that reminded her of her
> own teenage years in the mainland, in the 90s, when she
> paid tribute to the victims of the massacre in secret,
> with shuttered windows and the lights turned off.
>
> “In Hong Kong, I can still go out to mourn with the rest
> of the people,” she said.
>
> “Maybe next year, when we can’t even go to church, maybe
> that’ll be the only option,” she said of a private vigil.
> “I don’t want to do that yet.”
>
> https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/04/world/asia/china-tiananmen-massacre.html