All Posts Tagged With: "Tiananmen"
Came and went
I think there will come a time when China’s ready to talk about the incident 19 years ago, which around these parts doesn’t need a name. But it certainly isn’t this year: June 4 came and went, and not a murmur about it from anyone on TVs or newspapers.
Every year when the calendar flips to June, the day hangs right there, above everyone’s brows, ready to dive back into everyone’s conscience. It makes you wonder: how long, exactly, does the government believe it can keep the topic off limits? At some point, some brave soul will speak out, and all the emotions pent up over these last two decades will spill forth in ecstatic relief. Maybe? Will it be containable, then?
From around the blogosphere:
- Peking Duck: a very moderate post.
- Found in China: “The people who were assembled in Tiananmen Square on this day in 1989 formed a cross section of Chinese society.”
- Time China Blog: “But to other Chinese, including many of the younger writers he lambastes… there’s no doubt that the Tiananmen protests do seem an awfully long time ago, practically ancient history.”
- Blogging for China: a poem.
- The China Beat (links within).
- Bokane: a picture.
Three days of national mourning
While China’s national mourning became official today, the death toll, as reported by Xinhua, climbed to 36,477.
The day began with the ceremonial raising of the flag at Tiananmen Square, followed by a very historic lowering to half-mast, which I believe is the first time they’ve done this for a civilian matter. So much for the blog Zhongnanhai’s earlier question. At 2:28 p.m., people were asked to observe three minutes of silence while air sirens, ship and vehicle horns blared. Not sure the symbolism behind the noise, but I was next to Tiananmen Square when this happened, surrounded by honking cars, and I can’t remember another time when chills ran up and down my spine for so long.
The first video shows the calm before the storm, and in the second the mayhem starts. Apologies for the poor quality, but hopefully this gives you an idea of the scene.
UPDATE, 9:53 p.m.: TPJ has TV-quality video of 2:28-2:31, and Paul of Zhongnanhai offers some very poignant words. I have nothing to add.
On the other hand, to the commenter Jay: why do you ask the Chinese to mourn a certain way, i.e. the Western way? It’s an ethnocentrist idea at best. You criticize the people for chanting “Go China” as if they were doing so because the government told them to. You complain about foreign satellite movie channels getting taken off the air — by the way, boohoo — only because you’ve been spoiled by the U.S. way of things. Your comment is — pardon the analogy — like if someone said after 9/11, “Why are they playing sports less than a week after? Why is President Bush insisting everyone go on a shopping spree?” The answer’s simple: because that’s how that country wants to heal. Quit meddling.
UPDATE 2, 12:40 a.m.: Is Jay a troller? He made a similar “Why does China have to make everything nationalistic” comment on a blog entry over at The Opposite End of China and got shouted down by a few angry voices.
Also, one more link to share: Tim Johnson of McClatchy Newspapers made it down to Beichuan recently, and the dispatch he filed is worth reading.
Here are some pictures from the afternoon and later in the evening, when life in Beijing returned to normal.
