On June 4, it’s easy to feel pride in Hong Kong and most of its people. Again this year, tens of thousands will gather in the city’s Victoria Park for a sad candlelight vigil in memory of one thousand-plus student protestors and civilians who died at the hands of the Chinese government and its army during the 1989 Beijing Massacre.
No matter how diligently the Chinese authorities and their collaborators try to wash away the stains and rewrite the history of that shameful bloodbath, Hong Kong people vividly remember. Once a year, with burning candles, tearful eyes and protest songs, they demonstrate the might of those memories.
People on the Chinese mainland risk severe punishments if they dare to commemorate the massacred students. So the memorial vigil in Hong Kong, home to “One Country, Two Systems”, gains immense importance. Those flickering candles in Victoria Park must represent the sentiments from across the nation.
While honoring the murdered students, Hong Kong’s annual vigil reminds the authorities in Beijing of some important lessons – that people crave freedom and admire those who strive for it, that passing time can’t erase government crimes, and that citizens remember which side represented decency and reason in 1989.
Former Chinese president Deng Xiaoping, who ordered the bloody crackdown, died eight years later. Probably the candles in Victoria Park cause the flames surrounding Deng in the afterlife to burn higher, ever hotter. Spirits of the murdered students may smile down from the heavens.
Hong Kong has no more important event – not the 1997 sovereignty change, not National Day, not the Chinese New Year. Everyone who can attend in Victoria Park on June 4 should make a point to be there.
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