Memories in Hong Kong of the Tiananmen Square massacre have been largely suppressed as authorities seek to quell repression against student protesters in a city that usually holds the largest annual vigil in China.
The anniversary is one of the most sensitive events for the Chinese authorities, discussing demonstrations censored on the continent and survivors or families of victims routinely detained or interrogated.
Hong Kong hosted the world’s largest annual celebration every June 4, until it was banned in 2020, a year after pro-democracy protests engulfed Chinese territory. Authorities later suppressed the opposition, and Beijing expanded its control over the quasi-autonomous city.
Officials said the ban two years ago was to curb the coronavirus pandemic, but critics accused the government of using the health crisis as a pretext to quell dissent.
Leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in support of China’s patriotic democratic movements, the group that traditionally organizes the vigil, have been arrested and many are in prison. Chow Hang-tung, one of the prison’s organizers, often used his appearances in court to evoke memories of the massacre.
Authorities closed Victoria Park this year, where tens of thousands of residents usually light candles to mark the event, from Friday night to early Sunday morning.
Some residents have found subtle ways to commemorate the massacre.
The Catholic Church has been celebrating the event with special Masses for more than three decades, but was stung by the arrest of Cardinal Zen, its former high priest, last month. He was accused of failing to register a fund set up to support the payment of legal and medical fees to protesters in 2019. Cardinal Zen denied the allegations.
Tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents gathered in 2014 to light candles in the biggest annual commemoration of the Tiananmen Square massacre on Chinese soil © AP
At a morning service in Kowloon on Saturday, about 30 people prayed for those “who died for justice,” although the Catholic diocese canceled services to commemorate the massacre.
“Public monuments may disappear this year, but what I remember in my heart, you can’t make it disappear,” said one of the participants.
A small number of people also tried to mark the massacre in the breakaway Victoria Park, despite the increased police presence. Some raised electronic candles and cell phone lights, saying they wanted to “keep the memory alive.”
Hong Kong students are also trying to commemorate the protests. Universities have been the focus of Beijing’s attempts to destroy support for pro-democracy protests in 2019, and long-standing monuments to the Tiananmen Square massacre on campus have been removed.
The Pillar of Shame, an eight-meter sculpture by Danish artist Jens Galshiot that has been on display at the University of Hong Kong since 1997, was dismantled last December.
Recommended
The “Goddess of Democracy” statue at Hong Kong University in China, a replica of a monument erected by student protesters in Tiananmen Square, was removed the same month.
CUHK students created small copies of the missing artwork this week and hid it around campus so others could find it before the event ended due to “growing risks,” organizers said.
In Macau, one of the only other parts of China where memorial events are being held until they are banned by 2020, no public commemorations will be held after authorities said last year’s events could be “subversive.”
The Tiananmen Square vigils were planned abroad, including in London and Taiwan, this weekend.
Add Comment