![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogWe’re just wrapping up a three-day weekend here in the HK. Today was the Tuen Ng Festival, a.k.a. the Dragon Boat Festival, which means we had races all day.
And Saturday was the 22nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
So here’s what Victoria Park in Hong Kong looked like that night:
That’s roughly 150,000 people, the third year in a row they’ve had numbers that high. Which is impressive even when you figure that the death of Szeto Wah (chairman of The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, a.k.a. the organization that holds these vigils) earlier this year helped keep attendance high.
But of course, there’s more to it than that – such as the recent spectacles of China jailing Ai Weiwei for tweeting Dangerous Ideas (but arresting him for “economic crimes” to prove they’re all about free speech) and Zhao Linhai for “inciting social disorder” by having the audacity to set up a web site containing information for parents whose kids were poisoned by milk loaded with industrial chemicals to help them seek compensation from the dairy companies responsible.
And so on.
Not that everyone in Hong Kong is suddenly in activist mode. But what with the Jasmine Revolution making Beijing nervous and sending them into knee-jerk repression mode (wouldn’t want the citizens getting any funny ideas, would we, B.J.?) – as well as the determination by some Arab govts to handle protesters the way Beijing ultimately did 22 years ago – it’s hard not to be reminded of what the Tiananmen demonstrations were about in the first place.
Which is good. Because it's always possible to forget. Don't think it isn't.
Remember,
This is dF
And Saturday was the 22nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
So here’s what Victoria Park in Hong Kong looked like that night:
That’s roughly 150,000 people, the third year in a row they’ve had numbers that high. Which is impressive even when you figure that the death of Szeto Wah (chairman of The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, a.k.a. the organization that holds these vigils) earlier this year helped keep attendance high.
But of course, there’s more to it than that – such as the recent spectacles of China jailing Ai Weiwei for tweeting Dangerous Ideas (but arresting him for “economic crimes” to prove they’re all about free speech) and Zhao Linhai for “inciting social disorder” by having the audacity to set up a web site containing information for parents whose kids were poisoned by milk loaded with industrial chemicals to help them seek compensation from the dairy companies responsible.
And so on.
Not that everyone in Hong Kong is suddenly in activist mode. But what with the Jasmine Revolution making Beijing nervous and sending them into knee-jerk repression mode (wouldn’t want the citizens getting any funny ideas, would we, B.J.?) – as well as the determination by some Arab govts to handle protesters the way Beijing ultimately did 22 years ago – it’s hard not to be reminded of what the Tiananmen demonstrations were about in the first place.
Which is good. Because it's always possible to forget. Don't think it isn't.
Remember,
This is dF
