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150,000 CANDLES CAN’T BE WRONG (21ST ANNIVERSARY EDITION)
Yesterday was the 21st anniversary of the June 4 Tianenman Square crackdown. And last night Hong Kong staged its annual candlelight vigil to let China and the rest of the world know that we haven’t forgotten.
With last year’s turnout being at record levels, there was talk as to whether that might be a fluke, since last year was the 20th anniversary of the crackdown and people tend to be drawn to nice round numbers.
Evidently not. Last night, 150,000 turned up AGAIN.
That’s impressive, especially when you put it in chart form. Like this.
It’s possible that the usual political shenanigans that precede June 4 kept interest alive. HK chief exec Donald Tsang didn’t say anything particularly stupid this year, but we did have the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China getting itself arrested for trying to erect two June 4 statues in front of Times Square, and Chinese University banning its student union from putting up similar statues on campus. The govt also deported one of the statue’s sculptors who tried to come to HK for the vigil. As usual, the govt claims the fact that he sculpted a June 4 statue had absolutely nothing to do with his deportation.
Well of course. Why would they lie about such a thing?
On the other hand, even the founder of the DAB – the biggest pro-Beijing political party in Hong Kong – is getting emotional about 6/4. Make of that what you will.
In any case, it’s encouraging to see that kind of a turnout – especially when remembering that an alarming number of people who actually live in mainland China have no idea that anything of significance ever happened on June 4, 1989.
Imagine that.
Don't you forget about me,
This is dF
With last year’s turnout being at record levels, there was talk as to whether that might be a fluke, since last year was the 20th anniversary of the crackdown and people tend to be drawn to nice round numbers.
Evidently not. Last night, 150,000 turned up AGAIN.
That’s impressive, especially when you put it in chart form. Like this.
It’s possible that the usual political shenanigans that precede June 4 kept interest alive. HK chief exec Donald Tsang didn’t say anything particularly stupid this year, but we did have the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China getting itself arrested for trying to erect two June 4 statues in front of Times Square, and Chinese University banning its student union from putting up similar statues on campus. The govt also deported one of the statue’s sculptors who tried to come to HK for the vigil. As usual, the govt claims the fact that he sculpted a June 4 statue had absolutely nothing to do with his deportation.
Well of course. Why would they lie about such a thing?
On the other hand, even the founder of the DAB – the biggest pro-Beijing political party in Hong Kong – is getting emotional about 6/4. Make of that what you will.
In any case, it’s encouraging to see that kind of a turnout – especially when remembering that an alarming number of people who actually live in mainland China have no idea that anything of significance ever happened on June 4, 1989.
Imagine that.
Don't you forget about me,
This is dF
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