A voice to die for

Couples with small children, mothers with babies, students, young people and a splattering of grey heads made up the over 150,000 people who stood at attention  on the evening of June 4, the 21st anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. We bowed three times, in the Chinese custom of respect for those who have died.

A small puff of balmy wind put my candle out. I gestured to the young man standing ramrod straight at my left side. He bowed respectfully, held out his candle, with his hands cupped around it in the formal Chinese gesture of offering a gift, while I relit my candle from his. We then bowed to each other and he resumed his attentive stance.

As the solemn part of the ceremony ended, Joe Chan said to me enthusiastically, “This is my seven-year-old nephew. This is his eighth time at the Tiananmen vigil and he is still only seven-years-old.” A 30-something-year-old man told me that he has been to every vigil since the fateful day on June 4 back in 1989. “My father brought me when I was a young boy,” he said with pride. “And I have not missed one since.”

At a prayer service prior to the vigil, Catholic university students led about 700 people in prayer, asking that the Chinese government would vindicate the memory of those who died and recognise their heroism and that of the survivors. Although many of those present were not born on the day the tanks rolled and mowed down the massed students, the president of the Catholic Students Foundation, Jackie Liu, said, “Young people have a responsibility to carry on telling the truth and building a better society.”

He stressed that it is faith that brings hope into the dark corners of our world. “The suffering of our compatriot students 21 years ago must be remembered, not in hatred or with a vengeful heart, but to bear witness to the freedom and human dignity that Jesus preached,” he said.

While the Beijing government alternately denies or vindicates its action in cutting down the innocent, unarmed students, video footage shown on Hong Kong television on the evening of 4 June 1989 shows tanks rolling into the masses of people that had built up in Tiananmen Square.

The roar of engines, together with the staccato crack of gunfire drowned the voice that named 186 students who had died during the massacre. It is estimated that 10,000 others died but their disfigured and lifeless bodies were hidden from the camera lens by the residue smoke from the tear gas and incendiary bombs.

Over 150,000 people again stood in candlelight out of respect for the dead and in the hope for a better and freer future.

While governments say it is time to forget the massacre, the people refuse to do so.

Fr Jim Mulroney SSC is a Columban Priest and Editor of The Sunday Examiner which is the English language paper of the Hong Kong diocese.

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