1989 feels like ancient history. A bitch was in high school and full of drama. In my mind and in that time my worries were HUGE, my life was beyond fucked up and no one could possibly feel as desperate and freaked out as my wee bitch ass. Oh, to be young and self obsessed again…
And then it was June…1989…and news began to filter through that something was happening in China…something happening in Tiananmen Square. School was over for the summer break and this bitch was already bored and had planted myself in front of the television in desperation.
Something was happening in China.
Students, intellectuals and labor activists had been demonstrating for months and were camped in Tiananmen Square. A bitch was transfixed…already seduced by the power of protest and the activist life. My self pity and frustration about teen powerlessness was watered down by thoughts of rebellion, demonstration and speaking truth to power…shifting power…reclaiming individual power by any means...through protest.
Something was happening in Tiananmen Square …live and for all to see…and there was no way they would show something bad, so it was all good and freedom was breaking out everywhere and the students were leading the way. Something wonderful was happening, right?
This bitch watched religiously with thoughts of Selma, Montgomery and Birmingham dancing in my mind.
See!
This is how it happens! This is how social change goes down.
Something was happening in Tiananmen Square.
June 4, 1989…something happened in China…something happened in Tiananmen Square.
Something happened in China when protestors died in Tiananmen Square. We do not have the benefit of ignorance because we were witness to this…live and on television for all to see. Ratings…murder…breathless anchors…screams and gunshots…and then that horrible black screen…the shocking silence…followed by the nothing that was something.
Tiananmen Square lingered and unsettled and silently indicted. Later, as a bitch watched the fall of the Berlin Wall, Tiananmen Square emerged again…not again…please not again…please…live and on television for all to see. The Wall fell, and the world went wild with joy…and history books were edited to remember.
So, what do the history books say of Tiananmen Square? Do they have a brief mention and feature that picture of the brave young man standing before a tank? Do the history books speak of China’s deliberate shift…a growing economy and a mega power…of the reward handed them in the face of Tiananmen Square…the reward of silence as America and so many other nations lowered their gaze, slowly and with sick deliberate grace, turned away and chose to forget that something happened in China…something happened June 4, 1989…in Tiananmen Square.
Live and on television for all to see.
What happened to the man who stood in front of that tank?
Was he crushed by the dragon when the cameras were shut off?
Forever defiant and captured on film…a visible reminder that someone was there and then was not anymore after June 4, 1989.
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5 comments:
Thank you for the reminder of the anniversary. The Tank Man, a fantastic documentary about the Tiananmen Square protests, played earlier this year on Frontline. The whole show is available via streaming video from the site.
In addition to the Frontline Documentary we must ask ourselves why search engines like Google have bowed to Chinese goverment insistance that information about Tiananmen Square be sensored. Most young people in China do not know about what happened and if they try to look it up online in China all they get are pictures of the place or information about the place itself.There is no mention of tank man. Google's mission statement to do no harm yet they are harming the Chinese by bowing to its government. They have failed the Chines people.
What stands out in my mind about that incident is that Canada cut off trade with China for some time after Tianenment Square. The reason it stands out is because the Chinese government was extremely upset about the breaking off of trade relations. I didn't know they cared that much about us.
Here's a little nugget you might find interesting. As of 1974, the United States was 100% self-sufficient in what is called "rare earth minerals" -the minerals that are necessary for the manufacture of certain high-tech gadgets. Things such as cell phones, televisions, and missile guidance systems require these "rare earth minerals" for their manufacture.
Next time you're asking yourself why the United States Government remains silent regarding China, consider this:
As of 1997 (and through today), the United States is 00% dependent upon a SINGLE FORIEGN SUPPLIER for all of our rare earth minerals. The supplier? China.
I was born in 1987,China.I knew nothing about the "ancient" history until my friend told me something about that.I haven't been throught this.I was shocked.How bloody!How it happened in the year 1989?Our government always hide the truth.I hate it.I hate! I was injured in the policies,even in my education.I really hate it!I hope I'm not a Chinese!
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