In June of 1989 I was finishing my last year of elementary school. I remember sitting in a classroom for geography class and talking about the events in Tiananmen Square. This was before high school when an increasing number of my classmates were recent immigrants from Hong Kong. I didn’t yet know anyone who was from that part of the world. I can’t say I blamed them for leaving, or their parents. Seeing that, I would have left too.
I remember thinking how strange it was thinking that someone’s government would do something like that. In my 13-year-old mind this sort of nefarious thing was undertaken by non-governments, by guerillas, by bad people. And government was always made up of, if not generally nice people, than people who were invariably logical and reasonable in their thinking. When people complained about Brian Mulroney, it wasn’t because he instructed a tank to plow over people, but more because of the deficit and the GST. Sounds trite to say now, but *whew*, am I lucky even though I’m not a Conservative…make that, because I’m not a Conservative.
Later I read Jan Wong’s Red China Blues and understood the whole thing a bit more, if that’s really possible. It’s a good read. She’s a good writer, and has a way of bringing you in and making it accessible. I’m guessing that you can’t buy it in the Chinese equivalent of “Heather’s Candle Emporium”.
I still think of that guy standing infront of the tank.
When I was in university, the some lockers were plastered with stickers that simply said “Tiananmen”. It was kind of like saying, in a very specific way, “Remember”.
Not much more to say, is there? What can you say?
I remember thinking how strange it was thinking that someone’s government would do something like that. In my 13-year-old mind this sort of nefarious thing was undertaken by non-governments, by guerillas, by bad people. And government was always made up of, if not generally nice people, than people who were invariably logical and reasonable in their thinking. When people complained about Brian Mulroney, it wasn’t because he instructed a tank to plow over people, but more because of the deficit and the GST. Sounds trite to say now, but *whew*, am I lucky even though I’m not a Conservative…make that, because I’m not a Conservative.
Later I read Jan Wong’s Red China Blues and understood the whole thing a bit more, if that’s really possible. It’s a good read. She’s a good writer, and has a way of bringing you in and making it accessible. I’m guessing that you can’t buy it in the Chinese equivalent of “Heather’s Candle Emporium”.
I still think of that guy standing infront of the tank.
When I was in university, the some lockers were plastered with stickers that simply said “Tiananmen”. It was kind of like saying, in a very specific way, “Remember”.
Not much more to say, is there? What can you say?
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