June 6, 2010
Tiananmen Candlelight Vigil
Every 4th June, people gather in Hong Kong's Victoria Park for a candlelight vigil to remember the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacres in 1989. This year marks the 21st anniversary of the horrific incident in Beijing and I went with my colleague to have a look.
Some pro-democracy protesters making their point in Causeway Bay.
Causeway Bay was packed with people making their way to Victoria Park.
Posters of victims put up by the Tiananmen Mothers Campaign who had lost their children to the indiscriminate killing of the Chinese army. Many of the victims happened to be passerbys or just someone stopping to help the injured.
六四 (meaning 6/4) is the common reference to the incident amongst the Chinese people. The other two words mean 'mourning' in Chinese.
There were an estimated 150,000 people gathered in Victoria Park and everyone held a lit candle in their hands. Songs were sung to remember the victims and some of the older people were seen to be crying. Pro-democracy slogans were shouted in unison, led by pro-democracy leaders of pro-democracy political parties and student union leaders from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
A charity in support of Chinese dissidents unable to return to China. The Chinese words 我要回家 mean 'I want to go home.'
Books, T-shirts, DVDs and other pro-democracy material being sold to raise funds. I was touched to see so much fervour and passion especially in the people who were selling these items and urging people to donate to their cause or to donate to the mothers who had lost their children.