The Tiananmen Square protests were popular student-led demonstrations in Beijing in 1989. They were forcibly put down by China’s hardline leaders who used martial law to crack down upon protesters on June 3rd and 4th. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, were killed.
LATEST NEWS & VIEWS
Security law: An attempt to erase the memory of Hong Kong as it really was
In Yoko Ogawa’s novel The Memory Police, a new government takes over a small island off the coast of Japan and begins to remove objects from its residents’ memories. First, the residents must bring out a chosen item from their possessions and destroy it by killing, burning, burying, or discarding it in the rivers and […]
‘This is political persecution’: Leading Hong Kong activists charged for Tiananmen vigil gathering
Thirteen prominent Hong Kong democracy activists appeared in court on Monday charged with holding an unauthorised gathering to mark the Tiananmen Square crackdown, the latest in a string of prosecutions against protest leaders in the restless financial hub. Last month tens of thousands of Hong Kongers defied a ban on rallies to mark the June […]
COMMENTARY & ANALYSIS ON 1989
Something is wrong when Macau bars mention of Tiananmen Square massacre
First, they banned a photographic exhibition, then they banned a June 4 vigil about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Neither had ever been forbidden since 1990. Last Friday was the Macau Court of Final Appeal’s (CFA) opportunity to show that the police decision may have been politicised, but the court applied the law: that separation […]
As Macau bans annual Tiananmen Massacre exhibition, Hong Kong should be wary of China exporting censorship
China’s Communist Party is continuing to export its repression of free speech. After more than 20 years of photographic exhibitions and vigils recounting the 4 June 1989 Tiananmen Massacre in Macau – displayed every year with no exception – the Macau authorities have shamelessly changed course. José Tavares, the head of the Macau SAR’s Municipal […]
Never bend, never waver: Hong Kong officials celebrate 30 years of post-colonial order
Anyone who might have toyed with the idea that clear verdicts in popular elections could give Beijing pause for thought must now be sorely disappointed. Two such elections were Hong Kong’s district council poll last November and Taiwan’s presidential contest in January. Both verdicts were as clear as could possibly be, and they derived from […]
In the new Cold War between Beijing and the West, I am a Hongkonger
On August 11, 2019, a girl, acting as a nurse during a demonstration against the extradition bill in Tsim Sha Tsui district in Hong Kong, had her right eye blown out by a beanbag fired by a police officer, causing lifelong disability and instantly provoking explosive public outrage. Many people regarded this incident as the […]
PHOTOGRAPHY
HKFP Lens: Hong Kong students clean Tiananmen Massacre Pillar of Shame
The eight-metre tall Pillar of Shame statue which sits on the University of Hong Kong campus connects a Danish artist, China and Hong Kong with the commemoration of 1989 Tiananmen Massacre victims. Each year, on June 4, students wash the statue – HKFP’s May James photographed the tradition. “The old cannot kill the young forever,” […]
HKFP Lens: ‘The students will prevail’ – Rare shots of Tiananmen Square, before and after the 1989 massacre
The Tiananmen massacre occurred on June 4, 1989 ending months of student-led demonstrations in China. Hundreds, perhaps over a thousand, people died as the military suppressed protesters in Beijing. HKFP has obtained rare images from Human Rights in China (HRIC)‘s archive, before and after the crackdown, courtesy of Gail Butler and Libby Schmalz. The collection […]
EXCLUSIVE: Before the tanks – More previously unseen shots of the 1989 Tiananmen Sq. student movement
HKFP’s Ilaria Maria Sala shares previously unseen photos from the 1989 Tiananmen protests – before the tanks rolled in. Read her firsthand account of Beijing’s student movement in Part 1. Beijing, April 1989. After the death of popular pro-reform Communist leader Hu Yaobang, students from the capital’s colleges brought down to the square a banner defining Hu […]
FEATURES
Exclusive: Cartoonist Badiucao says satire is the ‘temporary aspirin’ that can heal Hong Kong’s protest trauma
Chinese-Australian artist Badiucao has told HKFP that the power of political satire comes from deconstructing authority and it can act as a “temporary painkiller” for Hongkongers traumatised by the ongoing pro-democracy protests. In an exclusive live-streamed interview, the cartoonist shared his thoughts on the role of art in social movements and spoke of how humour […]
Video: Over 180,000 attend Hong Kong’s Tiananmen Massacre vigil, organisers say
Huge crowds turned out for a mass candlelight vigil in Hong Kong on Tuesday evening marking 30 years since China’s bloody Tiananmen crackdown, a gathering tinged with symbolism as the city struggles to preserve its own cherished freedoms. The eye-catching spectacle — in which tens of thousands of Hong Kongers clutched candles, sang defiant songs and […]
Badiucao revealed: Chinese artist-provocateur unmasks in upcoming film on cancelled Hong Kong exhibition
For the past six months, Chinese dissident cartoonist Badiucao has kept unusually quiet. The artist-provocateur, armed with a keyboard and digital pen, is rarely one to mince his words, often relayed to his sizeable Twitter following. Vibrant and jocular, his drawings resemble desk scribbles, only with familiar political faces and references. See also: Event: Hong Kong premiere […]
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