A few weeks ago marked the twenty first year since the Tiananmen protests. There is an abundance of writing on the topic, so I will only offer a few thoughts on the issue.
Like with the Cultural Revolution, one's experience in eighty nine differs vastly based on one's age. (As expressed in this book, students' experiences during the Cultural Revolution could be very different based on their age, especially when comparing experiences before and after the abuse of sent down youths were exposed).
Those younger than their peers in university, those in elementary, middle and high school, now have a very different recollection about that time in history. Some I have met remember it with a childish joy as school was cancelled and they followed their older classmates into the streets. Others remember parents taking them out to visit the strange Woodstock-esque sight of posters, statues, and college students camped outside. Many, of course, did not stay as long as the university students, nor did they participate in hunger strikes. They were also not the target of the troops or government, and as a result seemed to have relished in their youthful actions.
Whereas with those who were university students then, there is not only a sense of loss but one of growing irrelevance. This was made evident when last year, during the 20th anniversary, Wuerkaixi was quoted in a statement arguing that it is the protesters who are to be credited for the economic reforms and prosperity of the 90s and 2000s.
Similarly, May Fourth marks a day of activism in both the United States and in China. On May Fourth 1919, students all over China protested the Japanese occupation of Shandong province and the government's inaction to reclaim it. Similarly, on May Fourth 1970 in Kent State University, American university students protested the bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War.
China's current politicians are not threatened directly by reviving the memory of May Fourth, but still they are very cautious about celebrating it. Students protesting government action perceived as relinquishing to foreign powers is a controversial memory to invoke (especially given the government's recent public decision to reform China's currency).
Although the politics of America are much different, it can be observed that there has certainly not been a strong effort to memorialize the movement by American government officials at the time when America is entangled in an anti-insurgency war often compared to Vietnam.
Posts
