Liu Si - 20 years later...

When I mention Tiananmen Square to you, what comes to mind?

this picture?



Sadly, the rest of the world knows more about this liu si incident than Chinese people themselves.

The protest of June 4th, 1989 lead to the massacre of 200
to over 2000 people. The numbers are still unknown because the Chinese government still refuses to disclose the real numbers. My parents were graduate students in Kansas during the incident, but the effects did not circumvent my family. The good thing was that the U.S. gave my parents green cards, afraid that as students, they would be persecuted if they returned to China. The bad thing was that my parents could not return to China to see me. The first time I met my dad was at age 4, two years after the incident, and even then it was a risky return trip for my parents.

The effects on my family were relatively small, what makes me disappointed and angry today is the way China refuses to come to terms with its past. Just like the 2008 SiChuan earthquake, when the school buildings killed the only children of many many families (due to the one child rule) and there was obvious neglect and corruption in the state official's management of the building codes, China refuses take responsibility and refuses to have the voices of the victims' families to be heard. China says that such talk of blame does not help advance the situation.

That is China. 20 years after tiananmen square, it has done a good job erasing its history from the minds of its citizens. By controlling the media, blocking the internet and brainwashing its students, China can be proud to say that today's college students know very little about what happened to their counterparts a generation ago. If you ask around,some refer to it almost as a myth, a story.


U.S. urges China to come to terms with Tiananmen Square

How can a country of such size and power move forward if it continues to deny its past? China will never become a world leader as long as it forces its people to live in fabricated lies.

China won't allow its people to remember, but the rest of the world can.

Remember June 4th, 1989