There are some things that are etched in my memory that will never go away – e.g. the time I first saw the woman who would become my wife (now of 43 years), the days our two children were born, the night I received a phone call informing me that my father had passed away, and the events surrounding June 4, 1989.
For those who may not recognize the date – June 4, 1989 is the day of the Tiananmen Square crackdown or Massacre (what else can you call an event where tanks and soldiers come in the darkness and attack a peaceful demonstration of students, peasants, professionals, mothers who had been demonstrating for free speech, more democracy, and against governmental corruption?).
Our family was living in Hong Kong where we were missionary teachers. We had been in Hong Kong for almost a decade and our life was deeply rooted in Hong Kong society, especially in the Chinese churches, Seminary, and with our many local friends. Hong Kong had become our home and we felt very deeply for its welfare and for the Chinese people that we had come to know and love on both sides of the border.
As the events of that summer unfolded, it was clear that something unusual, and wonderful, was happening across the border in China. The papers, news broadcasts, and TV were filled with pictures of an emerging democracy movement, initially led by students, but later joined by individuals from every strata of Chinese society. Other news was coming out of China through faxes, personal reports, pictures, phone calls (NOTE: this was BF – Before Facebook). All the people wanted was a voice that would be heard – a voice against corruption, against oppression, against the trampling of their fundamental human rights. And it looked like they were being heard. Large public bulletin boards were set up for people to express their thoughts, and people exercised their freedom and detailed their grievances and hopes and suggestions for a better China. Peaceful demonstrations, marches and teach-ins were taking place. There were even meetings with local government officials and eventually with representatives of the Central government.
Could this be the dawn of a new era in China? China had opened to the world in the late 70s and now it looked like an even more progressive and democratic wind might be blowing, promising a new era of greater openness and freedom, and maybe even a Chinese-form of democracy, might be possible.
But then it started to go horribly wrong. The Central government, influenced by hard liners and fear began to move against the fledgling democracy movement. The hopeful, even intoxicatingly hopeful, winds of the previous months began to change. It was clear that something was going to happen. But what eventually took place was something that most observers and Chinese couldn’t have imagined – the government ordered the People’s Liberation Army, under the cover of darkness, to invade Tiananmen Square and move against the people. Government fear and uncertainty, especially the fear of losing control, would eventually mean the crackdown and murder of hundreds, if not thousands, of lives – unarmed, peaceful students and peasants, women and mothers, would be slaughtered when the tanks and troops (many of them brought in from areas away from Beijing) finally cleared the Square. In the weeks, months, and years that followed, there would be more arrests, trials without jury, incarcerations and even death to, only God knows how many, Chinese citizens. Even now, 23 years after the event, many of those who took part in the democracy movement still languish in prison.
I remember that night of June 3rd. I went to bed after following the mounting tension throughout the day. I went to bed with a small portable radio, listening to the news and reports coming out of China. Sometime in the early morning hours I fell asleep only to awake a few hours later to the horror and spectacle of troops attacking their own people and tanks rumbling through the wide streets of Beijing and Tiananmen Square. And I cried, as did many people that day and for the weeks, months and years that followed.
I don’t know why this year’s observance of that terrible event is more painful for me. Maybe it is the posts and pictures from my Chinese Facebook friends in Hong Kong and elsewhere. Maybe it is the picture sent to me awhile back from one of my former students. It is a picture of a page from one of the leading Hong Kong Chinese newspapers published less than two weeks prior to the June 4th event containing a half page ad a number of the faculty, staff, and students from the Seminary had purchased in which we included our names in bold clear print expressing our continuing support and prayers for the democracy movement and for a fair and just settling of the societal and political tensions in China. Maybe it is the acute sense of pain I feel at present for our own country and for its future as a democracy and a free and civil society.
But whatever the reason for my particular awareness this year of the events of June 4, I remain hopeful that the winds of change and hoped for democracy which were expressed that summer and continue to be expressed, albeit in a very difficult and often more intolerant political environment in 2012, will still bear fruit. China is a great country with a rich history and beautiful people. The tide of history is towards democracy and there are hopeful signs that China may yet move in that direction in the foreseeable future. But even if it doesn’t happen in my lifetime or the lifetime of those who were witness to the historic events of the summer of 1989, I am confident that the dreams that seemed so possible then will continue to capture the hearts and actions of generations to come, until they become a reality in the Central Kingdom.
