清走不想再看見的東西，企圖抹走記憶，不希望再有人提起往事，完全是懦夫行為。
〔轉載網友，2021年12月24日〕
So basically the chinese communist party removed *every* memorial statue for tiananmen massacre in 1989 across universities in hk (the Pillar of Shame in HKU, Goddess of Liberty in CUHK, tiananman massacre relief in Lingnan U) on Christmas eve 2021.
the 1989 massacre in Beijing happened shortly after china signed the Joint Declaration with Britain to “hand over” (de facto re-colonise) Hong Kong for 30 years (1989 - 2019), Hong Kong had been the *only* place in the world where people held annual vigils for Chinese students who devoted their lives for a democratic China.
back to my days in CUHK, instead of a piece of heavy historical memory, the Goddess of Liberty (often shortened as 民女), was the place where friends gather and hang together. i’ve probably said a million times of “see you at 5 at the goddess”. and for those who were always late: “I see the goddess but not you, are you now the goddess.”
the goddess wore rainbow skirts for LGBT rights, and black skirts for Hong Kong’s own autonomy. everyone was free to sit around it, touch it, and hang whatever slogans above it. it’s no longer a symbol for a democratic China, it’s a thermometer for freedom, and a collective inscription for people whose lives had crossed paths with the fate of the goddess.
“Cleaning” unwanted people, law, memorials around christmas has been a traditional deceit of the Chinese Communist Party to avoid international attention and criticism. it only reflects the cowardliness and weakness of its authoritarian power.
I’ve not seen the 1989 massacre, nor the heroic young chinese students in Beijing (many in Hong Kong though). however the goddess was the first part of CUHK i met as a freshwoman, and now part of my own, personal, undistortable history. i shall never forget the statue, everything it represented, and how it was erased on a Christmas eve.
沒有留言:
張貼留言