June Fourth, After 20 Years

June 4th,2009, in China, Internet becomes Intranet. A bunch of mainstream western media (HK media, too) which are identified as "anti-Chinese" were once again blocked by GFW, including newbie Twitter, and Microsoft's new search engine, BING.COM (poor guy, only one-day old in Chinese market), flicker, etc. Another bunch of Chinese websites voluntarily closed for maintenance between June 3rd and June 5th (to avoid unnecessary conflicts), including Chinese twitter, Fanfou, Douban, etc. What is left on the Intranet then? Probably only CNN's interview with pop stat Edison Chan about his photos .

The over-reaction is just the fear of what happened 20 years ago.

I was less than 5-year-old in 1989 when the protest happened, and during my entire school education and family education, no one has ever told me anything about the protest. I learned the information from the Internet (no wonder they fear). I really would use June Fourth rather than Tiananmen Square Movement, or Tiananmen Square Massacre in memory of the students or the soldiers died that time. It is really important to recognize the date it happened, it is 1989, June 4th, the year which is 70-year anniversary of The May Fourth Movement for Science and Democracy, 1919 (the first student movement in Modern China history); the date exactly one month later. This is a tradition of young generation to pursue democracy with their true passion and idealism, that my generation will never ever have.

In a less developed society, the history is written by the ruler; but in a open and democratic society, the citizen should at least know what happened, and they will have their own justification. We know better that history is not black and white, so what the government is hiding.

This is a music video in memory of the 20-year anniversary of the June Fourth Movement of 1989 from Hong Kong. Hong Kong will hold an annual candlelight vigil on this day at Victoria Park for June Fourth. This song is by a Hong Kong rock band, Beyond, the name is War of Resistance for 20 years, perfectly matched.