Comments | pappi: 6-4

pappi

6-4

Jun 04, 2007 19:28

When it happened, I remember my grandparents telling me to not watch the news... it's probably a good idea since HK media doesn't really censor gross scenes, and at 6 years old I didn't need to see those images. I was never a fan of the Chinese government, and this incident probably didn't help ( Read more... )

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Comments 5

gyopi June 5 2007, 14:01:55 UTC

I remember watching it on American TV (back when CNN had some balls) and it was one of the most amazing and sad things I have ever seen.

pappi June 5 2007, 20:00:19 UTC

I did catch some of the news reports, but I think I was too young to fully understand what went on. I just knew that students were protesting, and the government brought in tanks. It all seemed so far away...

ceruleanlobster June 5 2007, 17:20:44 UTC

At my temporary job, there was an African man who sat beside me who went to--I've forgotten the name of the university, but the university whose students were involved in the Tiananmen Square massacre. He was there while it was going on. He started talking about it one day, and how horrible it was. He said he left the university soon after that. I asked him if he was scared, and he said no. That surprised me, but then again he was an older student even in 1989--perhaps he could keep his wits together. I would've been terrified ( ... )

pappi June 5 2007, 20:27:06 UTC

It really makes you appreciate the freedom we have here. It's frightening to think what might've happened if the world wasn't watching...

I've actually been to Beijing once when I was little, and it's the first "far away" trip I remember being on. It was the first time I saw snow (on the ground), and after my grandparents confirmed I was right to not walk around a park with "just dead trees", I decided to also not walk on the Great Wall because it's "just a wall". The whole trip is odd for me to think about now since on top of 6-4, mom's cousin, who came with me and my grandparents on the trip, died (in a fire, literally.) I guess I'm glad that all this happened when I was young so it didn't upset me much.

ceruleanlobster June 6 2007, 15:03:10 UTC

Hopefully since you were so young, it can be just a far off memory. A profound tragedy like that wouldn't be something you could easily shake off--like war, it would probably haunt you forever, if you'd been old enough to truly comprehend it. The man I talked to seemed haunted, even though he wasn't directly involved, and it was so long ago.

I'm sorry you didn't get to walk on the Great Wall! That would be cool :)