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| 八九民運時，民主女神像一度和毛澤東像相對而望。（Source: theguardian.com) |
平生只去過維園六四燭光晚會一次，就在中六去美讀書之前。之後雖然六四都不在香港，但對這個話題萬般執着。六四不只是歷史問題，還是個道德問題。當年學生為民主自由枉死，不悼念還是人？
Showing posts with label 六四. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 六四. Show all posts
六四離教者自白
平生只去過維園六四燭光晚會一次，就在中六去美讀書之前。之後雖然六四都不在香港，但對這個話題萬般執着。六四不只是歷史問題，還是個道德問題。當年學生為民主自由枉死，不悼念還是人？
六四贖罪劵
廿六年前，六四是香港的一件大事。香港人曾寄望北京學運改變中共政府，為九七後香港爭取最優惠條件。當時香港人確信民主是靈丹妙藥，以為中國民主中國好，香港是中國一部份，所以中國民主香港好，甚至連台灣都會好。「大陸民主，兩岸統一水到渠成」成為顯學，不證自明。「建設民主中國」同「人人為我我為人人」一樣正氣。
Soul Searching on Tiananmen
25 years ago, protests against corruption and inflation quickly escalated into a democratic movement. When the movement received international attention, it gained widespread support from the apolitical populace in the British colony of Hong Kong, 5 years after its fate to be handed over to China was sealed. All of a sudden, Hongkongers saw hope for a democratic Beijing government after the handover in 1997. While very few joined the Beijing movement in person, money and resource donations poured in.
The massacre on June 4th crushed all hope for peaceful transitions to democracy, but many Hongkongers felt that they are on the same boat as the mainlanders. A weird contradicting identity has formed: patriotic yet rebellious. While being increasingly anti-Communist, many Hongkongers considered themselves to be patriotic to a virtual, cultural and unified China, covering both China proper, Tibet, East Turkestan, Mongolia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and all territories claimed by governments on both sides of the Straits. By attending the annual religious vigil on the June 4th massacre, many vigil attendees consider themselves the conscience of China.
25 years passed in a blink of an eye. The once fragile regime has become the world’s second largest economy, while Hong Kong has been annexed to China for so long that many Hongkongers genuinely believe Hong Kong has no future other than being a city in the all-powerful China. The annual vigil has increasingly become a feel-good ritual. The slogans “End the One-Party Dictatorship”, “Develop a Democratic China” are so encouraging, but at the same time, powerless as all participants know. After the vigil ends with the hosts saying “Come back next year!”, the society is back to normal.
I, myself, was one of them, and it took a lot of soul searching to figure out my psychology. Was I self glorifying myself? Or was I mourning for the loss of a hypothetical democratic Communist government that had never existed? Were the elderlies guilty about the perished students who they thought they were paying as frontline soldiers against the authoritarian regime? It’s easy to deny all these and resort to universal value of humanity, but deep down, I know this massacre is different from other tragedies, to me and other Hongkongers.
Written on June 4, 2014
Uploaded on May 29, 2016
The massacre on June 4th crushed all hope for peaceful transitions to democracy, but many Hongkongers felt that they are on the same boat as the mainlanders. A weird contradicting identity has formed: patriotic yet rebellious. While being increasingly anti-Communist, many Hongkongers considered themselves to be patriotic to a virtual, cultural and unified China, covering both China proper, Tibet, East Turkestan, Mongolia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and all territories claimed by governments on both sides of the Straits. By attending the annual religious vigil on the June 4th massacre, many vigil attendees consider themselves the conscience of China.
25 years passed in a blink of an eye. The once fragile regime has become the world’s second largest economy, while Hong Kong has been annexed to China for so long that many Hongkongers genuinely believe Hong Kong has no future other than being a city in the all-powerful China. The annual vigil has increasingly become a feel-good ritual. The slogans “End the One-Party Dictatorship”, “Develop a Democratic China” are so encouraging, but at the same time, powerless as all participants know. After the vigil ends with the hosts saying “Come back next year!”, the society is back to normal.
I, myself, was one of them, and it took a lot of soul searching to figure out my psychology. Was I self glorifying myself? Or was I mourning for the loss of a hypothetical democratic Communist government that had never existed? Were the elderlies guilty about the perished students who they thought they were paying as frontline soldiers against the authoritarian regime? It’s easy to deny all these and resort to universal value of humanity, but deep down, I know this massacre is different from other tragedies, to me and other Hongkongers.
Written on June 4, 2014
Uploaded on May 29, 2016
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