Never to Forget June 4, 1989: Prologue

How old were you twenty years ago? Where were you twenty years ago? If you are somewhat "aged" like me, twenty years ago, you were already a teen (or a "tween") who were old enough to understand some of the conversations that your parents were making, but not quite mature enough to comprehend the scope or the depth to what they were talking about.

Twenty years ago, my parents were working in two separate places: my dad was in Vancouver with us, and my mom was finishing her contract working in Hong Kong. One evening night, our family was having our usual long-distance telephone conversation. My dad, at the time, was asking my mom of what was the latest news that was taking place in Beijing (Peking), China. In one of the most chilling memories I have ever had, my mom replied, "They had opened fire at the protesting students." To this day, I can remember vividly the deadly, frightening silence that followed my mother’s statement.

The June 4 Tiananmen Massacre occurred twenty years ago. Many of you may be too young to remember a whole lot about it; some of you may have never heard about it. However, there are probably a good number of you who are living in North America right now, in part or in whole, because of it. What were the events that took place that led to the final bloody killings of thousands of innocent people? Why are there so many discussions about the event today? What are the arguments of those who feel the event should or shouldn’t be re-examined?
Over the next few days leading up to June 4, I am going to be posting an article that was originally submitted to a magazine to be published. The article was pulled due to political pressure, but since this is a personal blog, I have no fear in posting it to share with you some of the thoughts I have over the events of June 4, 1989. A warning, first of all: some of the images you will see are gruesome. However, I think, that is all the more reason why the henious crime committed by those who were in charge need to be dealt with severely so justice might be served.