This past weekend, it was 33 years since thousands of unarmed Chinese citizens lost their lives in the Tiananmen Square massacre. Hong Kong has long been the place to host the world’s biggest annual memorial vigil for the victims, usually centered around Victoria Park with tens or even hundreds of thousands of participants.
No more, as most members of the organisation that arranged those vigils are now behind bars.
Since the national security law was imposed on Hong Kong in the summer of 2020, observing the June 4 comes with an even greater risk of being put in jail, even if just doing so online.
The latest Kinamedia cartoon by Niklas ”@KluddNiklas” Eriksson portrays how the citizens of Hong Kong are now made to forget the memory of this terrifying event – that in turn makes the Chinese Communist Party remember that brute force is quite a useful tool to ”help” shaping people’s memories.
But not completely. As June 4 vigils are no longer allowed in Hong Kong, Taiwan has been handed the torch as the main place in the Chinese speaking world to hold memorial services for victims of the massacre.
Please see below a Twitter thread from the event in Taipei last Saturday, where the development in Hong Kong also played a major role.
Quite a few of the Hongkongers that have relocated to Taiwan after the national security law was imposed on their city in the summer of 2020 is present here.
In Hong Kong, similar memorial services are since banned. pic.twitter.com/D92wqbtuH5
— Jojje Olsson (@jojjeols) June 4, 2022
This week’s cartoon can be viewed in full size via this link.
A full collection of Kludd-Niklas’ works for Kinamedia can be seen here.
