RoR: Forum

Post 0

Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 1:16am

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Hong,

Thank you once again for being willing to share these deeply personal and moving stories. You have clearly conveyed the horror of that situation (though I suspect that those of us fortunate enough to have never lived under such a regime can never fully appreciate what it is like).

MH

(Edited by Matthew Humphreys on 6/04, 3:44am)

Post 1

Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 3:43am

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Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.

This is the most moving article I've ever read on SOLO.

Bill

Post 2

Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 4:53am

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Thank you very much for sharing your painful memories with us Hong.

The Tiananmen Square massacre can sometimes seem so distant to us living comfortably in the west. You have brought the horrors of communism to life as a warning much in the way Ayn Rand did in "we the living". I appreciate your courage.

I really look forward to reading an article about how you found objectivism. That must be a fascinating story.

Post 3

Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 7:34am

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Hong,

Did you find your "lost soul"?

Michael

Post 4

Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 7:35am

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Hong reading your articles is one of the best parts of being on SOLO.

I have typed several times something to reply to you and deleted all the words to start over. I can't seem to find the right words to express the *extent* of my admiration that you are telling this story. There is the atrocity in that story, and then there is the *best* of humanity in YOU and people like you. Thank you.

John

Post 5

Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 7:52am

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Hong, Thank you. What it is like to live in China now?

Post 6

Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 8:51am

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Hong, what a great and moving story. I feels like the early chapters of "We the Living". I hope to hear more about your experiences, and would love to know your thoughts on current political events involving China. After all, you have been there, and you can help us understand what would be the best policies to adopt to achieve the result of a freer China and a freer world.
Please continue to share with us your history and your wisdom.

Post 7

Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 9:59am

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Here is a related news story:

Hong Kong marks Tiananmen deaths

Tens of thousands in Hong Kong have held a vigil on the 16th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4608763.stm

Post 8

Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 10:17am

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Hong, that was some story. Thanks for sharing it and I'm glad you made it out of there.

Post 9

Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 10:36am

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Hong,

Thank you very much for this story. I am so happy you lied in order to come to the US. Your story gave me chills. I think you could be very famous if you made a book out of your experiences. This is such an important story to tell, and your writing is superb.

I read the news story that Marcus pointed out, it has this at the end:

"But the BBC's Daniel Griffiths in Beijing says the incident has much less significance for the younger generation, in their 20s."

The "younger generation" needs to read your story. I cannot think of a better way for you to mark the occasion than to post your memoirs.

Post 10

Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 12:03pm

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Wow, four wow�s from Bill Perry...that�s really something. Thanks, Bill.

Matt and Marcus - thanks for you kind words. Yes, this is a very personal experience on many levels.

But remember I am only one of the millions. I believe that everyone I saw on the streets of Beijing during

that time would have his or her own story to tell. There was that sense of doom, a sense of "this is the end

of the world" for me at that time. Hopefully I conveyed some of those.

Michael � about �lost soul�. You know, over the years, I realize that happiness is never a static thing.

Self-discovery and introspection is also a never-ending process. There have been moments of blissful joy,

of perfect contentment emotionally and intellectually, and of agony... I think this process will always continue.

Dean � life in China today is very different from 20 or 15 years ago. The economy has grown so much

and living conditions have improved tremendously for most people, and for the better. Even my baby brother

has recently bought a car, a VW Golf assembled in China. He has proudly bragged to me that he has a better car

than my Corola. He is just an engineer working for a US company. But the Chinese government is still the same.

June 4 of 89' is still a taboo not to be mentioned anywhere in China. Young people in their early 20s coming to

the US already don�t know what it was all about.

John � thank you so much for your extraordinarily kind words. I wish that I could write remotely as well as you.

Aren�t we also share that same humanity and kindred spirit as well?!

James � Your encouragement means a lot to me.

Mike - Yes, I asked Jason to post this on June 4th to mark the occasion. (Thanks, Jason). I think Chinese

government deliberately tries to let the event fade from everyone's memory. It is scary. Because I still believe

that this is something that the currently Chinese government may still be capable of doing � just as long as they

can get away with it.

And Lance - thanks for reading it and for your kind words as well.

Hong

(Edited by Hong Zhang on 6/04, 12:20pm)

Post 11

Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 12:14pm

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Tai xie-xie ni le for that very moving story, Hong.
________________________

Within China, the Communist Party severely restricts access to sites it deems "insurgent" via "The Great Firewall." If this story hits the net over there, the SOLO website might end up censored out in China (if not yet already). Even emails can get screened. China's internet system is up for a makeover- this could make bypassing the firewall more difficult.

To any readers from China, I hope you're already using a proxy. Bao zhong.

________________________

Hope I got my pinyin right.

Post 12

Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 12:22pm

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Have to add....

If you have friends in China you would like to help gain uncensored net access, you can by installing the Circumventor. You need to be on broadband.

Post 13

Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 2:31pm

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Hong, your moving stories and all the other stories about your life that you have inside you, MUST be made available to a public wider than that of Solo. I'm sending you an e-mail about this issue.

Barbara

Post 14

Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 3:31pm

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Hong, what a moving article! Thank you for your bravery in sharing it.

Post 15

Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 3:58pm

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Hong,

As usual, I am a fan. Wonderful story - and such heart-felt honesty.

Since you ended with a mention that you separated and divorced Gene after five years, I can't help but be curious. I have a theory that a wonderful life partner during a voyage many times is not suited to the life of having arrived. A solid companion during a trip over the desert might not like living on the beach later.

Anyway, if this is prying too much, just leave it.

I want to say, que gra�inha, but you story is so much more than that. Voc� � linda...

Michael

Post 16

Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 4:33pm

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Hong,

You wrote another incredibly moving piece. Again your story touched my heart, and it literally gave me goosebumps reading it and remembering the horror of it all.

Barbara had an important point. I think you have the makings of a memoir inside of you and every glimpse of your story makes me want more. I've been re-reading "We the Living" and now this article comes along... how weird is that?

Sometimes Americans lose sight of the horrors outside our borders and take the American lifestyle for granted. I love this country and I am glad you came to America.

btw - Do you feel morally inferior for having to shamelessly *lie* to get your passport? ;-)

Kat

(Edit - whoops, almost forgot the smiley face, but still it was a rather nice dig at the self-righteous)

(Edited by katdaddy on 6/04, 5:33pm)

Post 17

Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 5:19pm

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Hong, this was a chilling story to read. Thank you for sharing it. The photo of the young student standing down a tank in Tiananmen Square is one of the most poignant moments ever captured on film.

Kat, there would be no reason for her to feel morally inferior. Hong placed her life as the standard of value, so the lie was completely morally warranted. This is a point that has been made clear elsewhere, but people seem to continue missing the point.

Post 18

Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 6:22pm

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num++ - your pinyin is perfect. So is your grammar! I hope your tips will be helpful to those in China. Take care.

Michael SK - well, it's only natural that you'd be curious. Let me just say that if it were not because of the June 4th event, Gene (pseudonym for my ex) and I would likely not to have been married. The relationship was not right from the beginning and I was not wise enough to see it. We then acted as if it were the end of the world and as if there were no tomorrow...We (or at least I) had given our relationship all that we had, and it didn't work out in the end.

Kat - thanks for your kindness. I think I should now go read "We the living" too. I've had the book for quite sometime and have been hesitate to pick it up and read it...

Strangely, it was a bit hard for me to lie at the time. I wanted to say something vague, but it just would not do. I think when Rand was arranging her trip to America, she also had to lie to the Soviet authority and to the America consulate that her trip was only temporary and that she would return. So it were exactly the same thing with me.

Scott and Jennifer - thanks for your very kind comments. Jennifer, I think I understand what kat meant.

Best wishes to you all,

Hong

Post 19

Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 10:00pm

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Hong,

Thank you so much for this account.

I followed the news of the demonstrations closely at the time. I was the only one in my office (I worked for the MIT administration then) who thought that they would have anything other than a peaceful outcome. When the reports of the attack came in, I remember how astonished the "moderates" (moderate by the standards the New England academic community) were. They discussed the latest estimates of deaths with ashen faces and hushed tones.

There was something about the estimates of number killed that I was curious about at the time but did not find particularly surprising. The first report I heard of the attack estimated the number dead at a single-digit figure. Then I heard a double-digit number, followed later by a larger double-digit number. Then it went to three digits, and after a couple of days finally made it to something that in retrospect is believable.

Later, I learned more in discussing the incident with two friends. He was on the staff of the Harvard Crimson and had put himself through Harvard on the GI Bill, having served in the US army airborne. She was the then president of the Harvard Objectivist club. He complained about the general ineptness of the Western journalists in reporting on military matters. For example, we had heard reports before the attack of individual soldiers being sighted "wandering" through the streets surrounding the square. Advance elements of infantry or combined-arms units _scout_. They do not "wander."

But what has haunted me about the American news reports is what my friends said about how they had first heard of the massacre. They had been dining in a restaurant in Boston that had a radio playing music in the background. A radio announcer broke in to report the army attack in the square, and to give a figure for estimated dead that was large, probably realistic for that point in time. Hearing this, the two tried to get as much news as they could from Peking. The second report they heard on the same station gave an estimate for number killed that was a single digit, with no mention of (or retraction offered for) the earlier report. Following the news over a couple of days, they heard the same gradual ramp-up in estimates that I recalled. Eventually, the tally arrived at the same ballpark as that stated in the initial report.

They told me this in awe-struck tones, and it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. They were convinced that American editors and broadcasters had a pretty clear idea of the size of the massacre by the end of the first day, and that the slow ramp-up in casualties figures was the result of deliberate, industry-wide self-censorship. In my friends' view, the lowball estimates were designed to ease Americans into the reality of a bloody-handed Communist regime slowly, so that they would not be shocked into demanding that our government "do something," such as to impose trade sanctions. They thought the initial (large) reported figure had reached them more or less by accident. In the suddenness of the attack, the truth must have briefly made it onto the airwaves, past the surprised gods of political correctness, before they could tighten their net and impose the pravda of small numbers killed.

Today I remain convinced the ramp-up in reported numbers was the result of evasion, but I do not know exactly whom to blame or how systematized it was. If anyone has news clippings, notes, or a better memory than mine, I would be interested in getting a clearer picture of how the deaths were reported to the American public, and to the public in other countries. I am also interested in how those who were in China at the time found out about the extent of the deaths, and what numbers are accepted now.

With the internet, a more competitive market for broadcast news, and the rise of right-wing talk radio in the United States, it is harder for this particular type of censorship to be successful here. In the 12 years separating June 4 from September 11, the American media changed to the point that we were able to witness the burning and collapse of the WTC on broadcast television for a couple of days before the gods of political correctness were able to ban the tapes from the air. But I still wonder how much of what we are told is only what is fitted to print.

-Bill Nevin
(Edited by William A. Nevin III
on 6/04, 10:05pm)