Twenty years ago the massive demonstrations on Tian'anmen Square in Beijing were bloodily suppressed by the Chinese army. How do people who took part in the events of that time view their choices at the time? What does China's younger generation think of this - now historical event?

Ying, who now lives in the Netherlands, was a university student in Beijing back in 1989. Like most of her classmates, it was pure passion that drove her to join the student protest movement. She helped by putting up posters and by keeping order as students continued their hunger strikes. Public transport ground to a halt at the time of the demonstrations as much of society in the Chinese capital and beyond supported the students.

Ying feels Chinese society was never so united as it was back then - teachers supported students, canteens provided them with free food, office clerks and other workers came to visit them in Tian'anmen Square.

True terror
Ten days before 4 June, Ying's family stopped her from returning to join the students and their protest in Tian'anmen Square, just a short distance away from her home.  In the early hours of 4 June, she felt true terror for the very first time in her life: "I heard gunshots at night; before I only heard that in the movies. It was like a nightmare."

Later that morning of 4 June, Ying's parents went out to buy some groceries. They were frightened, so they told Ying and her sisters to stay at home, but they sneaked out of the house as soon as their parents left. 

In front of them lay Chang'an Street, devastated - torn up by army tanks, with roadside barriers scattered about on the ground. The street was completely empty, apart from a tricycle that was heading towards the area where the foreign embassies are located, driven by a foreigner wearing Chinese clothes. 

Chang'an Street returned to normal within no time.  Just a few days later the road had been repaired and the barriers put back. Ying says it was the most efficient piece of restoration work she has ever seen.

Arrests
Following 4 June, four students from Ying's university were arrested, including the one who had helping to move a

corpse, as well as one who threw stones at the tanks. Six months later, one of the students was released and came back to school.  The school authorities warned everyone not to ask him about what had happened in prison.  No one dared, even though they were curious.  Several years later, Ying met that student again in Beijing. He was working in the real estate business by then and said he was not politically active and that what happened back in 1989 was a thing of the past and belonged there.

In Ying's view, although 4 June 1989 has now become a part of history, the protest movement of that time did manage to awaken the political awareness of her generation.  After the demonstrations were suppressed, those previously naive youngsters began to think about issues such as democracy, corruption and national characteristics. Today, some of Ying's former schoolmates still retain a strong social awareness, caring deeply about the huge gap between the poor and the rich, as well as the lives of those people who form China's underclass.

Younger generation

Jun was only two years old in 1989.  For her, 4 June was part of history. The first time she heard about 4 June was during a high school history lesson. The 1989 movement was defined there as a 'political rebellion' exploited by 'capitalists' used by capitalism, aimed at overthrowing the government".  She and her classmates also discussed the events of 4 June.  Some expressed much sympathy for the students of 1989, while others had some considerable doubts and argued that they couldn't really comment since they had no personal experience of the events of that summer.

When she went to university Jun heard from some alumni who had studied abroad and who described 4 June using the word 'massacre'.  Some of her teachers had also been expelled from the big cities and sent to a far away province because of their participation in the 1989 movement. When joining the Communist Party she was required to tick certain boxes on the application form, such as one about whether the applicant was "a minor in 1989", etc. Since then, she has always felt terrified about 4 June 1989. It makes her think about the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Jun's grandfather was persecuted terribly during the Cultural Revolution, an experience which has made Jun's family always try to avoid political topics.  

Ambivalent

After Jun came to the Netherlands, a foreign friend talked to her about 4 June and also gave her a link to a website about the 1989 movement. But, so far, out of fear she has never even visited the site. Her position regarding 4 June 1989 is somewhat ambivalent. Whilst she does not fully accept the positive version of the movement, nor does she fully adhere to the negative view. As she says: "Let history be the judge."