Avant-garde street theatre, poetry and pro-democracy music, the artistic effervescence that accompanied each year in Hong Kong the commemoration of the bloody repression of Tiananmen Square in 1989, has almost disappeared under the battering of pro-democracy authorities. Beijing.
For more than 30 years, tens of thousands of people have gathered each year in Victoria Park for a candlelight vigil in memory of the more than 1,000 peaceful protesters who fell under the bullets of repression on June 4, 1989 in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
But since Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020, the authorities have put an end to these gatherings and pushed the artists involved in these commemorations to produce their shows outside the Chinese metropolis.
Hong Kong artist Luk Ming remembers the dozens of people who took part in the 2009 vigil in bustling Causeway Bay on the eve of the June 4th anniversary.
“The participants were not artists but Mr. Everyman: there was a taxi driver, a teacher, etc. “, explains to AFP Luk, who uses a pseudonym for fear of reprisals.
As part of an artistic project called “Our Generation of June 4”, some performers painted their bodies with yellow paint, a symbol of “freedom and hope”, he recalls.
We could see a man staring at a television set covered with black adhesive tape or another, white mask on his face, wandering the streets like a wandering soul.
“People were involved at that time […] many of them tried to tell others about the repression so that it would not be forgotten,” adds the artist.
Today, only a handful of committed artists remain who are still striving to perpetuate the tradition.
“Artists can always find a new way (of expression) but will they do it in such an uncertain context? »
Last year, artist Chan Mei-tung was arrested mid-performance for “inappropriate conduct in a public space” and spent the night at the police station.
“Rewritten Memory”
In 2019, Hong Kong, returned to China in 1997, was the scene of a major pro-democracy movement punctuated by violence.
In response, Beijing introduced a national security law that criminalized most dissent and stifled the pro-democracy movement.
More than 10,000 people were arrested after the protests.
Among those arrested are the three organizers of the annual Victoria Park vigil, prosecuted for “incitement to subversion”, an offense punishable by ten years in prison.
The repression of the demonstrators was coupled with an apparent desire to erase references to Tiananmen in the public space.
A museum was closed, several monuments and sculptures were moved from university campuses and dozens of books on June 4, 1989 were removed from bookstore shelves.
Recently, city leader John Lee warned that police would crack down on “any act that breaks the law” if commemorated.
In this context, some artists have decided to export their work to less risky territories.
Lenny Kwok, a musician from Hong Kong who has been organizing Tiananmen memorial concerts since 1990, has been staging his shows in Taiwan for three years.
A mixture of music, poetry and narration, his new opus will be presented this year in a park in Taipei.
“We are here to safeguard a memory that is gradually erased, rewritten and reinterpreted”, explains the artist.
According to him, the aspiration for freedom and democracy in Hong Kong and Taiwan is intimately linked to the Tiananmen crackdown.
Don’t “let your guard down”
A play by Hong Kong author Candace Chong, titled “May 35”, will also be performed in Taiwan this weekend.
The play explores an elderly couple’s decision to go public with the death of their son in Tiananmen Square after decades of silent mourning.
The project started in Hong Kong in 2019 but the original troupe, Stage 64, was disbanded two years later.
Taiwanese director Chung Po-yuan hopes the play will inspire audiences to not only reflect on Taiwan’s authoritarian past, but also reflect on its near future.
All in a context of deteriorating relations between Taipei and Beijing in recent years, China considering the autonomous island as one of its provinces.
The return of authoritarianism awaits us “if we let our guard down”, warns Chung.