China's youth, its leaders of tomorrow, cannot remain ignorant of Tiananmen
Daniel Hong says reluctance of mainland Chinese to discuss the events of 1989 stems from both fear and shame, and open discussion would help foster trust in the government
In the aftermath of the demonstrations and subsequent massacre on June 4, 1989, which resulted in hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of deaths as well as many thousands of arrests, Jeff Widener of the Associated Press took the famous "Tank Man" photograph from the balcony of a hotel room.
Today, this Pulitzer Prize finalist is widely regarded as one of post-Mao Zedong China's most iconic images - but not in mainland China.
Approaching the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, the event is still unrecognised on the mainland. The government and its censored educational and media organisations don't talk about it because they are afraid of political unrest.
The generation that witnessed the demonstrations doesn't talk about it because they are afraid of repercussions. The result of this is that my generation, the millennials, is uninformed about an important part of our country's history.
I, a first-generation immigrant born in Beijing, did not know about the massacre until I read William Bell's Forbidden City in Grade 7 English class. After school that day, I asked my mother about the event. She stuttered, dismissed it as "political turbulence", and changed the subject.
I refused to let it go. Eventually, she gave in, retrieved a printout of Widener's Tank Man, and recounted what happened in 1989.