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Shirley Zhao

Phila Siu

Emily Tsang

There were no flickering candles but plenty of passion at a series of alternative events across Hong Kong last night to commemorate the anniversary of the crackdown in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
As the candlelight vigil in ­Victoria Park got underway, ­several thousand people, mostly young, gathered on university campuses and other sites around the city, ­offering a stark symbol of the generational schism that has emerged in the movement for ­democracy in Hong Kong and the mainland.
Organisers of the alternative events said a change of approach was required as the many years of annual commemoration had failed to obtain results.
For the second year running, the University of Hong Kong’s student union held its own memorial for the crackdown, together with a forum discussing the city’s future.
Sea of candles in Hong Kong at June 4 vigil despite boycott calls
Union president Althea Suen Hiu-nam had earlier said the ­student body disagreed with the need to build a democratic China – one of the stated aims of the Hong Kong ­Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which organised the Victoria Park vigil in Causeway Bay.
The HKU event drew about 1,000 participants, who held a ­silent tribute for one minute but did not hold candles.

Prominent China critic Lee ­Yee, one of five speakers at the ­forum, said: “Hongkongers started commemorating the massacre ­because they wanted to change Hong Kong by changing China. But after 19 years [since the handover] of failure, they ­realise this will not work.
“The controversy over June 4 is not in whether to commemorate it, but in whether to let China ­decide our future,” said Lee.
June 4 vigil organiser estimates 125,000 at Victoria Park as speeches and stage incident mark event
Sunny Wong Sun-fai, 40, said he had attended the Victoria Park vigil for six years, but decided to come to HKU this year because he no longer believed in the need to build a democratic China.
“Our focus should be on Hong Kong’s problems and its future,” Wong said. “Building a democratic China sounds a bit far from us.”
Alex Leung Chun-wai, 18, said the bloody crackdown showed him that the Chinese Communist Party was a totalitarian regime and Hongkongers needed to think about how to fight its ­increasing control over the city.
“The older generation has a patriotism complex, but young people are thinking more about how to separate themselves from China,” said Leung, a recent ­secondary school graduate .
Leung said he believed June 4 was worth commemorating for its ­pro-democracy and fighting ­spirit, but not in a patriotic way.
Why Hong Kong’s student leaders are abandoning June 4 vigil
About 1,600 people took part in a forum at the Chinese University campus, organised by student unions of 11 tertiary education ­institutions.
Before the forum began in a packed hall, student leaders from the institutions read out a declaration, criticising the format of the Victoria Park vigil as “rigid”. They said not attending the vigil did not mean they cared little about the 1989 crackdown.
Chan Ya-ming, former deputy editor of HKU student magazine Undergrad, described the vigil’s organiser as a “psychopath” ­because the alliance had been ­organised it every year but the crackdown was still not officially acknowledged.
Radical localist group Civic Passion also organised its own gatherings in five locations, stressing that rallies on June 4 should focus on opposing the Chinese Communist Party.


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June 4 vigil in Hong Kong

Alternative June 4 events around Hong Kong call for change of approach

People of all ages attended the vigil. Photo: Sam Tsang

News

Hong Kong

Critics of ‘rigid’ Victoria Park vigil say the annual commemoration has failed to achieve results


Tiananmen Square crackdown