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SCMP Reporter

THE Pillar of Shame sculpture - banned from two public parks by municipal councils - arrived in Hong Kong yesterday.

 The controversial two-metre artwork, which depicts a mass of 50 bodies writhing in pain, will be shown briefly at Victoria Park and likenesses could spring up at some universities.

 Students of the eight tertiary institutes are painting on-campus pictures of the Goddess of Democracy - the statue destroyed by the People's Liberation Army in Tiananmen Square during the 1989 massacre - and some hope to set up copies of the Pillar of Shame.

 The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movement in China, organisers of the June 4 candlelight vigil, will move the two-tonne sculpture from Kwai Chung container port to a basketball court in Victoria Park on Tuesday, before unveiling it at dusk.

 The Alliance had applied to the Regional and Urban councils to show the sculpture in Sha Tin Park and Kowloon Park, but both applications were rejected.

 Polytechnic University students' union president Lit Ming-wai said students would ask permission from university head Professor Poon Chung-kwong this week to display likenesses of the sculpture.

 'We aim to set up such a sculpture on campus permanently. We may not be able to get the permission from the university before June 4, and we are not sure how much chance we will have to get the approval,' Ms Lit said.

 'But we will definitely go ahead with our plan to paint the Goddess of Democracy before June 4. This is to remind students not to forget the incident.'  The university originally opposed applications to paint a picture of the statue on campus but backed down after students' protests.

 Kelvin Yip San-wa of the University of Science and Technology said the union was waiting for an answer to its request to paint a picture of the statue.

 But students at Chinese University, Hong Kong University and the Baptist University said they would submit no applications.

 Patrick Wong Chun-sing of the Hong Kong University said: 'We will paint the Goddess of Democracy outside the students' union office.

 'We are university students. We are mature enough to decide what we can do and what we can't. We need not report to the university everything we do.'  Today there will be a march from Chater Garden at 3 pm to the Xinhua (New China News Agency) offices in Happy Valley. The students will join the candlelight vigil in Victoria Park on June 4.



Banned Pillar of Shame arrives in HK