This year's commemoration of the Tiananmen Square crackdown drew 48,000 people to Victoria Park, organisers said.
As they do every year, participants held aloft flickering candles and sang the pro-democracy songs that were sung by the students and workers who stood up against advancing soldiers and tanks in Beijing 19 years ago.
But the mood was sharply different from that of June 4, 1997, and a feeling of uncertainty hung over the crowd. Against a backdrop of concern about an erosion of civil liberties in post-handover Hong Kong, there was fear that this year's public observance might be the last.
When I met two journalist friends separately at last week's vigil, both put the same question to me: when will those who 'do not want to remember, but dare not to forget' no longer feel free to gather in public and mark the sacrifice?
True, much has changed on the mainland since 1989. The Communist Party leaders who played the most direct role in the bloody suppression of political freedom have either passed away or retired. On the social and economic fronts, rapid advances have consistently surpassed predictions.
Similarly, 11 years after Hong Kong's return to China, perceptions of the mainland have altered drastically. Public trust in the central government has grown steadily and Hongkongers generally feel that China under the leadership of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao is moving in the right direction.
