It is nearly 20 years ago that university students were deeply affected by the Tiananmen Square crackdown on June 4. Now, today's students are struggling to come to terms with the events of 1989.
Though they were infants when the crackdown took place, some feel they have a responsibility to raise what happened in discussions on campus.
Since last month they have been busy in groups making displays, publishing booklets and organising forums about the 1989 democratic movement.
Their first worry was that few students would take part in activities marking the anniversary. But the real problem has turned out to be the stances taken and comments made by some students about the events of 20 years ago.
One busy student leader is Patra Li Yim-tung, 20, external vice-chairman of the Social Sciences Society and a journalism student at the University of Hong Kong.
Ms Li admitted that the response they had received was better than for other exhibitions they had organised. She is especially impressed with students coming from the mainland. 'Maybe Hong Kong students are used to such information [about the June 4 crackdown]; mainland students study every display board by board in a very detailed way.'
The public forums they organised at the university in the past two weeks threw up another surprise: Ayo Chan Yi-ngok, president of the university's student union and a speaker at one forum, stirred hot debate with his remarks on the crackdown. Mr Chan said some student leaders of the 1989 protest had acted irrationally. He was later criticised for damaging the reputation of the university's students and dividing Hong Kong students from mainland ones.
