Exiled Tiananmen Square dissident Wang Dan mourns the death of his mother and key defender
- Wang posts poignant obituary on social media, describing his mother as his ‘spiritual pillar’ and detailing the hardships she endured to save and protect him
- The US-based political commentator says Wang Lingyun was locked up for over 50 days after the 1989 crackdown in Beijing, causing atrophy in her legs
In an obituary posted on “Wang Dan’s Page” on Facebook on Tuesday, the veteran dissident recalled how his mother was locked up for over 50 days after the 1989 protest, causing muscular atrophy in her legs.
“My mind blacked out only twice throughout my entire life that left me unable to think. The first time it happened was on June 4, 1989 and the other time was on Dec 27, 2021. There is no word for me to express how hard her death has hit me … Upon her death, my spiritual pillar has collapsed and the world will forever be missing a piece to me,” Wang wrote.
Wang Lingyun was a history major at Peking University and served in the National Museum of the Chinese Revolution, now called the National Museum of China, studying modern Chinese and party history for more than 40 years until her retirement.
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During her son’s years of imprisonment, Wang Lingyun was a staunch supporter and fought for his release.
Wang Dan was at the top of Beijing’s most-wanted list after the events of June 4, 1989, in which the Chinese government cracked down on tens of thousands of university students and other protesters in Tiananmen Square in Beijing who demanded democracy and an end to corruption.
The dissident, now aged 52, served almost seven years in jail in two stints. He was arrested in 1990 and sentenced to four years in prison in 1991. After his release in 1995 he was rearrested for “subversion” and sentenced to 11 years in jail.
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“To save me and protect me, she bravely protested to [Chinese] authorities and appealed to the world [for my release] despite all of the emotional pain she had to carry,” Wang Dan wrote of his mother.
After spending more than six years in prison, the Chinese government allowed him to go to the US on medical parole in 1998. He stayed there and earned a PhD in history and East Asian languages from Harvard University before teaching politics and history at several Taiwanese universities from 2009.
In 2017, Wang returned to the US where he continues to promote and rally support for Chinese democracy and freedom.
During his exile to the US, Wang was banned from returning to China, prompting his parents to visit to reunite with their son.
However, at home Wang Lingyun often lived under surveillance at her Beijing apartment.
Wang Dan wrote in his mother’s obituary that their meetings overseas made up for some of the lost time, but being blacklisted by Beijing authorities meant he could no longer return to visit his mother.
“The greatest wish of my mother was to spend her last years with her son by her side in her Beijing home but she didn’t live long enough to see the day [I could return to China],” he wrote.
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Wang has dedicated US$100,000 from his personal savings to establish a humanitarian fund in his mother’s name to help ease the suffering of family members of China’s political prisoners.
“Please take care and wait for me in heaven. We shall reunite one day and when that day comes, let’s start again and I will do nothing but be your son only,” Wang wrote.
