University of Hong Kong blocks off part of bridge featuring calligraphy commemorating Tiananmen Square crackdown
- The bridge was the scene of an annual ritual in which students painted messages dedicated to the victims of the 1989 Beijing crackdown
- The move to block it off came just weeks after the university dismantled and removed an on-campus artwork commemorating Tiananmen
Part of a bridge at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) where students gathered each year to paint calligraphic commemorations of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing was blocked off on Saturday.
Nine construction workers were witnessed erecting a metal partition in the morning to cordon off the part of the pavement on Swire Bridge where the commemorative messages were written.
Undergrad, the university’s student-run online news portal, also posted an image of the partition on its Facebook page.
The bridge is located off of its namesake Swire Hall, a student dormitory.
Every year, representatives from HKU’s student union have painted messages on the bridge’s pavement to mark the anniversary of the June 4 crackdown, with the most recent outing taking place on June 11, 2021.
Last year, students wrote: “Long live the heroic spirit of the martyrs, which endures the cold-blooded slaughtering of the city. The fire of democracy that will overcome wolves will never be put out.”