New York museum ‘keeps memories alive’ 35 years after Tiananmen crackdown
Al Jazeera
A bloodied blouse, a tent and a military medal are among the exhibits commemorating China’s brutal suppression of student protests in 1989.
New York City – When Zhou Fengsuo last saw the mimeograph machine, he was running for his life as the tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square in Beijing in June 1989.
For weeks before that night of bloodshed, Zhou had used the machine, a state-of-the-art photocopier at the time, to churn out leaflets to spread the message of China’s pro-democracy movement.
As one of the last student leaders to leave the square, Zhou tried to talk fellow demonstrators out of heaving the 40-pound (18kg) hulk of solid metal. This may come in handy someday, they argued, and hauled it away on bicycles.
More than three decades later, Zhou was stunned to see that the bulky relic of the rebellion had been secreted out of China for a new museum in New York.
The June 4th Memorial Museum opened a year ago through concerted efforts by Zhou and a few other veterans of the Tiananmen demonstrations now living in the United States. The urgency for a new museum came after the one in Hong Kong was closed down by the authorities there in 2021.
