Glutter is getting some great press today, her excellent article on the oppressive nature of the Chinese government appearing here. Great work.
My only question is in regard to a footnote where she writes that the Tiananmen Square “tank man” was Wang Weilin and that he was executed in 1989. I had thought these were rumors, and that there is no documentation that he was arrested or executed, or that his name was definitely Wang Weilin. (Jan Wong wrote in Red China Blues that he is still in hiding). But maybe the riddle has been answered and I just didn’t read about it.
1
By san
Hongkong people’s fixation with Tiananman
is precisely what holds them back
economically after the handover. Hongkong’s future lies in the further integration with Mainland China and yet Hongkong is so ill prepared in term of language(mandarin skill) ,the attitudes and the knowledge of the mainland society that its role as so-called gateway to china is slowly being eroded as Chinese cities gradually learn the skills of how to deal with the outside world directly without the middle man called Hongkong. What happened in 1989 is indeed a sad episode but most people in China have decided to move on. A Hongkong still obsessed with Tiananmen will not help its people ajust to a fast changing China.
May 12, 2004 @ 11:29 am | Comment
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By jeremy
but the voice of question the war is still not very loud, in fact, when i watched tv for Oscar awards, when one of the director or producer said something against war, everyone sighed at him and hoped him get off the stage as quick as possible, look, how silly and inflounced many american are by the governmen contraled medias, as if who questioned the war, is a betrayal, sad for the american people, so silly
May 12, 2004 @ 12:02 pm | Comment
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By Lashlar
Richard, I think what Yan said in that little footnote or postscript or whatever, was that “Nineteen-year-old Wang Weilin, said by many to be the young man in the photo, was executed by the Chinese Government in 1989.”
Said by many, would, in my construction of that sentence, be more of a rumor or conjecture, “we think he was executed”, than an objective statement of fact: “that he was executed”. I don’t know if the man was ever found, or executed, as my knowledge of modern China is less than my knowledge of its earlier history. I hope he wasn’t. He was very brave.
May 12, 2004 @ 4:40 pm | Comment
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By richard
Good point — you’re right. But to my knowledge, even the execution of Wang Weilin (or the existence of such a person) has not been documented. In my searches, I found some personal web sites that make this claim, but the news sites refer to it as either “rumor” or “theory.” This is a topic I am very interested in, so if I’ve missed any articles about it please let me know.
May 12, 2004 @ 4:48 pm | Comment
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By Zhang Li En
I’m really rather confused by San’s first post to your article. He thinks that Hong Kong’s “fixation” with Tiananment Square has held the city back economically? I wonder if San would care to justify this statement with some actual evidence?
May 12, 2004 @ 7:46 pm | Comment
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By hkreportage
Is that because Tung is thinking so much that he can’t be bothered to do anything?
May 12, 2004 @ 8:45 pm | Comment
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By hkreportage
San–and what about the idea that China is perhaps so ill-prepared that it couldn’t function with a completely autonomous region of itself operating in a democratic manner?
May 12, 2004 @ 8:46 pm | Comment