30th anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen Square

30^th anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen Square

in Beijing in 4.juni 1989

Appeal to remember the story
The monument about the Tiananmen massacre in Beijing
Huge billboard on Danish highway mark the massacre
Appeal: Give the Chinese students their history back!
New movie about the massacre in 1989
About Hong Kong at the moment

Dear

I send this mail in memory of the 30^th anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989. It is forbidden to mention the massacre in China, and each year fewer yet know what really happened. But all media articles, fliers etc. on this subject have been collected by the democracy movement in Hong Kong, and can be downloaded for free here. A new movie has been sent about the massacre. I send you this mail and all the documents, so that you can help in giving the Chinese their story back. Forward this email to a friend

The Pillar of Shame: In 1997, I erected an 8 meter tall monument in Hong Kong. This monument is an artistic statement on the situation in China and is so far still the only memorial about the massacre on Chinese soil.

Placing this sculpture in Hong Kong cost me a permanent expulsion from China and two expulsions from Hong Kong. I think it's important that artists, cultural groups, and others defend human rights, and that we use our freedom of speech to tell the story of the massacre. I hope that you will help in doing this.

Billboard on Danish highway: In Denmark I just go the permission to put up a huge billboard on the highway showing some of my sculptures. In the middle of the billboard I have chosen to put the monument of the Tiananmen massacre. I think it is great to get the picture of this particular sculpture on the sign, to commemorate and rehabilitate the brave Chinese students who had to lay down their lives in 1989.

At the foot of the sculpture is a beautiful Chinese calligraphy that reads "the nation's trauma". Now the sign will be on the highway for the next 20 years and almost 1.000.000.000 cars will pass by, and perhaps the passengers will send the Chinese students a loving thought and thus help remember this part of history.

Panda diplomacy: Denmark has just received 2 pandas from the Chinese leader Xi Jinping in order to seal the special friendship between the two countries. Because of this there has been a lot of attention to how China will react, when Denmark, as probably the only country in the world, has a billboard which, among other sculptures, shows the memorial about the Tiananmen massacre on one of the most crowded highways in the country.

This shows how we still respect the freedom of speech in the Scandinavian countries. This shows how we still respect the freedom of speech in the Scandinavian countries. See the mention of Hong Kong newspapers and Danish newspapers , as well as a newsletter about the case or this website

In memory of the 30^th anniversary of the massacre, I enclose this appeal, and hope that you will pass it on to your Chinese friends, institutions, and others who might benefit from remembering this landmark event.

Kind regards,

Jens Galschiøt

The socket on the memorial.

Appeal

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Press release June 2019

Appeal to the press, culture- and art institutions, artists, working places, libraries, universities and others.

Give the Chinese students their history back!

Help mark the 30^th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre. In 1989, Chinese students occupied Tiananmen Square in Beijing for months in an attempt to press the Chinese government to take steps towards democracy and to fight against corruption. But on the 4^th June, 1989, the regime sent in the army against the unarmed students.

Give the Chinese their story back. It is forbidden to mention the story in China, but all the students’ newspaper articles, fliers etc. have been collected by the democracy movement in Hong Kong. These collections of Chinese and English documents have now been put on the Internet where they can be downloaded for free. A new movie has also been sent about the massacre.

Many of the young dissidents were imprisoned in the wake of the crackdown. Some are still in jail but they are no longer young. China still practices massive censorship of information about the massacre. And it is impossible for Chinese people to obtain uncensored information about the event.

In China the encroachments continue. The Nobel winner Liu Xiaobo died after having been imprisoned several times in China. But these prominent artists are only the tip of the iceberg, there are thousands of artists, environmental activists and others imprisoned. And all they have done is defend their most basic human rights.

The new surveillance technology has given China the possibility to introduce an extreme control system, which means that now they are able to control and register all movements and communication of every Chinese person.

The consequence of this technologic nightmare surveillance is an increased suppression, and that it has got even more difficult for the Chinese people to receive real and true information about what is going on in their own country. Today China is the country in the world, which has the most extensive surveillance of its inhabitants.

Thousands of Chinese students are today studying at universities and other institutions of education in the West. Most of them do not even know their own history due to the censorship. You can help remedy this.

Therefore we invite all pro-democracy institutions, scholars and working colleagues to download and print out this documentation or put it on a USB flash drive. Place it on the shelves of libraries and hand it out as a gift to Chinese students on the 4^th June, the anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre.

This way we can make a contribution to preserve the memory of the victims, and maybe inspire a new generation of Chinese to see democracy as a possibility in China.

We call on everybody to support this initiative and to mail this appeal to other institutions of education where there are Chinese students, or others who might be interested in preserving and distributing knowledge about the Tiananmen massacre.

The initiative of this appeal and information campaign is a co-operation between the democracy movement in Hong Kong and Danish sculptor Jens Galschiot, who in 1997 put up an 8 meter tall Pillar of Shame in Hong Kong, to commemorate the Tiananmen massacre. Hong Kong is the only place on Chinese soil where the victims can be honoured.

About Hong Kong at the moment

It seems that China’s suppression of free speech still has a solid grip, also in Hong Kong. Galschiot is just one of many critics who have been denied entry. So the city is deprived of a cultural exchange that is taken for granted in all open democratic societies. The expulsions are a blatant violation of the principle of ‘One country – Two systems’ that was guaranteed as part of Hong Kong’s reunion with China in ‘97.

In 2013 Galschiøt managed to enter Hong Kong to repair ‘The Pillar of Shame’. In these very years Hong Kong stands on the precipice of realizing the 1997 agreements with China, to develop a real democracy in Hong Kong. But they are under a lot of pressure from non-democratic forces. The results of these negotiations are crucial for the future of Hong Kong.

Throughout 2014 massive demonstrations in Hong Kong have taken place. They fight for the right to get the democratic elective system that China promised Hong Kong's citizens when they took over the country in 1997.

The peaceful demonstrations have been met with comprehensive violent force from Hong Kong's police, and the citizens have been defending themselves against the police´s pepper spray canisters with simple umbrellas.

Thus the movement now uses the umbrella as a symbol of their struggle to introduce democratic elections into Hong Kong.

In the month of May 2019 a new law was introduced in Hong Kong: they have to extradite people, who are accused of oppositional activity to the (corrupt) justice system of China. It is very likely that it would be very insecure to be in Hong Kong for people, who do not agree with the Chinese government.

A functioning democracy on Chinese ground, even though only in Hong Kong, is an extremely important symbol for the more than one billion living in mainland China.

Useful links:

Hong Kong free press:

Download the documents about Tiananmen 1989

Galschiot’s activities related to China

The democracy movement in Hong Kong:

HK Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China
E-mail: contact@alliance.org.hk, internet:

Phone: +852 2782 6111

Contact Jens Galschiot: E-mail: aidoh@aidoh.dk,

Internet: galschiot webside or To Galschot arkive webside

tel. +45 6618 4058 mobil 0045 40447058, Banevaenget 22, DK-5270 Odense N

newsletter about the case or this website

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About Jens Galschiøt:

Danish artist Jens Galschiøt has created many socio-critical sculptures and installations through the years. Most often they are placed in public spaces around the world – as needle-sticks and silent reminders of a world that, in his opinion, is out of balance, and where exploitation of the world’s resources, inequality and migration are a constant part of the picture.

General information about Galschiøt can be found at:

See Wikipedia:

Portrait of the sculptors CV (PDF)

To Gallery Galschiot

To Galschot arkive webside