China's Tiananmen incident remembered in exhibit moved to California

The Mainichi

3 days ago

EL MONTE, California (Kyodo) -- An exhibit commemorating the victims and survivors of the military crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters in Beijing in 1989 has opened near Los Angeles, having been relocated from its previous space in New York.
The June Fourth Memorial Exhibit, which launched in El Monte on Monday ahead of the 36th anniversary of the incident, displays the names of nearly 200 people who died in the violent crackdown, alongside physical artifacts from the Tiananmen protests.
A tattered banner from the time with phrases critical of then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping is displayed next to an interactive piece where visitors can deface an image of Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China.
Activists from the 1980s student movement who attended the exhibit's opening stressed the need for remembrance and accountability from the Chinese government.
Jin Xiuhong, an activist during the protests, said any hope for reform was crushed after the events of June 1989.
"After 36 years, we must let the world know the Chinese Communist Party is not savable," said Jin, a 70-year-old resident of Seattle.
She considers the Chinese government "the root of evil." She is hopeful that U.S. President Donald Trump, whom she says fellow dissidents also support, will advance policies that bring about the end of the party.
The exhibit's director, Wang Dan, was also a participant in the Tiananmen protests. Relocating the exhibit to an area near Los Angeles came about due to the high cost of rent in its previous space in New York.
Wang, 56, said the exhibit itself has not changed much from the version displayed in New York, but he wants to expand its impact, making the El Monte location a hub for cultural and educational events.
Jason Han, a volunteer with the exhibit, said he learned about the violence against protesters while attending university in China in the early 2000s. Information on the topic is less available to students in China due to increased censorship, Han said.
In April 1989, students at universities in the Chinese capital, acting as part of a coalition of citizen and worker groups, began a months-long protest in Tiananmen Square.
Their demands of the government varied, but the exhibit centers around student desires for economic reform and democratic freedom. According to the exhibit, the military violently dispersed the protesters on June 3 and the following day, resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries.