Thirty-Six

Among the photos I’ve collected over the years is this photo taken 36 years ago right around the time as I am typing this post.

The photo in the frame was shot by Stuart Franklin.

There are at least five versions of this photo taken at the time, all from the balcony of the Beijing Hotel, the most circulated one shot by Jeff Widener of the Associated Press. The one I have was shot by Magnum’s Stewart Franklin.

This photo and the whole event in the spring 36 years ago played a crucial role in my self education both as a person, and as one who takes photos. I was old enough to remember what transpired then and there, or at least the official version of it. It’d take me over a decade after that to grasp the full picture and the magnitude of the event. I’m also old enough to remember the whole thing being erased from newspapers, history books and the collective memory of the population. Merely months later, it felt that nothing had ever happened there. I was too young to understand the how’s and the why’s, but I did know, it was very effective, so effective in fact, that it had become the victim of its own success. A few years ago, in early June, a photo from the Square went through all the editorial checkpoints to publication on a Beijing newspaper. No one caught it, not the reporter, nor all of their editors at the paper.

When I moved to Hong Kong, I started going to the annual vigils at Vicky Park. And it was quite an experience for someone of my background. One year, a friend visited us in Hong Kong in early June. When we had dinner together, I told her I was going to the vigil, and she had no idea what I was talking about. She was five or six in 1989, and knew nothing about the event, another testament to the successful erasure of history.

Here are some photos from Vicky Park.

Vicky Park Vigil

One year, instead of Vicky Park, I went to the University of Hong Kong, where students from different universities held their own vigil.

HKU Vigil

It’s worth mentioning that HKU used to be the home to the Pillar of Shame, a sculpture by Danish artist Jens Galschiøt commemorating the event. I wrote “used to” because it’s gone now. During the pandemic, after Hong Kong was handed a national security law, the sculpture was deemed a threat by the overlord and its minions, and was removed from the campus.

I went and took this photo two days before it was taken down, having heard the rumours that it might be on its way out. And now a few benches took its place. I guess they are functional.

Thirty-six years, three cycles of the Chinese zodiac signs have gone by. What would happen in another 36 years? How many people would still remember this or even care to? One of the reasons I was drawn to photography is its relationship to time. Everything on a photo is of the past, and yet, it is proof that it was there, and will always be there. If timely timelessness isn’t a thing, it should be.