Record number of people turned up tonight at the 8.00pm Candlelight Vigil at Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to mark the 20th anniversary of the June 4 massacre. A New York Times report cites several participants who have expressed different reasons for attending the vigil:
Yvonne Chow, a middle-aged social worker, said that she had come to the vigil every year for two decades and was heartened to see the turnout on Thursday night.
“I am very happy that people have not forgotten the massacre in Tiananmen on June 4,” she said. “I am very sad because it destroyed our hopes for democracy.”
Brian Cha, a 35-year-old interior designer, said that while the twentieth anniversary was an important one, he also came because he was angered by recent comments by Donald Tsang, Hong Kong’s chief executive, who suggested that critics of the crackdown should also take into account China’s many successes since 1989.
Carrie Ho, a 35-year-old marketer, said that she came to the annual vigil for only the second time partly because of the Hong Kong government’s decision to bar some activists from entering the territory in recent weeks. The government’s action undermined freedom in the territory, she said.
This breath-taking photograph of the Candlelight Vigil is taken by Bobby Yip of Reuters.
