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" May 35th " Gengzi Edition (In Cantonese, with Chinese & English subtitles) replay will be available on y.outube until 00:00 HKT 6 June, 2020. mourn with us and never forget.

#8964 #tiananmen square #may 35th

25 years ago June 4th, Tiananmen Square

#photo credits in captions #may 35th

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the song picks up a little before the halfway mark, and you can hear elements taken from the Northwest Wind, aka xibeifeng, a musical trend that came out of a contemporary cultural movement post-Cultural-Revolution called xungen, or 'root-seeking'. it features music with folk influences from northwest China, and likewise, Cui Jian uses suona, a traditional trumpet-like instrument associated with northwestern China. (I'm not sure how to cite sources in a blog post, but I'd like to give credit to Paul Clark's Youth Culture in China: From Red Guards to Netizens and this TimeOut article on Chinese musical genres for the information in this paragraph.)

but more importantly, this was the seminal song in the history of Chinese rock 'n roll. Cui Jian's performance of it on May 9, 1986 at the Workers' Stadium essentially marks the birth of Chinese yaogun, and it later became the anthem of the students at Tiananmen Square. (he also performed it live at Tiananmen in 1989. afterwards, in 1990, the authorities forbid him from playing anywhere bigger than a bar in Beijing until 2005.) it was a song for a generation. strictly speaking, the lyrics make it a love song, but they mean much more.

so in memory of June 4th, 1989, here is Cui Jian's Nothing To My Name.

#崔健 #六四 #一无所有 #may 35th #cui jian #nothing to my name #1989 #tiananmen square #mandarin #c-rock

May 35th

Orwell expressed that language can corrupt thought. It is of the utmost importance to find the right way to express something, as it will decide how a person remembers or does not remember a historical event.

This Tuesday, June 4th, marks the 24th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989 that happened in China. Unlike September Eleventh or Pearl Harbor in the States, the anniversary of Tiananmen is not a day of remembrance, nor, I’m sure, will it be publicly discussed. The student protests began after the death of Hu Yaobang, who was the General Party Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. Hu was popular with the people because he was trying to reform a number of government policies, making the government more transparent and loosening its grip on the economy. These changes got Hu booted out of the CCP in 1987: he was forced to resign.

After dying in disgrace, people who were upset by Hu’s removal began petitioning to have his legacy restored, which then led to other demands: eliminate restrictions on protests, end newspaper censorship, and direct more money toward education. The protests escalated, and eventually the decision was made to suppress the protests with military force.

To this day, information on the event remains inaccurate because the government refuses to share what actually happened. The CCP seems incapable of self-reflection (at least publicly) and admitting that it made a mistake. Instead it denies the truth, misinforms the public, and manipulates the past. But the only way this could be done is through the language and coverage the event receives. Obviously all foreign journalists were banished following the crackdown and Chinese newspapers and reporters were used as the instruments of the government, but those tactical moves were easy. If the government really wanted to control how the people thought about Tiananmen they would have to think carefully about what they were going to call it.

A name means everything, mainly because certain words are charged with different emotions. Take for example the words “martyr” and “terrorist.” If suicide bombers—people willing to die in order to kill others—are called martyrs, then they are being thought of in a much more honorable light than they would be if they were called terrorists, which is what our culture does call them.

Tiananmen Square has many names, each designed to manipulate how the public remembers 6/4/89. “Counterrevolutionary riot” was used to justify suppressing the demonstration with military force, as the word “riot” suggests that protestors were out of control. But this was while the events were taking place. The name given to the crackdown would be fundamental, because the name would be the only smokescreen for the government to hide behind. It would have to both establish a historical truth for future generations and somehow alter what actually happened for the generation that witnessed it. What began as a riot has been diluted to “the political turmoil between the spring and summer of 1989.”

The public of Mainland China mostly refers to it as the June Fourth Incident or June Fourth. These are neutral compared to the more emotionally and politically charged names that are used outside of Mainland China, especially in Hong Kong: The June Fourth Massacre, The June Fourth Crackdown. Still, the names people of Mainland China use suggest they have some idea that much more happened than what they have been told, but vague language is what they’ve been taught to use and what they know how to use. And in the age of the internet, the people must be especially careful about the language they use. Certain events and topics cannot be discussed in China; the June Fourth Incident is one of them, but some people have figured out that certain things can be discussed if they use alternative language to bypass the internet censors.

During the 2009 anniversary, the Great Firewall’s security was heightened to a monumental degree, as any foreign site that made any mention of Tiananmen was blacked out. This, of course, is another form of a “pro-democracy crackdown:” it is a crackdown on the people’s access to information. References to “May 35th” on internet chat sites were used by Chinese netizens to discuss Tiananmen and the heightened security that was seen around the country for that day’s anniversary. May 35th is a made up date that may also be referencing the May Fourth Movement that happened in Tiananmen Square in 1919. The internet has certainly made it difficult for the government to keep unwanted information and discussion from occurring, yet no organized action seems to come from it.

Young people are reasonably in the dark about the June Fourth Incident. A friend of mine who also teaches English at a university asked one of her young Chinese colleagues what she knows about Tiananmen to which she responded, “Oh, that’s when all the students were sent back to their hometowns by the government.” The conversation ended there. It’s best not to try and convince them otherwise, because, in truth, we don’t really know any differently ourselves. Some of my Chinese friends are convinced that I am the one who is brainwashed, and maybe it’s true. I certainly don’t think that all the information I am exposed to is completely transparent, and perhaps I think and feel the way I do because I was told to. China is not the only nation that knows how language can be used to manipulate/corrupt/change the way people think or what they think. It’s a very powerful tool. Perhaps, in this respect, every society is an Orwellian society.