Tiananmen rallies ‘form’ HK youths’ consciencePublished Date: May 21, 2010 By ucanews.com reporter
Annual rallies in Hong Kong commemorating the Tiananmen Square crackdown on June 4, 1989, are not wasted even though the mainland Chinese are still suffering 21 years on, a Protestant pastor says.
These rallies have “helped form the conscience of the next generation,” said Reverend Timothy Lam Kwok Cheung of the Sen Lok Christian Church, at a seminar to remember the tragic event.
More than half of the 200 participants in the May 19 seminar were young people.
Though they were very young in 1989 and did not know what was happening in Beijing then, nevertheless they learnt about the event from their elders, said Reverend Lam.
One youth who was born in the 1980s said in an interview that “he began to learn about his country from the tears on his parents’ face,” the pastor recalled. The seminar was co-hosted by several Catholic and Protestant groups.
It was the first in a series of Christian activities to mark the 21st anniversary of the massacre. Other activities to be held in the run-up to June 4 include a rally, a prayer gathering and Masses in several Catholic parishes.
Or Yan-yan, project officer of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, one of the seminar organizers, agreed with the pastor.
Over the past two years, more young people are taking the initiative in organizing commemorative activities, she told UCA News.
“It’s possible they understand that local democratic development is now closely linked to the Chinese regime,” she said.
Reading about the clampdowns on dissidents and the many cases of injustice in mainland China, they have realized they need to stand and be counted on social issues and to show concern for their society, she said.
Tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents attend the annual June 4 candlelight vigils, and these “have sown seeds in their minds,” she said.
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