Victoria Park, Hong Kong, June 4, 2012
I was only 17. I had just finished my first year of high school. My understanding of the world came from my parents, the radio and TV. It was night time and I was downstairs getting ready to watch some TV when the shows were interrupted with “Breaking News.” They started talking about what was going on. Again I didn’t fully understand it I don’t think anyone knew what was going on. There were the images of lines of soldiers, armored personal carriers and tanks. I remember trying to read every newspaper I could and watch as much as I could. I was trying to understand what I was seeing. I had forgotten about it for a while.
In 2003, I was working in Korea as a teacher. It was summer vacation and I had a week off but was out of money. I went to Beijing because it was inexpensive and it was close. The city was still unfamiliar to a lot of westerners and finding English was always an issue. The first thing I went to see was the square. It was massive, flat and baron other than people moving about. I walked around for a while and saw tones of people taking pictures as guests and doing “touristy” stuff. I tried to imagine what it was like 14 years earlier on those days and nights before that day: that horrible day. I walked to the Beijing Hotel and looked up and thought about all the media members who had stayed there trying to capture what was going on in the city.
Last night, I went to a different kind of square here in Hong Kong 23 years after that night. I could barely get to Victoria Park because of the amount of people. It has been estimated about 180,000 people there. The biggest crowd ever here. I guess I am trying to still understand what happened.