Impressions of China

Chinese Flags in Tienanmen Square - by Luke

On our way back from Bei Hai park we drove a wide perimeter around the whole of Tiananmen square. With the sun setting slowly over the large tower in the center of Tiananmen Square (called the “(T-tower)” we got a glimpse of probably the world’s most historical monuments. Needless to say, Tiananmen Square is not classified as one of the Seven Great Wonders of the World, but the stories and horrors behind the life of such a landmark should deem it so. The pain and disgust that go hand in hand with views of Tiananmen that are pre-determined by what we’ve only learned in high school are, for me (please pardon the independent speech, here), some of the most powerful feelings I’ve ever had related to school and the rest of the world around me.

View of Mao - by Lauren

To accurately portray the spectre of the unfolding of events at Tiananmen Square, a short history lesson is in order. On April 15th, 1989, student protests broke out only shortly following the death of the communist party general secretary and democratic reformer Hu Yaobang. These protests went hand-in-hand with the feelings people had against China’s leader, Deng Xiaoping, who was not wanted (by the students) to be in charge anymore.

Here comes the tricky part…

Resisting the government’s command to cease protests on April 20, the water of China’s social self was turned from a simmer to a boil. Tension was rising and falling in at a time when the leadership of the country was wavering between Li Peng and Zhao Ziyang, that is, after Deng Xiaoping had been forced from office. The student’s protests were to create a more democratically oriented government, which was not appreciated by the communist leaders.

With martial law declared, Li Peng (the winner of the struggle over power between himself and Zhao Ziyang) ordered troops to ‘handle’ the situation at Tiananmen. He did this with the support of Deng Xiaoping.

About a month had passed since the students’ refuse to withhold their protesting. Troops were launched into the Heart of Tiananmen to brutally bring the radical, anti-democratic protests to a screeching halt. Tanks poured in with foot soldiers by their side. With stern, bloodthirsty intentions, the soldiers marched straight in to the crowd of frightened movementists…with their guns pointed forward the whole time. The rest is history, barely ten years ago, to this date, and it is impossible for me to imagine such a horrid thing existing while I was idling my 6-year-old self with pattern blocks and weather charts… sunny, cloudy, foggy, or snowy until school let out. I was completely unaware of what was going on in the world then, and if I’d had to have made a guess, it would have been a cloudy day over Tiananmen.

That is the history lesson. There are hopes that the reader isn’t completely asleep through all the names and dates, impressions and speculations…but it was definitely something that had to be reviewed before summarizing our attendance there.

Tiananmen Square Statues - by Luke

Our first glimpse at Tiananmen, as said before, was of a quick perimeter to see all sides of the Square. It was closed off, due to renovations for the 50th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, so we were only able to cruise the strip that surrounds Tiananmen. We went home, regretting that we were not able to walk on the grounds of the historical monument, but found that only a couple of days later we were able to visit, on the first day of the reopening! The great green walls of construction were torn down and we were the first to experience the newly re-stoned walkways and a completely ‘refurbished’ Tiananmen.

The experience of walking across the slate floor at Tiananmen Square was a little bit like a dream. Though it was sunny, it felt cloudy, and my feet were like marshmallows scuffling softly against the ground. I imagined all the people who died here, scrambling towards the large monument in the middle of Tiananmen, hurrying in vain trying to climb it (though it is unclimbable) and feeling that inevitable sting of death. It’s great to say that I’ve experienced such a place and hope that my travel-mates feel the same.

Yamouth China Studies Project group shot