Result: 0

June 4, 1989 is the date that the Chinese government wants people to forget, as if it never happened, as if a million people did not converge there, as if no one died, was injured or imprisoned. In the United States, if you type Tiananmen Square Protest into a Google search, you receive 473,000 entries. In China, you receive Result: 0.



I was a 20 year old college Junior on an exchange program between the State University of New York at Buffalo and the Beijing Teacher's College. I had a four year old Canon F1 camera and a stipend of $100 a month for food and film. I started taking photographs of the protest in April when there were a few hundred students making banners and posters.



The first I heard that something was happening in Tiananmen Square was when a student told me that Hu Yaobang, the respected pro reform former secretary general had died, and that students were making posters and banners for a memorial service in the square. I went to take pictures in mid April and returned over and over again until June 7, when my dormitory was empty except for me and one Japanese student. I was "convinced" to leave the country for my safety by the coordinator of the exchange program.



At first, I took pictures of people making posters and the crowds gathering for Hu Yaobang's memorial service. Then there were marches. As Gorbachev arrived in the country, protesters arrived with his photograph pinned to their jackets. To students, he was a symbol of reform. So many arrived in front of the Great Hall that the government was forced to bring Gorbachev through the back door. Students began camping out in the square and refused to leave even after martial law was declared. Tanks and soldiers arrived. It took two more weeks before the tanks rolled into the square.



I am printing images for exhibitions in the United States and around the world. I will have upon request 50 photographs size 16 x 20. These images are compelling and aesthetic. For example, the pictures of rows of tent poles or rows upon rows of bicycles in the abstract are striking photographs on their own, but they also document students taking over the most important square in China. As the protest spread, older Chinese arrived with food for students and workers arrived to protest wages, working conditions and corruption. The older protestors carried pictures of Mao and Zhou En Lai, to them symbols of political purity. Think about it: Pictures of people carrying pictures. I have pictures of students talking to soldiers. In later shots, I have pictures of burning tanks and crushed bicycles. They speak to the politics.



June 4, 2009, will be the 20th anniversary of the protests. News organizations will recognize this event on that date, but so far no galleries have committed and no books have been published. Many famous photographers were sent to Tiananmen on assignment once the protest grew large and loud enough. They were there for the main events, backed by their publications. I was there when there were only paste pots and hand written calligraphy.


2009 will mark the 20th anniversary of the student protest for reform/freedom in Tiananmen Square that ended with military crackdown.

http://picasaweb.google.com/khiang.hei/TiananmenSquareStudentsProtest1989