En svensk i Taiwan

Laeste artikeln i TaipeiTimes som handlade om en tidning i en stad i Kina jag aldrig hoert talas om, daer det trycktes en liten annons paa sidan 14, som var en hyllning till moerdrana av dom som omkom 4:e juni 1989 i Beijing.

Annonsen blev till bara foer att 25-aaringen som ansvarade foer att ta emot annonser foer tidningen visste inte att det hade haent naagot utanfoer det vanliga paa fjaerde Juni 1989.

D E T aer den mest skraemmande av allt.

Det aer foerbjudet att tala/skriva om det- det vet alla (alltsaa foerrutom unga kineser!). Men det aer uppenbarligen ocksaa foerbjudet att tala/skriva om faktumet att man inte faar tala/skriva om det.

Hard to imagine that there is not one word in student's textbooks about what must be considered the most important recent event in the nation's social and political history.

Can the Party really have been THAT efficient in deleting it from the public memory?

Also frightening to think that THIS is the nation that people around the world who care about civil rights, self-determination and the environment are hoping will soon eclipse the evil empire as the dominant superpower.

People should be more careful what they wish for.

If it ever entered the public memory. There are probably a lot of people in China who never knew why the students left the square in the first place.

There was a massive crackdown on media reporting after May 18 (19?) when Zhao Ziyang went down to talk to the students in person only to disappear from the public eye after that night.

I remember clearly how the almost oddly free TV reporting (considering that we were in China) and right-out support that news anchors gave to the protesters disappeared with a loud sucking sound the next day and we were back to dull heavily censored Communist dictatorship reporting.

So if the event didn't even enter the media, it is hardly surprising that it isn't mentioned in text books and that today's young know next to nothing about it.

Here's something interesing: I read an interview with Bao Tong -- Zhao's aide -- the other day and he said that prior to the Tiananmen protests, they were hoping for direct elections for the party chairmnanship by 2002. That was another thing that disappeared with a loud sucking sound.

Jag bodde i Luleå då. På högskolan fanns många kineser, främst på institutioner som hade med gruvdrift att göra. Man undrade hur det kändes att sitta i Luleå och titta på CNN...