My co worked emigrated from China after this. She explained to me that her family stayed huddled in the living room of their house while it was all going on. Then at sometime early in the morning when all the gunshots and commotion calmed down her two older brothers snuck out of the house to see what had happened. She said 10 minutes later they came back through the front door white as ghosts. They explained to her and the rest of the family that the streets were literally flooded with blood and that there were giant piles of "meat", not bodies. The tanks would run over the dead to make them into a pulp like substance so it would be easier for tractors and hoses to wash it all up.
We look at this as if it's a historical event like the holocaust and that the people responsible have been removed from power. It's the SAME government, and the people in it now praise their predecessors.
I was in elementary school in Beijing at that time, my sister was the student body leader for her university, and quite active in the protest. I remember my dad’s stoic face as he set out to find my sister at Tiananmen Square in the afternoon of June 3rd, myself and all the young kids of the family were gathered at my grandma’s house (which isn’t really wise in retrospect since her house was only about 10 mins away from Tiananmen, while our own house was much further...) under strict orders to not go outside. Later I was told they had first deployed tear gas to disperse the students, but many students wrapped dampened cloths on their faces and went back in. Luckily my dad found my sister and older cousin in time and forcibly dragged them home, otherwise they probably would’ve perished.
This whole thing was horrible. My mom’s best friend worked at a maternity hospital in Beijing city, on that night dozens of wounded and dead were being rushed to their hospital, even though they didn’t have the means to deal with the trauma, being a maternity hospital and all. But the wounded kept coming through, they tried their best to treat them, not many survived. Before dawn they put the IDs out on top of dead bodies to facilitate identification - many of which are student IDs - but in the morning cops came by and confiscated the IDs. Shortly after coroners’ van came and took the bodies. People who lost their kids that night were told their kids were missing. Or ran away.
My family lived in the district of Beijing that housed quite a few Chinese science institutes, many kids from that district went to major universities in Beijing and participated in the demonstrations. I’ll never forget the wailing in our neighborhood in the following days, weeks, months. They can cover up the truth all they want, I’ll never forget. And I’ll do my best to make sure others won’t, either.
Edit: I’m so happy to be able to contribute a little to the students’ legacy with my comment! Some of you guys asked for more info on the movement itself, I think this wiki page does a pretty decent job of outlining it, certainly much better than my 10 year old brain at the time could remember. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests give it a look if you’re interested! And my whole family left China many years ago, we’re perfectly safe, no worries :)
rykorotez on August 20th, 2019 at 22:42 UTC »
My co worked emigrated from China after this. She explained to me that her family stayed huddled in the living room of their house while it was all going on. Then at sometime early in the morning when all the gunshots and commotion calmed down her two older brothers snuck out of the house to see what had happened. She said 10 minutes later they came back through the front door white as ghosts. They explained to her and the rest of the family that the streets were literally flooded with blood and that there were giant piles of "meat", not bodies. The tanks would run over the dead to make them into a pulp like substance so it would be easier for tractors and hoses to wash it all up.
Truly horrifying stuff.
Edit: Grammar
hiricinee on August 20th, 2019 at 23:16 UTC »
We look at this as if it's a historical event like the holocaust and that the people responsible have been removed from power. It's the SAME government, and the people in it now praise their predecessors.
Blinkyouredead on August 20th, 2019 at 23:24 UTC »
I was in elementary school in Beijing at that time, my sister was the student body leader for her university, and quite active in the protest. I remember my dad’s stoic face as he set out to find my sister at Tiananmen Square in the afternoon of June 3rd, myself and all the young kids of the family were gathered at my grandma’s house (which isn’t really wise in retrospect since her house was only about 10 mins away from Tiananmen, while our own house was much further...) under strict orders to not go outside. Later I was told they had first deployed tear gas to disperse the students, but many students wrapped dampened cloths on their faces and went back in. Luckily my dad found my sister and older cousin in time and forcibly dragged them home, otherwise they probably would’ve perished.
This whole thing was horrible. My mom’s best friend worked at a maternity hospital in Beijing city, on that night dozens of wounded and dead were being rushed to their hospital, even though they didn’t have the means to deal with the trauma, being a maternity hospital and all. But the wounded kept coming through, they tried their best to treat them, not many survived. Before dawn they put the IDs out on top of dead bodies to facilitate identification - many of which are student IDs - but in the morning cops came by and confiscated the IDs. Shortly after coroners’ van came and took the bodies. People who lost their kids that night were told their kids were missing. Or ran away.
My family lived in the district of Beijing that housed quite a few Chinese science institutes, many kids from that district went to major universities in Beijing and participated in the demonstrations. I’ll never forget the wailing in our neighborhood in the following days, weeks, months. They can cover up the truth all they want, I’ll never forget. And I’ll do my best to make sure others won’t, either.
Edit: I’m so happy to be able to contribute a little to the students’ legacy with my comment! Some of you guys asked for more info on the movement itself, I think this wiki page does a pretty decent job of outlining it, certainly much better than my 10 year old brain at the time could remember. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests give it a look if you’re interested! And my whole family left China many years ago, we’re perfectly safe, no worries :)