A Fading Scar
If anyone is haunted by what happened at Tiananmen square in 1989, it should be Wang Dan. The most famous student leader of that tragic Beijing Spring, Wang was released from prison this year and hustled off to exile in the United States. On the long Northwest Airlines flight, Wang met two women from Beijing, both employees of Western companies in China. They chatted with Wang for hours and happily posed with him for souvenir photographs. One handed him her business card as they said goodbye. "If you miss China," she said, "just give me a ring." Wang was elated. "Those two women are why I'm so hopeful for China," he said, delighted that they weren't afraid to talk to him. "That's why China's future is so bright."
People haven't forgotten Tiananmen, says labor activist Zhou Guoqiang, who was released from four years of "reeducation through labor" last January. "But people can't change the leadership, so pro-democracy demonstrations are meaningless right now." Zhou, who led labor protests during the 1989 Beijing Spring, says his worst punishment behind bars--even worse than the beatings he received--was being deprived of writings on law and religion (he's a Protestant). Now he sits glued to his growing library of books, such as "World Documents: Human Rights," and to a computer loaded with Windows 98. He remains under tight surveillance; two unwitting upholsterers were detained recently after they arrived to repair his sofa. Zhou monitors news of growing labor unrest. "The government can distance me from other workers, but it can't control the workers' inner frustrations," he says, adding that if China can't handle this well, "it will go the way of Russia."
In some ways, China's workers have taken up where the pro-democracy crowd left off. Under a mammoth downsizing campaign by government enterprises, more than 10 million workers were laid off last year, and some have taken to the streets. But both sides are keen not to repeat the mistakes of 1989. Last fall central government officials issued new instructions for dealing with such demonstrations: mediate, cajole and, if all else fails, pay the guys off. In one startling incident, Hebei police sided with protesting workers and remonstrated with their factory head, urging him to take some back on the payroll. During large, well-organized protests in Shenyang--the dead heart of China's rust belt, where state-run firms are collapsing right and left--police have resorted to tear gas. Here and there, minor injuries or arrests are reported. "But the central government doesn't want any martyrs," says a diplomat in Beijing, who has heard of no labor protester being detained for more than 12 hours.
Chinese officials worry that labor unrest might erupt while the Clintons are in the country. The thought evokes memories of May 1989, when Beijing's sporadic student protests started out as a footnote to much bigger news: Mikhail Gorbachev's state visit, the first by a Russian leader since the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s. Students outmaneuvered the authorities by occupying the center of Tiananmen Square. By the time Gorbachev touched down, his official welcoming ceremony had to be convened hastily at the airport because Tiananmen belonged to the protesters. His motorcade detoured around the demonstrations, but still he spotted banners welcoming Gorbachev: the real reformer.
The breathtaking pace of change makes China an out-of-body experience for the returning visitor. I feel a jolt when a curio dealer shows me 8-by-10 photographs of the trial of the Gang of Four, the ultraleftist radicals led by Mao's ruthless widow, Jiang Qing. When I was based in Beijing in the early 1980s, I covered that trial. It was a time of quiet euphoria and national catharsis; Jiang (who killed herself in prison) and her cohorts were held responsible for the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, during which tens of thousands of Chinese were persecuted to death.
I say I "covered" the trial, but that's not really the right word, since everything took place in secret. Flipping through the old black-and-white pictures at the curio shop, I notice some unfamiliar faces. "These are the judges," explains the merchant. "See this woman judge? She's very tough, she really socked it to the Gang of Four." It's the first time I can recall hearing an ordinary Chinese citizen heap such praise on a modern-day judge. "We need more people like this tough woman judge," says the curio dealer, staring at me intently before he turns to his next customer.
1989 群星 - 歷史的傷口Wound of History
http://youtu.be/ag1XhlVEs24
WOUND OF HISTORY [ Tiananmen Historical Scar]
Translated by Ron ZHANG, XIAO Tong
Blindfolding us, you expect us to see no more
Plugging our ears, you want us to hear no more
Yet, the truth is in our heart
The pain is in the chest
How much longer do we have to endure
How much longer do we have to be kept silent?
If tears can wash away all dusts...
If blood can be exchanged for freedom...
Let tomorrow remember today's outcry
Let the whole world see the wound of history!
歷史的傷口由台灣四家唱片公司（飛碟、滾石、可登、寶麗金）的一百多位歌星，在八九民運中，為了聲援大陸學生運動，1989年5月28日錄製（而其作品也是李宗盛繼《還有》後第二個由王傑主唱之作品）
Looking back to 32 years, we weren't happy with what we got however looking at it now, it makes me realised how much we had it over 32 years ago. This song will always remind me how hard Taiwanese people worked to achieve what they have now. Unfortunately the new generation doesn't seem to apprecaite the hard work we have put in. sign...
中國實在是很厲害，中國一群未來的菁英，就毀在戰車的輪下，因為
http://youtu.be/F8lWiWaSTtg
歷史的傷口
蒙上眼睛，就以爲看不見
捂上耳朵，就以爲聽不到
而真理在心中，創痛在胸口
還要忍多久，還要沉默多久
如果熱淚可以洗淨塵埃
如果熱血可以換來自由
讓明天能記得今天的怒吼
讓世界都看到曆史的傷口
蒙上眼睛，就以爲看不見
掩上耳朵，就以爲聽不到
而真理在心中，創痛在胸口
還要忍多久，還要沉默多久
如果熱淚可以洗淨塵埃，如果熱血可以換來自由
讓明天能記得今天的怒吼，讓世界都看到曆史的傷口
啊......啊......
