Tiananmen Square, Egg Wash and Tank Man:

Reflections after 25 years

AP
Photo/Jeff Widener, courtesy The Atlantics terrific photo essay Tiananmen Square, Then and Now
by Ruki
- on 06/05/2014
In 2009, Canadian author Denise Chong published a book
called Egg on Mao: The Story of an Ordinary Man Who Defaced an Icon and
Unmasked a Dictatorship. The main subject of the book is a friend of mine, exiled
Chinese dissident Lu Decheng. Our friendship was when I was a free man and he was
in a Thai prison. We have not met for around eight years, but I look forward to see him
someday. This is a modest attempt to introduce Lu to my other friends & colleagues, to
remember the 1989 prodemocracy movement in China and appreciate the spirit and
courage of Lu and many other dissidents, especially students, who did what they
believed in and paid heavy prices.
Who is Lu and why is he became famous?
Lu was a worker in a faraway province. He had been participating in protests against
the Chinese regime (Chinese Communist Party) and in May 1989, he had decided to
go to the capital, Beijing, with two friends, to voice their protest in a stronger manner.
They were armed with paint filled egg shells and posters, one of which had said The
cult of personality worship will vanish from this day onward! Media reports quote Lu
as having said On May 22 (1989), as the three of us sat on the stairs in front of the
Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square we decided to throw ink and eggs at
the official portrait of Mao. Our intent was to demonstrate our complete denial of the
authority of the CCP at its root Mao. According to one of Lus friends, who joined
him, they had decided on this course of action to motivate the student leadership to
question the legitimacy of the Communist regime itself, and therefore its very authority
to impose a state of martial law.On 23rd May 1989, Lu and his two friends had thrown
eggs and ink at Maos portrait. They were arrested and imprisoned.
According to Ottawa Senator Jim Munson, who was present at Tiananmen Square as
a reporter when the Egg Washing happened, the saga of Lu, an ordinary bus
mechanic transformed into a prisoner of conscience, is a powerful human story that
people should listen to and the lack of freedom to choose in China leaps from every
page (in Chongs book about Lu), in the stories of Lu Dechengs childhood, his
marriage and his life as a dissident.
Tank Man, pro-democracy protests in 1989 and Tiananmen Square
Pro-democracy protests in China, led by students escalated in the days after the Egg
Wash, as did the crackdown by the Chinese authorities. Tiananmen Square was the
focus, but the protests and crackdown was widespread. Numbers killed, injured and
arrested afterwards vary from hundreds to thousands. According to one foreign
journalist who was present, I counted 64 wounded or killed in a short span of time
then stopped counting. His story implied short span of time to be matter of minutes
than hours on 4thJune 1989.
A lasting impression I have of the events is of the Tank Man the image of the
unarmed man who had stopped a convoy of tanks by standing in front of them. I have
used this image in trainings and talks I had given, even though I was not there
personally and didnt know the man personally. Journalists on the scene who had
taken the photos had reported that the Tank Man was dragged away by some men,
but no one is sure of what had happened to him. But he had indeed stopped the
advancing convoy of tanks, even temporarily.
Lus stories in detention and flight
I remember Lus horror stories about prison, especially about torture. I also remember
him saying how sad he was when his wife had come to prison and informed him she
wanted a divorce. Lu had run away with her, as parents had not approved their
relationship, and they had undergone lot of difficulties when the wife was pregnant, as
it was illegal for a young couple to have a baby under Chinas strictly regulated child
birth regime. Lu was eventually released after nine long years, but even after that, he
had been hounded by Chinese authorities. The next horror story I remember was his
illegal journey from China to Thailand, through Burma, as he couldnt get an exit permit
from the Chinese authorities. By then, he was well known, and the Chinese
government had pressed the Thai government to arrest and imprison him.
I was working in Thailand at that time, and it was there that I met him and we became
friends, even though he couldnt talk English and I couldnt talk Chinese. Two
Malaysian friends had been translating for us, and together with them, we often visited
Lu in prison, taking Chinese food and reading materials. We negotiated on his behalf
with the UNHCR, Thai authorities and finally the Canadian Embassy in Thailand. After
long time, Lu was released from Thai prison, granted refugee status by UNHCR,
granted a Canadian visa and left for Canada. In Thailand, I remember Lu had been
talking about his two friends. But like the Tank Man and the many other Chinese
dissenters and political prisoners, Lus two friends fate remains unknown to me.
China today, 25 years after Tiananmen Square
Several years ago, I joined a June 4th remembrance vigil in Hong Kong, to remember
the crackdown in Tiananmen Square and all over China. There were tens of
thousands. It was biggest protest or vigil I had ever attended. Although I could not
understand Chinese, from the little my friends translated and more from the
environment, I felt the intense passion participants felt. I have read that since then, the
numbers participating has increased to more than 150,000.
At the same time, I have heard that Chinese authorities forbids public and collective
remembrances in the Tiananmen Square itself and in mainland China generally, and
that independent discussions and media coverage is prohibited. It is only few
individuals and groups, such as the Tiananmen Mothers, that openly talks about the
incidents and its aftermath, seeking truth, vindication for victims, justice and
compensation.
Five years ago, when the book about Lu was published, its author spoke about her
experience doing background research in China, Just the very fact that I had to be so
cautious and clandestine about it speaks volumes to the worry about the state you
still cannot show any dissidence. Certainly much has changed, certainly you can talk
much more openly in private. But dont you dare oppose the regime in public!
In January this year, legal activist Xu Zhiyong was sentenced to 4 years in prison for
gathering a crowd to disturb public order, due to his involvement in a grassroots
movement which sought to expose social injustice and official corruption. On
14th March this year, activist Cao Shunli died while in detention, after being in coma
and having been seriously sick without getting medical assistance. She had been
arrested in September last year, when she was travelling to Geneva, to follow a
training session before Chinas human rights record was to be reviewed at the UN
Human Rights Council. There are many other such stories I have read and heard
personally.
China and Sri Lanka
As I was writing this, it was difficult to avoid thoughts and comparisons with Sri Lanka.
Having many Sri Lankan activist friends forced into exile just like Lu, seen the tanks in
Sri Lanka, heard stories of torture and of political prisoners detained for longer than Lu
and been personally imprisoned for being a dissident even though for much shorter
time than Lu may have been why I could not let thoughts about Sri Lanka go away. Or
perhaps the way remembrances and memorials are banned and threatened, and the
way student are attacked, arrested, threatened etc. But I dont feel ready yet to write
again about Sri Lanka. Except perhaps to say that in China, its 25 years since Lus
Egg wash, Tank Man defied the tanks and the Tiananmen Square massacres and
arrests. And its 5 years after the end of the war in Sri Lanka. Today, both countries
and their political and business leaders appear to be the best of friends and
collaborators. And I wonder whether there will be Sri Lankans who may dare to do an
Egg wash and defy the tanks (or the guns, water cannons, tear gas or court orders)
like the Tiananmen Squares Tank Men did 25 years ago.