TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- Although the Communist Chinese government tried to snuff out any commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre on Tuesday (June 4), reports are streaming in of ordinary Chinese citizens across the country marking the tragedy in many creative ways.
Although Beijing has been turned into a fortress with police, soldiers, and paramilitary troops out in full force to prevent any public gathering to recognize the 30th anniversary of the bloody crackdown in Tiananmen Square, Chinese citizens across the country have used low-profile, subtle ways to commemorate the incident, including fasting for one day, lighting candles, and in this case, posting symbolic numbers on fruit bottles in a supermarket.
A human rights activist in Jiangsu Province told Radio Free Asia that many VPNs used to breach the Great Firewall of China went down on Tuesday, making it impossible to browse overseas websites and log into Gmail. The activist said that many had tried to send photos of the Tiananmen Square Massacre over the internet, but were unable to do so.
The activist said that "Some people could only express their condolences and thoughts in more obscure ways, so that the spirits of the Tiananmen students and city residents could hear them." Among the more unusual ways Chinese used to memorialize the massacre mentioned in the report was a display of bottled fruit drinks seen in a supermarket at an undisclosed location in China.
A person deliberately placed bottles with the numbers "896430" to signify the date of the massacre June, 4, 1989 and the 30th anniversary. In addition, below the numbers, messages in Chinese can be seen, such as "love you," "relax," "my little sun," "student," and "absent."
Many Chinese netizens were moved by the gesture:
"Very sad, I want to cry."
"The last student is absent, sad."
"This is very clever, but the digitally printed drinks may be banned."
(Photo from WeChat user 乔龙)
Another clever way to commemorate the event which circulated on the internet was a modified calendar entry for the anniversary which read, "June 4 avoid talking too much" (6月4日忌多嘴). Below the date, it wrote, "Another integer year, people with slight common sense will continue to be muffled."
(Photo from WeChat user 乔龙)
