In news– Recently, Hong Kong removed the Tiananmen memorial, Pillar of Shame from the University of Hong Kong.
About the memorial-
- The 8-meter (26-foot)-tall sculpture was constructed in memory of the victims of China’s 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
- It is made of bronze, copper and concrete.
- Danish Sculptor Jens Galschioet had gifted the statue to the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China.
- The Tiananmen massacre, in which hundreds and possibly thousands were killed, was a pivotal moment at which a divided Communist Party leadership decided to suppress the democracy movement rather than allow it to grow.
- The statue shows 50 bodies with anguish-ridden faces piled up together commemorating unarmed student protestors who had been protesting since mid-April in 1989 against corruption, unemployment, inflation, etc., and were killed as Chinese troops opened fire on them.
- These bodies symbolize the devaluation of the individual, and the sculpture expresses the pain and despair of what happened.
- It was erected in Hong Kong in 1997 during an annual candlelight vigil to commemorate the event.
- The text at the base of the sculpture reads, “The old cannot kill the young” in English and Chinese.
- Hong Kong was a British colony and not part of China in 1989.
- After its return to China in 1997, it was given partial democracy, with some of its legislature but not the city’s leader chosen by popular vote.
- Demands for greater democracy sparked massive protests in 2014 and 2019.
Other Pillars of Shame-
- They are designed to remind people of events to ensure they don’t happen again.
- Ostiense Air Terminal, Rome, Italy, 1996, during the FAO Summit, depicting the deaths caused worldwide by hunger due to the uneven distribution of the world’s resources.
- Acteal, Chiapas, Mexico in 1999, to mark the site of the December 1997 massacre of 45 members of the civil society group Las Abejas.
- Brasilia, Brazil in 2000 in homage to the victims of the Eldorado dos Carajás massacre which occurred in 1996.
- A fourth Pillar of Shame was planned in Berlin, Germany, in homage to the victims of the Nazi regime but due to various problems, the artist had to cancel the project.
Source: The Hindu
