臺灣文學虛擬博物館

Pages 237-238.

Taiwanese students reflected on their position from the student movement in front of Tiananmen Square. They were not willing to blindly echo and thought that they should form their own line, on their own land. On the night of June 4th after 20 years, only few Taiwanese gathered to memorize this day, where they exchanged ideas about past opinions and standpoints in slight candle lights. For these intellectuals of the same generation as June Fourth Incident activists, it only highlighted the difference between Hong Kong-Taiwan and China-Taiwan relationships: the more Hong Kong gets emotionally closer to Mainland China, the more Taiwan rationally gets away.

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Page 239.

For Hong Kong people, this incident that happened in the faraway capital city a long time ago is passed on every early summer. Even those who were babies learning to speak, embryos still in their mothers’ belly or young children who were not even zygotes when it happened, all try everything to make themselves “part of history”. A young one used to make a duck cage that was like Tiananmen Gatetower, called it “patriot ducks do patriot things”, and wrote on it: “Even if a duck knows that itself or its baby ducks are only meant to become a roast duck, it will not give up mating. Thus, we will probably not be able to redress the June Fourth Incident when we are alive, but we will never forget the responsibility to pass on the will.”

This is a generation who talk about democracy and human rights. They know well that only by memorizing the June Fourth Incident can Hong Kong people distinguish themselves clearly from mainland Chinese. Only by memorizing this incident can Hong Kong people understand the importance of maintaining their identity. They do not need to defend their identity as a Hongkongese or Chinese – they just need to defend their values, which are embedded on them in the name of freedom.
 

Excerpt from “Hong Kong: become a Hongkongese” in A Sad Border by Ah Po…