World: Tiananmen Square Massacre, June 4, 1989

18 years ago.

As I saw all the young faces at Displace Me at the Pomona Fairplex, I couldn't help but remember the young people 18 years ago and 1/2 a world away.

It was the Beijing Spring of 1989 when students were joined by the masses in rallies in Tiananmen Square to demonstrate for reform. In between the Forbidden City and Mao's Mausoleum is Tiananmen Square. It was there that hopes for change were crushed when military units moved in from the east and the west to clear the square. To this day, there is no agreement on the number killed and wounded in and around the square.



The video above appears to have been edited clips from the various news broadcasts during those tumultuous days as well as smuggled videos of the slaughter. Unfortunately, there isn't any translations for the words you hear but the images are haunting.

Below is another music and image remembrance to what happened in Tiananmen Square using the same music but different video clips.



Click here to see the Guardian's report on the Massacre published on the 10th anniversary in 1999.