Press Conference： June 4th 36th Anniversary Memorial Vigil and the “Kintsugi” Human Rights Photography Exhibition

The June 4th incident of 1989 laid bare the nature of totalitarian rule, and for 36 years the Chinese Communist Party has continued to persecute dissidents through Hong Kong’s National Security Law, the re-education camps in Xinjiang, and repression reaching across borders. For this June 4th the New School for Democracy Association linked memory to action through a photography exhibition and a memorial vigil, holding a press conference on May 20 in the Central Corridor of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall to announce the year’s programme marking 36 years since the massacre. Held under the theme “Resisting Transnational Repression, Opposing Authoritarian Expansion,” it set out the candlelight vigil and its rows of lanterns, the 3D Pillar of Shame initiative, the memorial pavilion on Liberty Square and the NGO democracy stalls, and looked back over the Taiwan-Hong Kong-China lecture series held to mark the anniversary.

Press Conference Rundown

10:30　Opening｜Hu Chia-ying (胡嘉穎), Project Manager, New School for Democracy
10:35　Remarks from the New School for Democracy Association｜Lai Jung-wei (賴榮偉), Chair
10:40　Remarks from June 4th survivors｜Wu Renhua, Yan Kefu (顏柯夫)
10:50　Guest remarks
11:00　Remarks from NGOs｜Human Rights Network for Tibet and Taiwan (Tashi Tsering), Taiwan Association for Human Rights, Hong Kong Human Rights Front (Fu Tang), Amnesty International Taiwan
11:15　Overview of this year’s programme｜Tseng Chien-yuan (曾建元), Managing Director
11:20　Remarks from the exhibition curator｜K.C. Lai
11:25　Introduction to the photography exhibition by the installation curator｜Enzo Fong
11:30　Media Q&A

Remarks

Chair Lai Jung-wei (賴榮偉) explained that the photography exhibition’s theme, “Kintsugi,” refers to the Japanese craft of repairing broken vessels without concealing the cracks, letting the damage become part of the beauty; through that metaphor the association hoped to turn historical injury into a force for resisting totalitarianism. June 4th, he said, is not only past history — transnational repression is a real and present threat, and only by remembering and standing up can freedom and human rights be protected.

June 4th survivor Wu Renhua said commemorating June 4th helps a younger generation in Taiwan recognize the nature of the Chinese Communist system, and that as China’s economy has grown its threat to Taiwan has become more serious, which is why continuing to hold commemorations in Taiwan matters. Fellow survivor Yan Kefu (顏柯夫) described the scenes in Tiananmen Square from his own experience, recalling bullets passing overhead and the wounded lying everywhere, and said June 4th is not only remembrance of the dead but a firm commitment to democracy.

Hung San-hsiung (洪三雄), chair of the Shuang Ching Foundation, drew a warning from his own experience in Beijing in 1989 and urged the Taiwanese public to stay alert and refuse the expansion of authoritarian forces in Taiwan. Tashi Tsering of the Human Rights Network for Tibet and Taiwan noted that Tibetans have been in exile for 70 years with more than a million dead and still cannot express their views; having obtained Taiwanese residency, he said he did not wish to become a refugee a second time, and called on democratic societies to unite against totalitarianism.

Fu Tang, an exiled Hongkonger in Taiwan, said that leaving Hong Kong does not put anyone beyond the reach of Beijing’s repression: surveillance, disinformation attacks and threats continue, and democratic societies worldwide should stand together against authoritarian infiltration. Wang Hsi (王曦), Deputy Secretary-General of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, said the Party uses the United Nations and other international mechanisms to suppress global civil society systematically, even interfering with NGOs’ freedom to speak, and called for clearer protection mechanisms in Taiwan for communities facing Chinese persecution.

Lin Fang-ju (林芳如), Deputy Executive Director of the Hao Min Cultural Action Association, said Hao Min has spent years in Taichung advancing transitional justice through art, culture and lectures, and that alongside the association’s June 4th lectures in central Taiwan the two groups had also collaborated on a May 20 White Terror commemoration, screening a documentary about the artist and White Terror survivor Chen Wu-chen, in the hope that more people would come to understand the fear authoritarian rule imposes on ordinary people. A policy officer from Amnesty International Taiwan said commemorating June 4th is not only about revisiting history but about reminding ourselves that human rights are universal and should not be limited by borders or political systems; as a country that enjoys freedom and human rights, Taiwan should speak up about conditions in neighbouring societies, adopt concrete domestic policies to protect rights within its own borders, and join the international community in resisting transnational repression in any form.

Managing Director Tseng Chien-yuan (曾建元) urged wider society to take seriously that authoritarian expansion is happening now and that transnational repression poses an urgent danger to Taiwan, and invited people to take part in the vigil. The exhibition, he noted, links images of June 4th with protests such as Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement, showing that when civil society faces state violence its pursuit of truth and democracy is one and the same.

Curator K.C. Lai said the exhibition sought to connect the histories of democratic struggle in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan through photographic images, stitching shattered democratic ideals into a shared memory and a shared strength. Enzo Fong, who staged the installation, described the design: the exhibition moves from the weight of historical images towards scenes of protest that are vivid and plural, showing the many forms the pursuit of democracy takes, and inviting visitors to feel both history and the present through taking part.

Participating Organizations

Judicial Reform Foundation, Covenants Watch, Taiwan Association for Human Rights, Hong Kong Outlanders, Taiwan Hong Kong Association, Human Rights Network for Tibet and Taiwan, Hong Kong Human Rights Front, Hao Min Cultural Action Association, Amnesty International Taiwan