Helps remove freedom of expression – VG

For more than two decades, the statue has been erected in Hong Kong to remind the city’s residents of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Wednesday morning it was covered, and now the memorial is being dismantled.

City officials have removed the “Support Shame” statue, a famous statue of Hong Kong University.

For 24 years, the memorial commemorates the victims of the Tiananmen massacre in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.

The sculpture was made by Danish artist Jens Galschiøt, and depicts dozens of disfigured bodies and agonized faces.

– The sculpture is about the dead, and it will memorialize the dead in Beijing in 1989. So when you destroy it this way, it’s like going to the cemetery and destroying all the tombstones, says the artist BBC Newshour.

The university said in a statement Thursday evening that no one has been given permission to install the artwork on campus.

– So shocked

Jessica Chiu, chairperson of the Hong Kong Committee in Norway, was educated at the University of Hong Kong. Strongly react to the fact that the statue was removed.

– I was very shocked to see that my university is now helping to remove freedom of expression in Hong Kong. She told VG that the one we had before, which is now almost non-existent.

– The authorities will remove the story with this monument. Qiu says the story of Tiananmen in 1989 will not be forgotten by me and other Hong Kong residents.

In a statement, the Hong Kong Commission condemned the dismantling as an attempt to “rewrite and falsify history” and “erase memories of the Hong Kong massacre”. They also believe that the methods are reminiscent of Mao’s Cultural Revolution.

This measure will then show how Hong Kong’s former freedoms are now in free fall, they wrote.

yellow helmets

Danish artist Galchiot had previously said he could himself get her out of the country, in exchange for granting him immunity from the new security law. According to the BBC, he is now thinking Prosecuting the Hong Kong authorities, claiming compensation.

In October, the university decided for the first time that the statue should be removed for “security reasons”. Late Wednesday night, images from the site show that the statue has been banned, and several yellow-helmeted workers have taken over the area.

According to Reuters, one can also hear sounds from construction work, and a crane has arrived at the scene.

increasingly tougher

Since a new national security law was passed in Hong Kong last summer, the Chinese authorities have cracked down on all dissent in Hong Kong.

People were arrested in newspapers, the commemoration of the Tiananmen Square Massacre has also been banned – something many people have He faces the threat of imprisonment by defiance.

In late November, a 16-year-old episode of the American animated series “The Simpsons” was discovered by streaming service Disney+ in Hong Kong. The episode contains references and titles to the massacre and Chairman Mao.

In China, carnage is still a taboo topic in public.

Among other things Avatar for “Tank Man” He tried to erase people’s memory, by censoring images from the drama on Changan Street and prosecuting those trying to keep the memory alive.

On June 4, 1989, the People’s Liberation Army moved into central Beijing to clear space in front of the Great Hall of the People. he was there Tens of thousands of students demonstrated Peaceful for several weeks against oppression and imprisonment.

Soldiers fired sharply and the mutinous police beat civilians with batons. The regime reported 241 people killed, and protesters believe that between 3,000 and 5,000 people lost their lives.

The Disney Plus streaming service, which for the first time became Launched in Norway last fallIt was launched in Hong Kong on November 16 this year. According to Variety, the service has launched with 1,200 films and 16,000 episodes in the territory.