Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2021. 360 pp. (Tables, B&W photos.) US$139.47, cloth. ISBN 9789463728447.
The June 4 Incident occurred in Beijing in 1989 when the Chinese government suppressed pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. The military crackdown resulted in numerous casualties among unarmed civilians. Hong Kong, a British colony at the time, became the first site to commemorate the deaths in Tiananmen. For over 30 years, the people of Hong Kong have held an annual candlelight vigil on June 4. The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China (the Alliance) was established to organize the vigil and other commemorated activities. According to statistics from the Alliance, about 180,000 people attended the 30th anniversary of the candlelight vigil in 2019, which was the largest public mourning in the contemporary history of Hong Kong (19).
Memories of Tiananmen is a research project spanning over a decade of looking into the persistence of the candlelight vigil. Francis Lee and Joseph Chan are scholars at the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Their research interests into the interaction between media, political events, and civic society have driven them to publish Media, Social Mobilization and Mass Protests in Post-Colonial Hong Kong: The Power of a Critical Event (London: Routledge, 2011) and Media and Protest Logics in the Digital Era: The Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018). Memories of Tiananmen can be considered a successor to these two books.
While the June 4 Incident is politically taboo in mainland China, the same is not the case in Hong Kong. Lee and Chan comment that the Tiananmen commemoration is “a socially dominant collective memory challenging state power” (21). For the authors, the fundamental question is: “Why couldn’t Hong Kong people forget about June 4?” (11). To answer this question in a critical framework, they theorize the mechanism of collective memory in six processes. Each process represents a different status of the June 4 commemoration. Memory formation, as introduced in chapter 2, is the first process that traces back to the beginning of how Hong Kong people reacted to the June 4 Incident and the role of media in the formation of collective memory. Memory mobilization (chapter 3) focuses on the pattern of how the Alliance and the media created an atmosphere of commemoration in which people could freely participate. Intergenerational memory transmission (chapter 4) illustrates how a web of civil society actors, including family, school, and the media, has passed on the history of the June 4 Incident to the younger generation. Memory institutionalization (chapter 5) discusses the difficulties the Alliance, educators, and student activist groups underwent in locating the June 4 Incident as part of the secondary school curriculum and in sites of memory for public audiences. Memory repair (chapter 6) discusses how the rise of localism in Hong Kong in the 2010s challenged and reconsolidated the meaning and practice of the June 4 commemoration. Chapter 7 re-examines intergenerational memory transmission from the perspective of young people, articulating the (un)changing attitude to the June 4 Incident before and after the Umbrella Movement. Memory balkanization (chapter 8) examines the potential and challenges posed by digital media, illustrating how digital media can polarize divergent attitudes toward the annual commemoration.
In these eight chapters, Lee and Chan have employed multiple methods to collect data. In addition to the textual analysis of existing newspapers and documentaries, telephone surveys, and on-site surveys of the candlelight vigil, in-depth interviews were also conducted (38–39). In the abovementioned chapters and data analysis, I appreciate chapters 2 and 3 the most. These two chapters translate local newspaper commentaries into English and utilize interviewees’ words to help English readers understand how the June 4 Incident generated an emotional imprint on Hong Kong people, sharpened their collective identity, and carried a moral imperative in retaining history.
The nine chapters and epilogue in this book are all of equal importance. Besides the introduction and conclusion, readers must not skip the epilogue! Here, Lee and Chan offer insightful suggestions to readers interested in continuing the study of the June 4 commemoration. The epilogue summarizes how the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill (Anti-ELAB) led to the implementation of the National Security Law (NSL) in 2020. Situated in this new political context, Lee and Chan anticipate that Hong Kong will no longer be able to hold large-scale candlelight vigils as easily as in the past. At the time of this writing in December 2023, the Alliance has disbanded, and its core members, including Albert Chun-yan Ho, Cheuk-yan Lee, and Tonyee Hang-tung Chow, have been charged with “inciting subversion of state power” under the NSL. Lee and Chan predicted that “the risk of being arrested and charged” would be the cost for those who committed to organizing the June 4 commemoration (327). Their prediction soon became a reality. Another prediction suggested by Lee and Chan is that the June 4 commemoration might become “virtualized, decentralized, individualized, and internationalized” (329). Their suggestion may be a new direction for readers to investigate further.
Overall, the strength of this book is its analysis of the interaction between the June 4 commemoration, the media, civil society, and social movements in Hong Kong. It covers a wide range of data and a long length of history. Besides the June 4 Incident, other important political events, such as the handover, Umbrella Movement, and Anti-ELAB, are discussed. For those interested in the history of the Alliance, perhaps this book cannot cover all the details. Still, Memories of Tiananmen is a must-read for those interested in learning about Hong Kong and the topics related to social movements, civil society, and identity politics.
Matthew Tzs-Him Lai
Drew University, Madison