University of Hong Kong orders removal of Tiananmen Massacre statue Pillar of Shame
Oct 09, 2021
Hong Kong, October 9 : The now-disbanded organiser of Hong Kong's Tiananmen Massacre vigil has been approached by the University of Hong Kong (HKU) to remove the Pillar of Shame, an artwork that pays tribute to victims of Beijing's 1989 crackdown from its campus, said a media report.
The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China and its liquidators Richard Tsoi and Elizabeth Tang said that they received a letter from the university issued on Thursday, asking the defunct group to remove the statue by next Wednesday at 5:00 pm, reported Hong Kong Free Press.
The letter stated that if Alliance fails to remove the sculpture before the deadline, "the sculpture will be deemed abandoned".
"And the University will not consider any future request from you in respect of the sculpture, and the University will deal with the sculpture at such time and in such manner as it thinks fit without further notice," the letter added.
The sculpture -- stood on the campus for 24 years -- is eight-metre tall harrowing monument to those killed by the military during the crackdown
Former member of the Alliance's executive committee, Tsoi has said that the request of the university is unreasonable.
Responding to the University of Hong Kong Tsoi wrote in a letter, "Institutes of higher education not only answer to [their] students and other stakeholders in the institute, universities also have their social mission and historical responsibility."
"Continue letting the Pillar of Shame to stand in the HKU campus [demonstrates] exactly the University of Hong Kong's persistence to values such as freedom and justice," the letter added.
On June 4, 1989, Chinese troops had entered Tiananmen Square in Beijing and fired on students gathered in the largest pro-democracy protests that the Communist regime never witnessed. The death toll from the incident ranged from several hundred to thousands.
