Tiananmen Square Cartoon Hit With Chinese Online Community, Not With Government

ABC's Mary Huang reports from Beijing: On a day meant to celebrate China’s future, an image surrounding the country’s troubled past has captured the attention of its online community.  Just three days before the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, China’s Southern Metropolis Daily published a series of cartoons commemorating International Children’s Day. In one, a small boy draws a stick figure standing in front of a line of tanks, echoing the iconic Tank Man photograph from the Tiananmen protests.  The cartoon quickly circulated around China’s online community as citizens passed it on, attaching comments that praised the newspaper and implored future generations to remember the event. State censors quickly intervened and removed the cartoon from the newspaper’s website.  In the lead-up to this year’s anniversary, the government also cracked down on commemorative activities in Hong Kong, the only part of the country where such public events are allowed. On Saturday, city police arrested 13 activists demonstrating on the city’s sidewalks, along with a miniature version of the original Tiananmen “Goddess of Democracy” statue. Standing at 33 feet tall, the original statue was constructed by student protestors to symbolize their push for democratic reform. It stood in the square for five days before soldiers destroyed it during the government crackdown. Like the Tank Man, the sculpture has become an icon of the Tiananmen movement and a symbol of liberty and free speech. Replicas have been built around the world in commemoration. The replica seized by Hong Kong police had been constructed by New Zealander Chen Weiming for the city’s Tiananmen Square protest memorial gatherings this year. Public outcry forced the Hong Kong police to return Chen’s statue on Tuesday. The statue was on display during the city’s June 4 memorial vigil in Victoria Park. Police also released the activists on bail within a day of their arrest. The creator, however, was not so lucky. Earlier in the week, Hong Kong authorities detained and deported Chen at the airport as he tried to enter the city to check on his statue.  Twenty-one years after Tiananmen, the Chinese government continues to label the student-led protests as a counterrevolutionary revolt and to restrict public acknowledgement of the crackdown. As Hong Kong citizens gather in memory of Tiananmen, memorial events in mainland China are out of the question.  Younger generations of Chinese remain largely ignorant of the events. For a society that prides itself on remembering its 5,000-year-old history, most Chinese treat June 4 as an ordinary day.  With the exception of increased security along Beijing’s streets, the day appears to pass by quietly. Yet, as the Southern Metropolis Daily cartoon reminds us, there are still some, however few, dedicated to keeping the memory of the massacre in Tiananmen Square alive in China.  Associated Press contributed to this report.