Tiananmen impressions

1997 saw my wife and I going on our honeymoon to China and its capital, Beijing. At the time, the student uprising and the massacre at Tiananmen Square were still widely talked of. Few of us had had the time to forget the image of the lone figure standing in peaceful protest, hands hanging almost limp, his face turned towards the intimidating presence of a tank. I don't know what happened to him, and I certainly don't know what prompted this daring feat of his. But he and countless other young people were fighting for change, risking their lives to achieve it.

We came as tourists eight years later, walked the Chinese wall, saw the empty Ming Dynasty tombs, relished in Chinese cuisine, and lingered by the hotel swimming pool while the local villagers went about their humdrum business in the 40 degrees Celsius heat. Did we feel guilty about it? No, to us this was our honeymoon trip, and we were set to savour this exotic experience as much as we possibly could. We were holidaymakers, not avantgardists of democratic change.

But in retrospect it feels slightly surreal to have walked the concrete tiles of Tiananmen Square, surveying the dull, monotonous surfaces of the halls of power: the People's Congress. This was, after all, the place where Chairman Mao proclaimed the creation of the so-called People's Republic in 1949. This was the very spot where so many lives had been brutally cut short not that long time ago. And here I was, the privileged westerner, on the final day of our stay, safely taking in the impressions of a venue so steeped in history.

There were soldiers around me, but no guns pointing at my face. Some of the people hastily walking by were in all likelihood relatives of some who had died, but I would never know. I don't talk Mandarin. I am a native speaker of Norwegian, and I live in a country were the only thing we really seem to want to fight for, is a solid biannual pay increase.

I hope and pray that China some day will honour the memory of the courageous ones who stood their ground on Tiananmen 19 years ago. This is my infinitesmall contribution towards keeping it alive.