Press release, 28 May 2009

Give the Chinese students their history back!

Help mark the 20^th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre. In 1989 the Chinese students occupied the Tiananmen Square in Beijing for months in an attempt to press the Chinese government to take steps towards democracy and to fight against corruption. But on 4^th June 1989 the regime threw in the army against the unarmed students.

Give the Chinese their story back. The story is banned in China, but all the students’ newspaper articles, fliers etc. have been collected by the democracy movement in Hong Kong. These collections of Chinese and English documents have now been scanned and put on the Internet from where they can be downloaded for free. More info about the 4 June campaign, see

http://www.aidoh.dk/4June89

Many of the young dissidents were imprisoned in the wake of the crackdown. Some are still in jail but they are no longer young. China still practises a massive censorship on information on the massacre. And it is impossible for common Chinese to obtain uncensored information about the event.

Thousands of Chinese students are today studying at universities and other institutions of education in the West. Most of them do not even know their own history due to the censorship.

· Therefore we invite all pro-democracy institutions, scholars and working colleagues to download and print out this documentation or burn it on a CD. Place it on the shelves of libraries and hand it out as a gift to Chinese students on 4^th June, the anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre.

· This way we can make a contribution to preserve the memory of the victims and maybe inspire a new generation of Chinese to see democracy as a possibility for China.

We call on everybody to support this initiative and to mail this appeal to other institutions of education where there are Chinese students or others who might be interested in preserving and distributing the knowledge about the Tiananmen massacre.

The initiative of this appeal and informative campaign is a co-operation between the democracy movement in Hong Kong and Danish sculptor Jens Galschiot who has put up an 8 meter high Pillar of Shame in Hong Kong to commemorate the victims of the Tiananmen massacre.

This year Jens Galschiot has been invited to Hong Kong by the Democracy movement in Hong Kong to join the commemoration in relation to the 20^th anniversary of the crackdown. China’s government is intensifying its effort to censor the massacre. Last year Hong Kong’s immigration authorities refused to let Galschiot enter Hong Kong and it is feared that the same will happen again this year. Demands have been made to give Galschiot permission to enter, from the press and several members of Hong Kong’s parliament. Furthermore the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has negotiated with the Secretary for Security in Hong Kong. Therefore Galschiot has decided to go to Hong Kong once again. The artist will bring along two bronze sculptures which are to be handed over to Hong Kong’s students as well as the Government in Hong Kong on the occasion of the 20^th anniversary. See details on the case at

http://www.aidoh.dk/4June09

Background:

Jens Galschiot, Denmark, born 1954, sculptor. He stakes his art to defend the ethical values of our society, regardless of political, religious or economic interests. His sculptures suddenly appear in public areas and start the performance. Best known are My Inner Beast (European cities in 1993) and the Pillar of Shame (Hong Kong, Mexico and Brazil). The projects are financed through the sale of Galschiot’s bronze sculptures to art collectors all over the world Info: www.aidoh.dk.

At the moment he is working on a worldwide art happening about global warming titled www.SevenMeters.net

Travel plan and contact information

to the Danish group in Hong Kong:

http://www.aidoh.dk/HK-Schedule

The documents about Tiananmen: www.aidoh.dk/4June-Documents

The democracy movement in Hong Kong:

HK Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China

Inquiry phone number: 852-2782-6111, Fax number: 852-2770-6083
E-mail: contact@alliance.org.hk Website: www.alliance.org.hk

About human Rights in China:

www.aidoh.dk/China

Contact to Jens Galschiot:

E-mail: aidoh@aidoh.dk, Internet: www.aidoh.dk, tel. +45 6618 4058

Banevaenget 22, DK-5270 Odense N, Denmark