Tiananmen Mothers: The Grey-Haired Guardians of 1989 (1)

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Tiananmen Mothers

http://www.tiananmenmother.org/index.html Tiananmen Mothers website

These mothers belong to a special group that lost their children and loved ones in the June 4th Massacre 35 years ago. Over the past three and a half decades, they have continuously worked to make their voices heard, striving to ensure that the world does not forget the tragedy that took place in Beijing.

Ding Zilin is a central figure in this organization, known as the Tiananmen Mothers, and is also one of its founders. She was an associate professor at the Philosophy Department of Renmin University. Her son, Jiang Jielian, was 17 years old in 1989 and was a sophomore at the affiliated high school of Renmin University, one of the best schools in Beijing. Students who performed well at this school were directly recommended to China’s top universities, Tsinghua and Peking University.

Amid the political atmosphere of 1989, Jiang Jielian became involved in the student movement. On May 17th, Beijing students launched hunger strikes and protests, and Jiang, along with his friends and classmates, took to the streets, holding banners and signs.

High school students took to the streets to protest; Jiang Jielian, first on the left

Beijing youth are staging a hunger strike, holding a banner that reads: "Mom, I'm hungry, but I can't eat.”

On June 3rd, the Martial Law Command issued a notice to all Beijing residents, forbidding them to leave their homes and imposing martial law, warning of severe consequences for violators. Gunfire could intermittently be heard outside Ding Zilin’s home. Despite hours of pleading from Ding Zilin and her husband, Jiang Jielian locked himself in the bathroom, and because they lived on the ground floor, he climbed out of the window and made his way to Tiananmen Square.

The martial law troops were advancing from Muxidi toward Tiananmen but were blocked by Beijing residents. Suddenly, the troops began firing at the citizens. Muxidi became one of the deadliest areas of the massacre. Among the Tiananmen Mothers, 35 family members of victims died at Muxidi. After the gunfire started, Jiang Jielian and his classmates hid behind a flowerbed near a subway station at Muxidi. They never imagined that the Chinese military would use live ammunition on its own people. Jiang Jielian occasionally peeked out to check the situation, and during one of these moments, a bullet struck him.

The martial law troops' tanks are in Tiananmen Square

Braving a barrage of gunfire, Beijing citizens carried Jiang Jielian out of the area and rushed him to a hospital. The next day, Ding Zilin and her husband searched through 20 hospitals but found no trace of their son. That afternoon, they received a call asking them to come to Beijing Children’s Hospital to identify a body.

Beijing citizens were gunned down by the troops

Jiang Jielian’s classmates at Renmin University were outraged when they learned of his death. They demanded an explanation from the school and asked that the flag be flown at half-mast to mourn him. However, the atmosphere in Beijing at the time was one of terror. Soldiers were firing on ordinary citizens, and the school leadership, under pressure, refused the students’ request. On June 7th, Jiang Jielian’s body was cremated, and his remains were covered with a banner sent by his classmates, bearing the word “Patriotism.”

After June 4th, many institutions in Beijing began conducting political investigations, requiring employees to explain what they had done on June 4th and demanding loyalty and allegiance to the authorities. Communist Party members were required to re-affirm their loyalty. Ding Zilin, a Communist Party member at the time, refused on that day.