Zhang, 24, Beijing

I remember vaguely sound of shootings, and fires in the street. My parents won’t go out. I don’t know what happened exactly, but I don’t think it’s so important now, so many years later. A lot of progress had been made

*

Zhang, 30, Beijing

I remember in my hometown people were shocked that students would do something like that to our soldiers, burn them alive. My parents say, however, that have I been old enough, I would have probably joined the protesters.

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Zhang, 32, Beijing

Yes, I remember the event but not very clearly. Yes, I think it should be discussed but it can’t be discussed publicly at present. What angers me the most is how people were treated after June 4th. Participants in the events were denied jobs, even persecuted. I think it’s unfair. As for blocking information 20 years later, well, they are control freaks. This is what China has always been. Probably always will be.

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Zhang, 27, Beijing

I think it’s not being discussed because it’s not yet history. Not enough time has passed. I think the government was right in what it did: they were afraid of the cultural revolution coming back, and chaos taking control.

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Zhang, 74, Beijing

What is there to talk about? it’s not interesting.

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Zhang, 35, Beijing

My students now, they hardly know anything about it. I myself have heard stories from older cousins who were students at the time. One of them spent a month in jail simply because his name was identical to that of Liu Xiaobo. Funny, isn’t it?

I think we, the Chinese, don’t want to ponder over painful memories. We don’t do it in our private lives, nor in our national memory.

*

Zhang, 42, former Beida student

I remember. I hope one day I will be able to write all about it

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These are all bits from real conversations with real people, brought here in their somewhat less than real names, that took place in the last week.

Of all the many, many articles published in the last weeks over the subject, This one by Donald Morrison really nailed it:

Sometimes I want to take the entire State Council by the lapels of their increasingly stylish suits and shake some sense into them. Gentlemen, this is not the way a great power behaves. Afraid of its own shadow. Frightened of its own people. Haunted by an event that took place 20 years ago, one you can’t even blog about without risking your Internet access or your day  job.

Also of interest (if only because it’s another Chinese person’s view): Ai WeiWei 让我们忘记 “let us forget”. Here in English translation by the indispensable China Geeks.