19th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre

I happened to be visiting an art gallery in Germany today. The gallery was empty, but at one exhibition room, a Chinese woman stood guard. Beside her, on the floor, were several green felt sheets and a pile of sizzers. Small figures had been fixed to the green felt.

"Would you like to cut out a figure to put on the picture?" she inquired of me.

In her hand the lady held a red rose made of felt. She had evidently constructed the rose for herself out of the material lying on the floor. I learned that she had moved to Germany decades ago to be educated as a lawyer.

"China is a dangerous place for lawyers" she said.

As it happens, a red rose is the symobol for the Chinese mothers' of Tiananmen campaign. But I did not know that until I went on line this evening.

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On this, the 19th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, the WSJ observes:

Many young people in China don't know what took place in 1989 and don't seem especially keen to find out. China's students today aren't especially antiestablishment or openly critical of authority -- a product both of their own experiences and of an active effort by Communist Party leaders to better shape and co-opt student opinions.

Today, hundreds of Chinese mothers are still asking the Chinese government to tell the truth about what happened to their children, the fallen heroes of 1989.