Pillar of Shame in Hongkong 2021

a press release from the Hong Kong Committee in Norway: A monument to freedom and democracy in Hong Kong disappears.

(press release is google translated) 

Press release from the Hong Kong Committee in Norway:

A monument to freedom and democracy in Hong Kong disappears

Today, Danish Jens Galschiøt's sculpture Pillar of Shame is removed from

campus at Hong Kong University. The sculpture is a memorial to those who died in

the massacre that crushed the protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing on June 4, 1989.

Galschiøt, who himself owns the sculpture, has repeatedly approached

Hong Kong authorities to come to an arrangement so that the sculpture can be brought to

Denmark. He has then explained that special competence is required so that the sculpture does not become

broken. Galschiøt has not been informed in advance of the current operation. Testimonials

indicates that there is a great danger that the sculpture is about to be destroyed.

This action joins the ranks of the Hong Kong authorities' attempts to erase

out the memories in Hong Kong of the massacre. Previously, the authorities closed June 4-

museum in Hong Kong, denied the people their statutory right to mark the crime,

forcibly dissolved the organization working for freedom and democracy in mainland China,

arrested the organization's leaders for alleged violations of the Security Act, and restricted

access to the June 4 Museum website.

The Hong Kong Committee in Norway condemns the authorities' attempts to write about and falsify the story of the historically essential, peaceful uprising in support of democracy and freedom in China. If the unconfirmed reports of destruction turn out to bring correctness, there are methods from Mao's cultural revolution that have now come to

Hong Kong. This action will then show how Hong Kong's former freedoms are now in

free fall.

With its attacks on the population's collective memory of the atrocities of 1989 gives

Carrie Lams steer us associations in the direction of a modern barbarism, with attacks on

objective storytelling inspired by George Orwell's Nineteen - four.

Brief background information

The Pillar of Shame was first unveiled during the memorial service at Victoria Park in Hong Kong on 4 June it was then moved between several of the universities in Hong Kong. From September In 1998, the statue was permanently exhibited at Hong Kong University.

Ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics, Galschiøt launched the project The Color Orange, there orange color was used to express support for human rights. As part of this

the project was Pillar of Shame painted orange in 2008. Since then, the students at Hong

King University painted the statue orange on June 4 each year. They did this again this year, something like

may have been the last commemoration of the massacre in a long time

Hong Kong Committee in Norway, chair 

Tel: +47 9687 7853

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/standwithhk.norway/

IG: @ standwithhk.norway

Twitter: @hkc_no

Web: https://hongkongkomiteen.org/