The Day China Cried:: A Witness to the June 4Th Massacre

By Daniel Nardini

This is my updated memoir about my experiences during the 1989 prodemocracy movement in China and the events that include the June fourth Massacre (also called the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the Beijing Massacre). The event now lives in history, and it is an event that shall always be remembered by the people not only in Beijing, where the massacre took place, but in every major city in China by those who participated in the prodemocracy movement. I had originally gone to China to document everyday life. This became overshadowed by this incredible mass movement that would take place not only in Beijing but in every major city in China as students were joined by young people, workers, and people of almost every profession in a call for drastic reform against corruption, inequality, and the growing division between rich and poor.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503565371

Daniel Nardini

Daniel Nardini was born in Bloomington, Illinois, and raised in Elmhurst, Illinois. He graduated from Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin, in 1983, with a bachelors degree in anthropology and history, and from Western Illinois University in Macomb, in 1986, with a masters degree in European and Asian history. Mr. Nardini taught English as a foreign language in Taiwan from 1990 to 1994, and in South Korea from 1996 to 1997. He worked as an editor for Lawndale News in Cicero, Illinois, from 1994 to 2014, and as a newspaper correspondent for The Fulton Journal in Fulton, Illinois, from 2018 to 2020. Mr. Nardini has written eight other books. They are: South Korea; Our Story; The Day China Cried; My Taiwan, Seoul, and Guadalajara (Mexico) Memoirs; My Italian American Family, Rural Taiwan, and Lawndale News Memoirs; My South Korea Photograph Memoir; My Taiwan Photograph Memoir; A Taoist in Rural Illinois; and More Lawndale News Memoirs. Mr. Nardini is retired, and lives with his wife Jade in Chadwick, Illinois.

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The Day China Cried:

A Witness to the June 4th Massacre

Daniel Nardini

Copyright © 2015 by Daniel Nardini.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2015906727

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5035-6539-5

                Softcover        978-1-5035-6538-8

                eBook             978-1-5035-6537-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Rev. date: 04/28/2015

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Contents

Foreword

Arrival

The Committees

The Pro-Democracy Movement Hits Shanghai

At A High School

The Fateful Train Trip

June 3-4

Aftermath

Reign Of Terror

What’s In A Number?

Escape, Sort Of

Meeting With Correspondents From The Washington Post

Leaving China

Since Then

Erased From History

DEDICATION

I dedicate this memoir to all those I knew in China, and to Daniel Southerland and Dudley M. Brooks. I further dedicate this book to the loving memory of my mother, and to my father James Nardini.

FOREWORD

This is my updated memoir about my experiences during the 1989 pro-democracy movement in China and the events that include the June 4th Massacre (also called the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the Beijing Massacre). The event now lives in history, and it is an event that shall always be remembered by the people not only in Beijing where the massacre took place but in every major city in China by those who participated in the pro-democracy movement. I had originally gone to China to document everyday life. This became over-shadowed by this incredible mass movement that would take place not only in Beijing but in every major city in China as students were joined by young people, workers and people of almost every profession in a call for drastic reform against corruption, inequality and the growing division between rich and poor.

We all know what happened to this mass movement. It was brutally suppressed by the Communist Party of China desperately trying to keep total control over the country. This pro-democracy movement was the first real challenge to the Communist Party’s rule since the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949. The movement was spontaneous, drew in many sections of Chinese society, and led to a generation asking questions long forbidden–what is freedom, what is democracy, and how can we peacefully work to resolve China’s problems? These questions became too dangerous for the Communist Party. It might have led to questioning the very legitimacy of the Communist Party’s rule. In the end, the Communist Party chose to suppress this mass movement at any cost, and it did so with a dramatic use of military force on June 4th, 1989. Not only did the Communist Party choose to suppress this mass movement, but it instituted a reign of terror to make sure the people understood who was in charge.

Lately, there have been efforts by revisionists who question whether the June 4th Massacre ever occurred, and most certainly the Chinese government has been making every effort to expunge the very memory of the Chinese pro-democracy movement and the June 4th Massacre. To those so-called historians, journalists and others who now dispute that the June 4th Massacre ever occurred, I say that they have failed to take into account three things. First, the witness testimonies of what occurred in June of 1989. They run into the thousands, and more would testify that such a massacre did exist if they were not in China. Second, the sheer number of reporters who were there and can attest to the massacre. And third, the physical evidence that has survived the attempt by the Communist Party of China to suppress the whole truth. This evidence includes spent bullets and AK-47 cartridges, photographs of all the dead bodies, letters and diaries of those who survived and escaped, etc. The only thing lacking is the central party archives that can confirm once and for all the number of dead from the massacre. This the Communist Party will keep forever locked up until they are gone from power. I am just one more individual who has witnessed this cataclysmic event. Nevertheless, I wish to add my testimony to this in remembrance of those who died and those still alive who hope that one day there will be a full accounting of this Chinese Communist atrocity. This book is dedicated to all those who have died, and to those who suffer under Communist Party rule who I hope will see the freedom and liberty a generation fought for over a quarter a century ago.

Daniel Nardini

Chadwick, Illinois

2015

ARRIVAL

I ARRIVED IN SHANGHAI, China, on May 7, 1989. Friends of one of my classmates met me at the Shanghai Hongqiao International