Hope for Freedom in China Voiced at Rally Marking Uprising in Tian An Men Square

Born in China, Andrew Kwong spent his childhood in Hong Kong and moved to the United States as an adult. But on June 4, 1989--the date of the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tian An Men Square--his image of himself took a dramatic turn, becoming inextricably connected with the land of his birth.

“I almost forgot I was Chinese,” he said, “until two years ago when I watched the news.”

Today, the 38-year-old pharmacist from South Pasadena is president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Federation for a Democratic China. On Sunday, he helped stage a peaceful rally to mark the second anniversary of the date that changed his life.

About 100 people--many of them Chinese-Americans, many of them students--attended the commemoration, held at Barnes Memorial Park in the city of Monterey Park, which has a large Chinese-American population.

The rally, conducted almost entirely in Chinese, featured protest songs, hopeful poems and political exhortations. The theme for the event was “Forget Not Our Chinese Roots.”

Among the speakers was Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo, who encouraged the crowd to write to elected officials in protest of President Bush’s plan to extend most favored nation trading status to China.

“It’s very clear that during the last two years the winds of change have blown across the world,” Woo said. “Democracy has come to Eastern Europe. Democracy is coming to the Soviet Union.”

But, the councilman added, both Bush and the Communist regime that rules China “have not gotten the message.”

The rally was at once simple and heartfelt. The microphone squealed. The featured performers read their lines as they sang. There were no costumes, no slick Hollywood-esque productions.

An amateur acting troupe called Hong Kong Forum staged a play about the Tian An Men Square revolt. The play, entitled ‘Revolution . . . Again?!’ ended with the release of white balloons; in China, white is the color of both mourning and hope.

“We all remember two years ago,” said 28-year-old computer programmer Richard Leung, a member of the troupe. “Lots of people in China risked their lives to fight for democracy. We think it’s important to continue the fight.”

A foursome, lead by Kwong playing electric guitar, sang the Bob Dylan song “Blowin’ in the Wind,” changing a few words to reflect the struggle of the protesting students in China. As they sang, the audience joined in.

“After June 4, this song had new meaning for me,” Kwong explained. “It talks about no answers, that there are a lot of questions. It’s the same situation in China. A lot of times, we don’t have answers. . . . It touched my heart when I sang this song.”