TORSTAR NEWS SERVICE
Cheuk Kwan accompanied a guest to York University this week, hoping to show the visiting Hong Kong legislator a gold-painted statue commemorating the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre.
To Kwan’s dismay and embarrassment, the 13-foot tall icon — normally standing in the lobby of the campus student centre — had vanished.
Its sudden disappearance had some wondering: Could the statue’s removal possibly be the result of some sinister political pressure from the Chinese government? Or was it carted off simply because, as university administrators contend, the figure was attracting fruit flies?
Not only was the statue removed, it appears it was tossed out with the trash.
“The Goddess replica is an iconic symbol of China’s democratic movement. We’re upset that they just threw it into a scrap pit,” said Kwan, chair of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China, the donor of the statue created by York fine arts students.
Kwan had later learned the statue was removed just prior to the Monday visit of Cheuk Yan Lee, an outspoken critic of the Chinese government.
“The first thing that came to our minds was whether this was a political manoeuvre under pressure from Chinese officials.”
The original statue in China was built by Beijing Fine Arts Academy students at the height of the democratic movement in Tiananmen Square that was later crushed by army tanks on June 4, 1989.
To Kwan’s dismay and embarrassment, the 13-foot tall icon — normally standing in the lobby of the campus student centre — had vanished.
Its sudden disappearance had some wondering: Could the statue’s removal possibly be the result of some sinister political pressure from the Chinese government? Or was it carted off simply because, as university administrators contend, the figure was attracting fruit flies?
Not only was the statue removed, it appears it was tossed out with the trash.
“The Goddess replica is an iconic symbol of China’s democratic movement. We’re upset that they just threw it into a scrap pit,” said Kwan, chair of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China, the donor of the statue created by York fine arts students.
Kwan had later learned the statue was removed just prior to the Monday visit of Cheuk Yan Lee, an outspoken critic of the Chinese government.
“The first thing that came to our minds was whether this was a political manoeuvre under pressure from Chinese officials.”
The original statue in China was built by Beijing Fine Arts Academy students at the height of the democratic movement in Tiananmen Square that was later crushed by army tanks on June 4, 1989.
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