Still Remembering June 4, 36 Years Later

Lighting a candle to remember June 4

The 36th anniversary marking the June 4th massacre did not go unnoticed in Vancouver. This evening a few hundred people converged on David Lam Park in the downtown area to mark the event with speeches, songs and candles.

There were stalls presenting information about what happened to Hong Kong, in particular the 2019 protests, what happened in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, a bust of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, and a poster showing pictures of the candlelight vigil in Hong Kong's Victoria Park every year from 1990 to 2020. There was also a mini Zunzi exhibition featuring his political cartoons.

Speakers including Chow and Giggs hold candles

When the vigil this evening began, organisers spoke about not only remembering the victims who died in Beijing in 1989, but also Lee Cheuk-yan, Albert Ho Chun-yan, and Chow Hang-tung, former organisers of the Hong Kong vigil, who have been in jail for over 1,000 days.

Organisers also said since the vigil was declared illegal in Hong Kong since 2020, it was even more important to be able to mark it in Canada.

People like Dr Diana Lary, professor of Emerita of History at the University of British Columbia spoke about being in Beijing in June 1989 and how she safely returned to Vancouver and pretty much every year since has commemorated the event. 

During her speech she felt most for the Tiananmen Mothers who are in their 80s and don't have any grandchildren, let alone children. Lary also noted how there were many authoritarian governments around the world, and worried about the Canadian government possibly doing more business with China because of our economic situation these days.

Former radio host Giggs, Edmund Wan Yiu-sing also took to the stage in a spirited speech. He encouraged people listening to close their eyes and for 10 seconds think of people in Hong Kong who previously attended the candlelight vigil and imagine them here. 

People place candles in holders

He relayed that Lee recently had surgery, while Ho's health wasn't very good. He told them and Chow that they were not forgotten.

There was also a voice recording of one of the Tiananmen Mothers, who was pleased that others outside China were remembering what happened 36 years ago today.

The big draw of the evening was Alex Chow Yong-kang, who is currently studying his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. He said June 4th was not only China's history, but the world's history, and Canada's history, as we have marked the event for the past 36 years. 

Chow urged people to not only remember the victims, but also create connections. "We are not here merely to mourn, but to reaffirm our humanity and dignity. The candlelight of memory may eventually dim, but our commitment never will," he said in English.

As he spoke, white candles were handed out, and while the sun was still setting, it wasn't pitch dark yet. Nevertheless, candles were lit and then attendees were encouraged to place them in a candle holder near the stage.

Yes we still remember, and we will continue to do so.

 

A Visit to Blake Garden

Beautiful green views over the city

A relative who lives in the Bay Area took us to Blake Garden today, a public garden north of the UC Berkeley campus in an area called Kensington. We had to go up hills and along narrow roads before we reached the entrance.

It's free admission, with entrance at a pedestrian gate off to the side. There's no paper map to follow so it's best to just wander around and the paths eventually meet up with each other. The garden is 10.5 acres which includes Blake House, which is supposed to be the residence of the president of the University of California. 

Giant flowers under blue skies today

But upon closer inspection you can see it's deserted and empty, and not maintained. We asked a gardener working on the property about it and she said the last president lived there 15 years ago and since then successive presidents prefer to live closer to the campus. The place has also fallen into disrepair and would need a huge budget to not only renovate the home but also maintain it. Not exactly a priority at this time, which is too bad, but at least the garden is kept up using organic methods.

The house includes a long rectangular reflecting pool that is fed fresh water from a grotto. Upon closer inspection of the manmade pool there were giant Japanese carp swimming in there! They got excited to see me, thinking I would feed them and came swarming around, but then realised I did not bring anything, and there's also a sign warning visitors not to feed them human or fish food, as they are already well fed.

Twin Japanese girls and their parents came to have a picnic by the pool and the siblings were excited to see the fish. One of them counted how many and rushed back to report the number to her parents.

Blake House in the background

Wandering around the garden we were impressed in particular by a giant magnolia tree. We'd never seek such a big tree with big leaves and big flowers in a creamy yellow colour. While the garden tries to maintain things as natural as possible, many of the 1,500 species of flowers and shrubs did not have labels so we either had to guess or didn't know what they were. 

Nevertheless the view was beautiful -- down below we could see San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. The garden is quite compact, as it abutted some public roads and residential area. There's a mini redwood forest but we didn't go in, and instead admired some Asian-inspired ceramic sculptures near the Blake House, as well as the numerous flora and fauna.

There was also an area with a sign that says "caterpillar X-ing" and some milkweed grown there to help foster more butterflies, and there were a lot of succulents and flowers, a few roses and even an artichoke tree with artichokes growing on it!

Blake Garden is a lovely place to walk around and immerse yourself in nature for a few hours!

Massive magnolia flower!

Blake Garden

70 Rincon Road

Kensington, CA

Picture of the Day: A Tree of Resilience

An old buckeye tree near the Berkeley Faculty Club

Today we went to the UC Berkeley campus to attend a lovely wedding in the forest called Stephen T Mather Redwood Grove. Just across from the Botanical Garden is the forest grove, where there is an outdoor amphitheatre. 

It was a beautiful setting, simple, natural and best of all cool with the trees acting as organic canopies shading us from the sun.

Afterwards we headed to the university faculty club for refreshments followed by dinner and dancing.

When we walked towards the faculty club we were struck by this tree. It looked very pale and we wondered if it was dead and wandered closer to take a look.

On the tips of the branches there were small green leaves! So it was indeed still alive.

The tree is called buckeye, and this one seems to be a very old one. The trunk is also quite impressive -- is it one tree with two trunks or two trees sharing the trunk? 

It's definitely a model of resilience, somehow managing to stay alive!