This Day in 1989: June 4, 1990, Peking University Students Demonstrate on Anniversary

Around 1am of June 4, 1990, about two thousands students and teachers gathered spontaneously in the campus of Peking University and marched to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Tiananmen Massacre, singing the Internationale. The campus was tense on this sensitive time. Some dorms were locked down to prevent more students from participating. The demonstration was brief and without confrontation.

Days of 1989

People of 1989: Yu Haocheng (于浩成)

A well-known legal scholar, Yu Haocheng was a Manchu, one of the many ethnic minorities in China. His father was a student leader during the May Fourth Movement in 1919, who later became a department head in Yenching University, the precursor of Peking University, and participated in the Communist underground. Influenced by his father and elder brother, Yu Haocheng participated in the revolutionary activities led by the Communist Party from a very early age. However, his fortune was not blessed: In 1947, he was labeled as an "anti-Party element" and almost expelled from the Party. Then in 1968, he spent three years in the Qincheng prison as a "counter-revolutionary."

After being rehabilitated in the late 1970s, Yu Haocheng became the head of a small publishing house, as well as the editor-in-chief for the scholastic journal Legal Studies. He became an active figure in the intellectual circle in Beijing. In 1988, he was a part of the effort to launch a magazine New Enlightenment, for which he wrote an essay titled "People should Have the Freedom from Fear."

In February, 1989, Yu Haocheng cosigned an open letter with other intellectuals in Beijing, calling for political system reform. Thereafter and through out the student movement, he maintained a consistent presence in the various demonstrations and meetings among the intellectuals, including as a part of the 12 scholars who went to Tiananmen Square in an attempt to persuade students stop their hunger strike.

After the crackdown, Yu Haocheng was officially expelled from the Communist Party and was jailed for a year and a half. One of his chief offensives was that he had once made suggestions to Liu Gang when the latter was drafting the charter for the new Beijing Students Autonomous Federation.

In his elder years, Yu Haocheng toured several universities in the US and wrote memoirs. In 2008, he was an early signatorie for the "Charter of 2008."


Yu Haocheng passed away in Beijing on November 14, 2015. He was 91.



People of 1989

Pictures of 1989: Students and Residents Commemorate Massacre Victims on June 5, 1989

Students gather at Beijing Normal College.

A college entrance is decorated as a memorial.

Students gather at the entrance of Peking Univeristy.

Students decorate campus at Peking University.

Residents show pictures of victims to foreign reporters.

Residents direct foreign reporters to site of killing.

Pictures of 1989

People of 1989: Zhang Wei (张炜)

Born in 1955, Zhang Wei is one of the luckier ones among his generation. When college entrance exam was re-established in 1977 after the turmoil of Cultural Revolution, he earned his entrance to Peking University as a student of economics. Two years later, he became the President of the official student union, typically a step stone to a political career in China.

In 1989, when an unexpected election campaign emerged in Peking University, Zhang Wei couldn't help to jump in, despite cautions from school officials. He joined the dissident-minded candidates such as Hu Ping and Wang Juntao but maintained his own brand of "moderate reformer" stand. He garnered third most votes, just behind Hu Ping and Wang Juntao but won deserved respects from his peers.

Zhang Wei (second from left) and his classmates at Peking University in 1982.

After graduating in 1982, Zhang Wei turned down an offer to be a youth official at the school and chose a low level position in Tianjin. In two years, he rose to be the head of a new development zone in the city and became a distinguished reformer. His work earned attentions of top-level government officials.

Zhang Wei (left) and Zhao Ziyang (right) in the 1980s.

As his star was rising, the 1989 student movement erupted. Zhang Wei was 34 then, already one of the top officials in the Tianjin city government. He did not participate in any of the protests, but after the declaration of the martial law, he wrote and submitted a short resignation letter:

I protest the decision of deploying army against unarmed people engaging in peaceful protests. I cannot agree with Li Peng's speech. Now my official duty and my loyalty to people are in conflict. I have to choose the latter. Therefore, I resign from my post.

After the Tiananmen Massacre, He wrote more protesting letters to the central government.

Zhang Wei lingered on a few years after the resignation and suffered a divorce. In 1993, he got accepted by Harvard University and left China for graduate study, while seeking treatment for his young son with leukemia. He earned a masters degree from Harvard in 1995 and then a Ph. D. from Oxford University in 2000.

Since 2002, Zhang Wei has been the president of the Center of Chinese Economics that he founded at Cambridge University. He is still not allowed to return to China.

People of 1989

People of 1989: Luo Yihe (骆一禾)

Luo Yihe was born in 1961 and graduated from Peking University in 1984. He became an editor of a prominent literature magazine The October (《十月》) upon graduation, as well as a famous young poet in his own right. After his fellow poet and alumni Haizi committed suicide, Luo Yihe took care of the affairs and published collections for Haizi.

It is not known whether Luo Yihe had participated in the 1989 student movement himself. In the evening of May 13, 1989, Luo Yihe was at Tiananmen Square with his wife and a few friends. They were observing the hunger striking students marching into the Square. Soon, he was overcome by excitement and collapsed. He was sent to hospital by ambulance but never woke up again. He died of stroke on May 31, 1989.

He was 28.


People of 1989

Pictures of 1989, the Start of Hunger Strike on May 13, 1989

Students display posters for hunger strike.

Hunger strike posters in Peking University.

Hunger strikers from Peking University have their "last lunch" provided by their teachers.

Pu Zhiqiang (center) leads hunger strikers from University of Political Sciences and Law.

Wang Dan (left), Ma Shaofang( center), and Wuer Kaixi (right) are on their way to hunger strike.

Wuer Kaixi

Wuer Kaixi and hunger strikers.

Pictures of 1989

Pictures of 1989: Bao Zunxin Speaks at Democracy Salon on May 12, 1989

Bao Zunxin (Standing, on the right) speaks at Democracy Salon at Peking University. The other standing one is Wang Dan.

Pictures of 1989

Pictures of 1989: Students Bicycle Rally on May 10, 1989

Students from Peking University start their rally.

Zhou Yongjun, Wang Dan, Wang Chaohua, and Zheng Xuguang (from left to right) join the rally.

Pu Zhiqiang in the rally, calling for press freedom.

Students in bicycle rally.

Students rally through Chang'an Avenue. (Photo by Philip Cunningham)

Students rally through Chang'an Avenue. (Photo by Philip Cunningham)

Students from Beijing Normal University at Chang'an Avenue. (Photo by Philip Cunningham)

Students rally at Tiananmen Square.

Students rally at Tiananmen Square.

Students protest in front of People's Daily, Chai Ling is speaking.

Students protest in front of People's Daily. (Photo by Philip Cunningham)

Pictures of 1989

Pictures of 1989: Dialogue Delegation Submit Petition on May 6, 1989

Xiang Xiaoji (second from right), Shen Tong (third from right) and others on their way to submit dialogue petition.

Shen Tong (right) distributes petition to foreign reporters.

Shen Tong (left) talks to foreign reporters.

Posters in Peking University call for continued class strike. (Photo by Philip Cunningham)

Students at Peking University read posters calling for continued class strike.

Pictures of 1989

Pictures of 1989: Beijing Students Demonstrate on May 4, 1989

Reporters and crowd gather around entrance of Peking University waiting for students.

Students at Peking University gather for the march.

Students from Peking University march out of their campus.

Students at Beijing Normal University gather for the march. (Photo by Philip Cunningham)

Students and police at standoff.

Students and policy at standoff.

Students carry Wuer Kaixi on their shoulders and broke through police barrier.

The protest march on streets.

Students in protest march.

Students from Tsinghua University.

Students from the Central Academy of Drama.

The protest march on streets.

Students enter the Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square is filled by protesting students.

Pictures of 1989

Pictures of 1989, Peking University Students Press Conference on May 1, 1989

Peking University Preparatory Committee press conference on May 1, 1989. Wang Dan is reading from prepared text. The one with red shirt in lower left corner is Kong Qingdong.

Pictures of 1989