The Legacy of the Tiananmen Square Massacre

By Meredith G. Healy

tiananmen square in BeiJing, CHina.

CONNIE the tanks are coming back.

WEN CHANG the army is doubling down.

CONNIE they’re going to sweep the students from the square.

WEN CHANG and you can see how this will end. there will be no winner in this confrontation.

CONNIE they will all be sent back into darkness. giving way to a generation for whom june 4 will mean nothing.

In The Great Leap, the audience sees Manford get lost in a square, and confusedly start chanting with those gathered. He ends up getting reprimanded and almost misses out on his opportunity to play in the exhibition game. The punishment might seem extreme, but given the context of the socio-political climate in and around Beijing during the summer of 1989, it is understandable. The protest that Manford accidentally attended occurred in the penultimate days before the massacre at Tiananmen Square, and it is implied at the end of the show, that in the world of this play Wen Chang became the iconic “tank man” that is associated with the event. Understanding the events that led up to the massacre, as well as the reaction of the Chinese government and the western world can help contextualize the world of the show.

During the 1980s, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was met with a growing divide between those who were content with the strict way the government functioned and those who wanted more civil liberties, like free speech. Students were the primary catalysts in the latter group, and started hosting protests to advocate for change. On April 15, 1989 Hu Yaobang—a former high-ranking government official who had lost favor with the CCP after suggesting that the government find a compromise with the more liberal students—died unexpectedly of a heart attack. Tens of thousands of mourners gathered in Tiananmen Square on April 22, the day of his funeral, and over the coming weeks more protesters joined bringing the number to an estimated 1 million on the most attended days.

There was disagreement amongst leaders in the CCP about the best course of action. Was it wise to dispel the protesters with force, or would the gatherings run their course in their own time? During the last two weeks of May, martial law was declared in Beijing and western reporters were no longer allowed to be in the city. On the night of June 3, 1989 troops entered the square with explicit orders to clear it of all protesters.

The accounts of what happened over June 3-4 are largely from unofficial reports. In 2017, a document from Sir Alan Donald, the British Ambassador to China at the time, was declassified and contained an account of the event from an anonymous friend in China’s government. Although the reports from the Chinese government estimated the casualties to be approximately 200 civilians and several dozen officials, Donald’s document claims that 10,000 were murdered over the two days. An excerpt from his report describes the horror that occured in the square:

"The 27 Army APCs (armored personnel carriers) opened fire on the crowd before running over them…APCs ran over troops and civilians at 65kph (40 miles per hour)...Students linked arms but were mown down…APCs then ran over the bodies time and time again to make 'pie' and remains collected by bulldozer."

Digging Deeper Even today the Chinese government censors news and online information about the massacre. The iconic picture of the single man approaching a tank is not accessible on Chinese servers. Families face arrest for acknowledging the way in which their loved ones died. There are no public memorials or annual vigils to mark the anniversary of the assault, Hong Kong and Macau are the only places on Chinese soil that have been given permission to give recognition to the tragedy. Hong Kong also had a museum dedicated to remembering the massacre and the lives lost, but in September of 2021 it was shut down by the newly created national security unit and those who ran the museum were arrested and detained. This action is aligned with China’s recent increased control over Hong Kong.

In The Great Leap, Lauren Yee is able to illustrate American naivete about global disputes. Many in China and in the US may still not know the full extent of the atrocities that occurred from June 3-4, 1989. Media like this can help not only entertain, but can also educate the audience about larger world issues.

norman garCy yaP (aea) in the great leap, at tHe Hangar tHeatre and Portland stage, 2022. PHoto By raCHel PHilliPson.