天安門三君子20年 (自由亞洲電台)

It is nice to finally see all three gentlemen have all escaped China and are all safe in the free world.

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對強權說真話提出反對聲音，從來都不是一件容易的事。天安門三君子和他們的家人是一群為中國民主付出過的人。

20年不是一段短的時間，三君子和他們的家人在過去的20年都承受很多傷害。希望他們未來的20年生活過得好一點。

From 自由亞洲電台 (Radio Free Asia),

“近日在美國首府華盛頓，有很多紀念六四的活動及講座，當年塗鴉天安門城樓上毛澤東像的天安門三君子余志堅、喻東岳和魯德 成﹐週二 出席全國民主基金會聯同勞改基金會擧行的論壇，並得到在場百人的掌聲歡迎。三人先後獲得美國及加拿大政治庇護後首次齊集國會山莊 ，見證20年來中國的變化。（何山報道）”

Project On Hold, Life Goes On

The Egging Chairman Mao Project has been put on hold.

Life goes on.

One day, I hope to bring this project back to life again.

One day.

I hope.

P.S. In case you are wandering, Lu Decheng is well. Thanks for asking.

No need to be perfect

During my after-lunch discussion with Lu Decheng, he mentioned that he wished he had shown more conviction and had used firmer languages in this discussion. To me, I told him that he might have been too harsh on himself and had expected himself to be 100% ready all the time (which is impossible).

To me, it is ok to be human. And there is no need to be perfect all the time. Just my 2 cents.

Lunch with Lu Decheng (魯德成)

Lu Decheng (魯德成) and this documentarian had lunch (main dish – Fried Ribs) on May 22nd, 2007. You see, Calgary’s May 22nd lunch time is early May 23rd morning in Beijing which is the 18th anniversary of that faithful day.

The filmmaker chatted with Lu Decheng (魯德成) extensively after lunch on a wide range of subjects before his upcoming international trip to remind the world of what happened on June 4th, 1989 and what are still happening in Chinese prisons at the moment. I will blog about that chat and show some clips when I have time. In the mean time, here is a short clip showing Decheng putting the finishing tounch on our tasty lunch.

P.S. In case you wondered, Decheng is a really good cook and the food were great. (smile)

The aftermath of those 19 paint-filled eggs

July 28th, 2007 Update: Please note that the following video is intended to show some images of the portrait of Mao and the news report. The filmmaker may not agree with every points made by the video. For example, the highlighted large text in the video.

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This Hong Kong news report (edited but most of it was from TV) is in Chinese but the key thing I want to show is the images of what happened then.

Homer Simpson visits Chairman Mao

In death, Chairman Mao still had enough power to destroy the lives of the three young men. I suppose sometimes the best way to disarm an idol is to let Homer Simpson get close to him.

以卵擊毛 – Egging Chairman Mao

Creative process behind the Chinese working-title of

Egging Chairman Mao – 以卵擊毛

The inspiration of the documentary working title 以卵擊毛 comes from the Chinese four-character idiom 以卵擊石 which differs with the title only by the last word, 毛 vs. 石.

First, a little bit of history. 以卵擊石 was used in chapter 53 of The Creation of the Gods (封神榜) and chapter 43 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國演義).

And according to some, it was first used in Mozi‘s (墨子) Book 12 – Esteem for Righteousness (貴義) (segment 17 & 18) and it ended up being the usage that I love the most. It told the story of how Mozi logically refute the prediction or claim of a fortune teller and said,

“My principle is sufficient. To abandon my principle and exercise thought is like abandoning the crop and trying to pick up grains. To refute my principle with one’s own principle is like throwing an egg against a boulder. The eggs in the world would be exhausted without doing any harm to the boulder.“

The actions of Lu Decheng (魯德成), Yu Dongyue (喻東嶽), and Yu Zijian (余志堅) throwing paint-filled eggs onto the portrait of Mao Zedong (毛澤東, Chairman Mao) might have seemed like throwing eggs against a boulder. And Mao was acting like a king when he was alive and was treated like a god during and after his life time.

To some, the destroyed lives of the three men proved that Mao (毛) was the boulder and the three were merely eggs that were ruin. To those that are more optimistic, the word 毛 means feathers and throwing eggs onto a feather will sure makes it really messy and may even be able to lead to the decomposition of the feather in time.

Being a documentarian, I love the double meaning one can interpret from a title. Therefore I will leave it up to you to decide which one (or both) you like better. And as customary to directors, I won’t tell you which one I think is my favourite or if I have any favourite. (smile)

The Gate of Heavenly Peace – 天安门

While doing some research for this documentary series, I came across the following recently posted (2007) old June 4, 1996 Charlie Rose interview. Here is the show info (link and emphasis mine),

… on the seventh anniversary of the brutal attack of students by Chinese tanks and soldiers in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Chai Ling, commander-in-chief of the student rebellion, and James Lilley, the U.S. Ambassador to China during the protest, talk about the incident and the PBS Frontline documentary “The Gate of Heavenly Peace“.

There were (and still are) tremendous debates and controversy about the film and what happened at Tiananmen Square. The film also elicited (emphasis mine) “responses from both the Chinese government and leading members of the Chinese exiled dissident movement that are similar in colorful and strident tone of denunciation.”

Egging Chairman Mao – Documentary series intro

The life of 43 years old Lu Decheng (魯德成), a Chinese truck driver, was changed forever 18 years ago on 23rd May, 1989 when he and two friends (Yu Dongyue (喻東嶽) and Yu Zijian (余志堅)) threw paint-filled eggs on the portrait of Mao Zedong (Chairman Mao) that hangs over Tiananmen Square in Beijing days before the shockingly sad events. For this act of defiance, Lu was sentenced to 16 years in prison on the charge of counterrevolutionary sabotage and incitement. His two other friends, Yu Dongyue and Yu Zijian (unrelated), were sentenced to 20 years and life in prison respectively.

Since 1989, Lu Decheng has served nine years of Chinese prison (with treatment that were amongst the worst for people involved in the Tiananmen Square protests), experienced years of Chinese government surveillance & harassment and over a year in limbo in Thailand’s detention center. Now, Lu is finally a free man in Canada as a result of an emergency rescue by five generous and proactive Calgarians that sponsored him to come to Canada and the behind-the-scene effort of Canadian politicians and government officials.

A series of raw and short documentaries will be posted in the coming days, weeks, and months to tell the stories of the three young men – Lu Decheng (魯德成), Yu Dongyue (喻東嶽) and Yu Zijian (余志堅), whose lives were forever changed and even destroyed.

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Note: Someone actually took the time to count the number of paint splash landed on Mao’s portrait. I have got that number in my notes somewhere. I will update the number in the banner if it is not 19.