Chinese living in Australia fear Tiananmen Square massacre will be erased from history

Three decades after the Tiananmen Square massacre shocked the world, Chinese people now living in Australia fear the horrific event will be “brainwashed” out of history.

Three decades after the Tiananmen Square massacre shocked the world, Chinese people now living in Australia fear the horrific event will be “brainwashed” out of history.

Tomorrow marks the 30th anniversary of when Chinese troops opened fire on what was believed to be thousands of student protesters in Beijing, but former Chinese residents say a growing number of young people don’t know about the massacre.

It has been reduced to a meme for many Millennials, who make light of the Chinese government’s censorship of the entire day. References to Tiananmen and June 4, and other related terms, are heavily censored in China.

The 1989 Tiananmen Square protest photo that was seen around the world.

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Rachel Qu, 54, who took part in the 1989 protests at her university in Guangzhou, said some young Chinese-Australians did not believe people were killed — even the children of people who were there.

Ms Qu said when one man, who had been a student in Beijing and witnessed part of the slaughter, spoke to his daughter about what had happened, she replied: “No, I can’t believe that, you must lie, the government wouldn’t kill people.”

“The father felt so much pain in his heart,” Ms Qu said. “He thought ‘Wow, the true picture is really lost’.”

Then prime minister Bob Hawke is overcome with emotion speaking about the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

Federation for a Democratic China president Chin Jin said attendance at their memorial ceremony had dropped from more than 20,000 people in 1990 to about 100 on Sunday at Ashfield Uniting Church.

Sophia Tsai at the Tiananmen Square commemoration in Ashfield on Sunday. Picture: Monique Harmer

Mr Jin said a growing number of young Chinese Australian students were not interested in marking the day and did not “look deeply into the society of China”.

“They have been greatly brainwashed,” he said.

Sophia Tsai, 34, said she attended yesterday’s service because she does care about human rights in China.

“(It’s) a problem that’s underrated because people see China and their money and beautiful cities and they don’t see … the abuse that is happening to their people­,” she said.

Australia was the first to condemn the Communist crackdown on demonstrators in 1989 and offered visas to Chinese­ citizens to start a new life.

China never gave a final death toll but human rights groups say that hundreds­, possibly thousands were killed.

A service in Chinatown and a candlelight vigil at the Chinese consulate in Camperdown will be held tomorrow to mark the anniversary.