MCLC: HK June 4 Museum

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: HK June 4th Museum
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Source: China Real Time, WSJ (4/17/14):
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/04/17/the-tiananmen-square-museum-c
hina-doesnt-want-to-see/

The Tiananmen Square Museum China Doesn’t Want to See

Organizers behind a planned museum in Hong Kong dedicated to the bloody
1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown are vowing to press on despite running
into threat of legal challenge that they call politically motivated.

Backed with nearly $800,000 in donations, the 800-square-foot June 4
Memorial museum is currently slated to open later this month. The museum
is being opened to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the violent
event, in which People’s Liberation Army soldiers opened fire on unarmed
civilians.

“Hong Kong is a very special place. We can still have space to discuss
about the June 4th incident, which is a taboo in China. That’s why we want
to have a permanent museum here—to remind the public of this brutal
crackdown,” said Mak Hoi-wah, vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in
Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which is behind the
museum.

Last December, the alliance bought the fifth floor of an office tower in
Tsim Sha Tsui, an area popular with mainland tourists and studded with
high-end luxury shops. The total cost of the location was 9.76 million
Hong Kong dollars (US$1.26 million). They paid the HK$6 million down
payment with the help of public donations and other fundraising efforts,
Mr. Mak said.

But the museum plans have run into resistance just a few weeks before its
opening to the public, with the owners’ committee at the building voting
to oppose such a move and threatening legal action. In a letter dated Feb.
28 sent by the Tung, Ng, Tse & Heung solicitor firm, the owners’ committee
said that they were concerned the museum would “operate as a lightning rod
and attract…an inordinate number of visitors, both supporters and
detractors, as well as reporters, police and members of the curious public
etc.”

The letter said that the owners’ committee had no political affiliation.
Among other concerns cited in the letter was whether the building’s two
small elevators, each aged 24 years, could handle the anticipated crush.
Calls to the firm Thursday weren’t returned.

To date, Mr. Mak, he isn’t aware of any concrete action being taken, and
says the museum will continue to open as planned. Mr. Mak—who sees such
resistance as politically motivated—said the alliance hadn’t informed the
owners’ committee of their intent to open a museum because they believed
their plans fit within the parameters of acceptable commercial activity.

Visited on Thursday, a number of building tenants said they were
indifferent to museum plans.

Diony Tong, who works at an architecture firm on the building’s 13th
floor, said he didn’t expect much of an impact as the museum would be
located closer to the ground floor.

He said a store selling cellphones on the 17th floor was “much more of a
nuisance, as it attracts many mainland customers to shop every weekend,”
he said.

Another tenant who runs a company on the 12th floor, Raymond Yip, said
that he didn’t think the museum would pose much an issue. “But I will say
the museum has a very sensitive name,” he said. “June 4 Memorial Museum?
That touches peoples’ nerves and gets peoples’ attention,” he said.

– Chester Yung. Follow her on Twitter @chester_yung
<http://twitter.com/chester_yung>