MCLC: After 6/4

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Holly Vandenberg <Holly.Vandenberg at sbs.com.au>
Subject: After 6/4
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SBS LAUNCHES INTERACTIVE ONLINE PROJECT, AFTER 6/4, TO MARK EVENTS IN
BEIJING IN 1989
<http://after64.sbs.com.au/>

June 4, 2014 will mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the events that
occurred in Tiananmen Square, Beijing in 1989.The news of that day
ricocheted around the world, with some reports from media describing a
“riot,” while others used the term “massacre”.

These events also played a significant role in shaping Australia’s current
cultural makeup. Following the June 4 events, Bob Hawke, Prime Minister at
the time, made a pledge that any Chinese student living in Australia would
not have to return to China. As a result, approximately forty thousand
Chinese nationals, including the spouses and dependants of people who were
in Australia on June 4, 1989, were able to become permanent residents of
Australia in the years following Tiananmen.

To reflect on this significant period of history, SBS Online launched an
interactive website, After 6/4 - the first wholly in-language build for
SBS online.

The site offers users the opportunity to answer a series of questions
about the period drawn from media sources of the time. Based entirely on
sourced, archival media material, the multiple perspectives aim to
highlight the diversity of opinions around these significant historical
events and are designed to explore the complexity of talking about this
period twenty-five years on.

Marshall Heald, SBS Chief Digital Officer, said: “After 6/4 is a great
example of the innovative, thought-provoking content SBS continues to
deliver. It is the first entirely bilingual interactive site SBS Online
has produced – allowing users to view and compare media in both English
and simplified Chinese. So the site not only harnesses sentiment
twenty-five years on from this major international event, but it also
offers a rich educational resource.”

The site includes an in-depth timeline to provide context for the events,
constructed entirely from archival media sourced from Chinese and Western
news sources. It also features a series of mini documentaries, directed by
Chinese-Australian filmmaker, Jiao Chen, that explore the fault lines of
opinions within the Australian-Chinese community along generational lines.

Jiao Chen, After 6/4 Director, said: “My fascination with the way in which
this important historical event has been erased from the Chinese public
consciousness became the springboard for After 6/4”.

After a visit to China in 2005, Chinese-born Chen was inspired to explore
the topic of Beijing in 1989, after he was “surprised to find that most
young people I spoke to had little or no understanding of what happened at
the nation’s capital during those dramatic weeks in 1989.”

Contributors of the six mini documentaries are:

* Helen, a Beijing university lecturer who lost two of her students during
the events at Tiananmen Square.
* Tian Le also known as Toby, a former student leader at Tiananmen Square,
who came to Australia in 2001.
* Reagan, a former physics lecturer at Peking University, the birthplace
of the Tiananmen Square’s democracy movement.
* Hong Xin, also known as Viola, who has spent much of her adult life in
Australia where she continues to advocate for Chinese democracy.
* Francis, a young Chinese filmmaker who studied in Australia. Growing up,
Francis had had little access to information regarding the events of 1989.
* Shi-Kai also known as SK, whose family was granted Australian visas in
the aftermath of the events at Tiananmen Square.

Join the conversation on Twitter #After64

For more information, please contact:
Holly Vandenberg    T: 02 9430 2920    M: 0410 695 163    E:
holly.vandenberg at sbs.com.au