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Pillar of Shame, a famous statue created by a Danish sculptor in 1996 marking the 1989-Tiananmen Square massacre in China was removed by authorities in Hong Kong last week. The 26-foot-tall copper statue showed piled up naked corpses in memory of hundreds, if not thousands, of pro-democracy protesters executed by Chinese authorities on June 4, 1989.
The statue installed at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) was one of the few memorials in the island city commemorating the killing. The dismantling and removal of “Pillar of Shame” follows a series of crackdown on political dissent and pro-democracy movement in the island city in recent times .
In 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, also known as ’89 Democracy Movement, by students was a taboo topic in mainland China. But there were quite a few public memorials of the incident in Hong Kong, administered by the British till 1997.
The statue at HKU was part of a series of sculptures by Danish artist Jens Galschiot. According to a description in the artist’s website the inscription at the foot of the sculptures mentions it was built as a warning to people of shameful incident that must never happen again and also “the old cannot kill the young forever.”
The authorities erected yellow construction barriers around the statue and it was demolished around midnight on December 23. No journalist was allowed access to the zone.
In a statement, HKU Council said, "No party has ever obtained any approval from the University to display the statue on campus, and the University has the right to take appropriate actions to handle it at any time."
After hearing the news of his creation being dismantled, sculptor Galschiot wrote on his Twitter account, “I'm totally shocked that Hong Kong University is currently destroying the pillar of shame. It is completely unreasonable and a self-immolation against private property in Hong Kong." Then he added in a statement: ``We encourage everyone to go out to Hong Kong University and document everything that happens with the sculpture," he added in a statement.
READ MORE: https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/hong-kong-tiananmen-square-statue-removed-intl-hnk/index.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-59764029
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/22/hong-kong-memorial-to-tiananmen-victims-may-be-imminently-removed