Remembering Shih Kien 1913-2009

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On June 3, 2009, the world learned the news that one of the greatest of all Chinese-language cinema actors had passed away--the 96 year-old Shih Kien (石堅; Cantonese: Shek Kin), star of countless films, television shows and a renowned martial artist.

Twenty Years Since Tiananmen

The now-legendary image above, taken by Associated Press photographer, Jeff Widener, captures the heroic struggle and the tragedy that ended on June 4, 1989, when tanks cleared Beijing Tian'anmen Square (天安門廣場) after two months of protests by students against the government of the People's Republic of China. The collective response by the PRC, and the arrests, torture and murder of these students and other protesters was known as the Tian'anmen Square Massacre. Other protests occurred all across the country, and many other atrocities, even if not as media-spectacular, occurred as well during the period, but it was these incidents in Beijing that made the world notice the treatment of the Chinese people by their government.