The events of ‘May 35’, as they have to say online in mainland China, has echoed through Hong Kong’s ‘Umbrella Revolution’ and beyond. We get to know the key characters during the two months of protests, culminating in 4th June 1989.

Those characters include the liberal communist whose heart attack started the protests in the first place, and the teenage girl at the centre of Tiananmen Square who was known as the “commander”.

We’ll also find out about the last remaining prisoner from those 1989 protests.

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Paul Letters is a historian, journalist, educator and novelist. See paulletters.com for more history, including a daily ‘On-This-Day-75-Years-Ago’ feed, with photographs. Plus the novel that combines: the real history of the Allies’ first strike against Nazi Germany; Paul’s granny’s escape (as a teenager) from 1939 Poland to 1940 Paris to wartime London; the ‘Double-Cross System’, the Special Operations Executive and assassination in Prague.

Each month on Noreen Mir's 1-2-3 Show (RTHK Radio 3), Paul Letters examines events from this month in history. Recorded at Radio Television Hong Kong Studios, Broadcast Drive, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

First broadcast 3 June 2016.

Cover work by Gill Bertram. Continue reading →