As Voltaire said, "Ce que touche le coeur, peut-être reste pour toujours, a grace de memoire ...." The memory either belonging to an individual or a country, painful or joyful, would forever be etched into their minds and hearts. Often a critique of the Chinese national character is that they tend to be forgetful, but the critic should not overlook that the Chinese also have the propensity to be forgiving in silence. With or without choice. And the silence is not tantamount to amnesia.

As for the Tiananmen Square event, one should not doubt that it did touch people's hearts, Chinese or otherwise. It became a collective memory,and this memory should perpetuate into a lesson for all of us.

June 4th 1997