The Last Farewell

Even Tears Threaten Tyrants

Demian Elaine' Yumei

Jun 05, 2025

Photo from the Victims of Communism Site. Tiananmen Mothers, a group of defiant parents who lost loved ones in the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre and never stopped demanding accountability from their government.

Narration by Demian plus the song, “The Last Farewell”

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Even Tears Threaten Tyrants

Today is June 4th, the 36th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

Radio Free Asia’s headline reads: “Tiananmen Mothers face blackout as China tries to silence memory of June 4 crackdown” (The Trump regime ended RFA’s funding on 3/15/25. They are still able to maintain their website with the resources they have left. Also, Tiananmen Mothers have always been escorted by the police and kept under very close watch especially on June 4th, but this article points out there is increased surveillance and effort to keep them isolated from each other.)

For the first time, authorities banned the members of the Tiananmen Mothers group from carrying mobile phones and cameras as they gathered at the Wan’an cemetery, severing their contact with the outside world. But the elderly mothers still laid flowers for their loved ones who were killed in the June 4, 1989, crackdown, Radio Free Asia learned.

“This year, the authorities are more sensitive to the June 4 incident than ever before,” said Li, a former reporter at the state-run People’s Daily who witnessed the 1989 incident. Like other sources in this article, he requested anonymity for safety reasons.
“The Tiananmen Mothers’ memorial service is the most basic expression of humanity, but it is regarded as a political act,” Li added.

Commemorating the death of a loved one, a political act.

Authoritarians want to stick their noses everywhere. In your bed, in your books, who you associate with, who you love, how you love, and even how you grieve.

I have a lot to say about that, but for now, I want to take this time on this day, the 36th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre to commemorate not only the lost lives in the 1989 massacre but the family members, loved ones, and friends have suffered immense and unacknowledged grief since.

A grief that is not allowed. A grief that is silenced. A grief that is denied any reason to exist… because it never happened, according to the government that has judiciously attempted to erase its violent crackdown from record (and using AI now but that’s for another essay).

Some years ago, I was given a translation of a poem written by a bereaved father whose son was killed in the massacre. I sat with his words for a long time, and when ready, I put what I felt and experienced through his words into song.

I share it with you today. It feels right to enter into this moment of quiet contemplation, song and prayer. As always, the instruments, arrangement and recording was done by Stacey Young.