Tiananmen Mothers: The Grey-Haired Guardians of 1989 (2)

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After 1989, Ding Zilin and her husband conceived a thought: their child had died, but what about all the other children who perished under machine gun fire? On June 4th, they saw the bodies of many children and their grieving relatives. Among them was a student from the Jiusan Society, where Ding Zilin’s husband worked. The student was Wang Nan.

Wang Nan’s mother, Zhang Xianlin, recalls that Wang Nan did not live with his parents. On June 3rd, she and her husband discussed the situation, believing it was unlikely that the authorities would actually open fire. Even during the Tiananmen Incident of April 5th and the downfall of the Gang of Four, no shots had been fired. Nevertheless, they were worried about their son’s safety. They looked through the window at Wang Nan’s room and saw the lights on, which gave them a sense of relief.

The next morning, they rushed to their son’s room, opened the door, and saw the bed neatly made and a note on the desk. It read: “Mom, I’m going to meet my classmates.” Zhang Xianlin and her husband immediately grew anxious. After searching through various hospitals in Beijing for days, they found him around June 12th or 13th, though the exact date is unclear. They learned that Wang Nan had not died immediately after being shot. A group of students and rescuers following behind the martial law troops found that his body was still warm. Doctors requested that Wang Nan be carried to the hospital for treatment due to excessive blood loss. However, an officer from the martial law troops arrived and forbade anyone from moving the injured or dead from Chang’an Avenue.

Zhang Xianlin and Ding Zilin shared a similar fate and comforted each other. After the tragedy, Zhang Xianlin placed her son’s ashes in a cemetery. In June 1990, when she visited her son’s grave, she found a note placed on the urn: “We are mothers who share the same fate. If you wish to contact me, please call.”

You Weijie’s husband, Yang Minghu, was 42 years old. They had a five-year-old child. On the night of June 3rd, Yang Minghu went outside to see what was happening while You Weijie stayed home to care for their child. Yang Minghu did not return that night. The next morning, someone came to inform You Weijie that her husband had been injured. He had been placed on a cart with seven others—five of whom were already dead, but they believed Yang Minghu was still alive.

When she arrived at the hospital, the place was filled with cries. A woman told her that she had witnessed her own husband being shot dead by the martial law troops right in front of her. Two hours later, You Weijie finally saw her husband. The doctor told her that Yang Minghu’s bladder had been shattered, his pelvis was crushed, and although the surgery had been completed, it was now up to him to survive.

The next day, the hospital informed her that there was no more blood. The government had ordered that only the martial law troops and soldiers were allowed to use the hospital’s blood supply, while “rioters” were prohibited from receiving blood. “On the morning of the 5th, the hospital told me they had no blood and asked me to find some outside. A doctor took me to the roadside to ask passersby to donate blood for my husband. Despite the government’s white terror, many citizens came forward and were willing to donate blood for my husband.” Nevertheless, her husband’s blood pressure dropped, and when the doctor cut open Yang Minghu’s leg with a scalpel, not a single drop of blood flowed out.