Ma Jian - Beijing Coma

‘We need another representative,’ Ke Xi shouted to the students from Beijing Normal, the Politics and Law University and the Beijing Institute of Technology. ‘Do any of you want to join us?’

‘And who are you?’ they cried, many of them never having seen him before.

‘My name is Ke Xi,’ he shouted through his megaphone from behind the lines of armed police. ‘I’m the head of a coordinating group that represents students from nineteen Beijing universities.’

Wang Fei and Mou Sen passed through the second block of police, walked up the steps and carried the wreath and petition inside the Great Hall of the People, emerging with only the petition a few seconds later.

‘Look, the officials have taken the wreath but refused to receive the petition,’ Old Fu said, watching them walk down the steps.

Wang Fei and Mou Sen exchanged a few words with Han Dan, Hai Feng and Ke Xi, then all five of them climbed up the steps again. Ten plain-clothes officers rushed out of the Great Hall and stood in their way. Hai Feng suddenly dropped to his knees and lifted the white petition above his head. Wang Fei and Mou Sen stood beside him and hesitated for a moment, then they too decided to kneel down. Ke Xi looked a little awkward and stepped to the side. Han Dan swung his shoulder bag over his back and tried desperately to pull the three of them up. Hai Feng refused to budge. He lifted the petition higher in the air and began shouting something we couldn’t hear.

The students yelled, ‘Don’t kneel down! Stand up! Stand up!’

Old Fu was furious. ‘They’re kneeling down like submissive subjects petitioning an emperor. It’s an unhealthy legacy of feudal China!’

‘What the hell are they thinking of, kneeling down like that?’ Liu Gang said, squeezing himself in front of us. ‘The Organising Committee didn’t tell them to kneel. It’s going to stir up a lot of conflict.’

I too thought it was unwise of them to be kneeling down, but I kept quiet. The students at the front became agitated, and jumped to their feet once more. The armed police stood up as well and both sides began ramming into each other. I soon found myself squashed between the police and the students. I lifted my megaphone and shouted, ‘Sit down! Sit down! Student marshals — link hands and contain the crowd!’

Under the dense, oppressive sunlight, the Great Hall looked like an immense coffin. The national emblem fixed to the roof appeared to waver in the haze. As the police lines shifted back and forth, the crowds surged and retreated.

‘Why won’t the government leaders come out and take the petition?’ the onlookers said.

‘They’re terrified, that’s why! They don’t have the guts to show their faces in public!’ others shouted out.

Both sides continued to push and jostle. The students rushed to wherever the police pushed hardest and shoved them back with all their might.

Chen Di got the students to chant after him: ‘Oppose police violence! The police have no right to attack the students!’

‘Calm down!’ Shu Tong shouted. ‘Stay disciplined! Quickly Dai Wei, get everyone to sit down again!’

‘Those three guys have been kneeling on the steps for twenty minutes,’ Liu Gang said anxiously. ‘If they don’t get up soon, a riot’s going to break out.’ I yelled at the crowd to sit down, but there was so much noise, no one could hear me.

The Beijing residents who’d gathered behind us pushed forward again, pounding into the southern end of the police lines. Some of them swiped the officers’ caps off and threw them into the air. The outer police line crumbled. As the officers scattered to the sides, the line of armed police behind them stepped forward aggressively, and the crowd of residents retreated in fright.

The students who were sitting on the ground shouted, ‘Come out, Premier Li Peng! We want dialogue with the government!’

The armed police focused on the Beijing University students and charged towards us. I presumed they were coming to arrest us.

‘Hold hands everyone,’ I shouted. ‘Make sure the girls keep in the middle!’ A white-gloved hand landed on my cheek and twisted my head back. I grabbed it and tried to tug it off. I was surrounded by police caps. The officer I was wrestling with had lost his epaulettes. He stared at me with his mouth wide open. He looked just like my brother. His lips and ears were bleeding. The buttons of his green shirt had been pulled off too. When it became clear that the police merely wanted to push us back and had no intention of arresting us, I removed my hand from the officer, and he let me go.

I shouted at my marshals to get the Beijing University students back in line. Shu Tong said through his megaphone, ‘Fellow students, we must remain calm and rational.’

The armed police returned to their original positions and cordoned off the forecourt of the Great Hall with rope. A paper banner that had said THE STUDENTS OF BEIJING UNIVERSITY GRIEVE THE DEATH OF HU YAOBANG lay on the ground, torn and trodden to pieces.

‘They’re supposed to be servants of the people,’ Xiao Li cried. ‘Why are they ignoring us like this?’

‘Zhuzi, some of the students at the back have got down on their knees too!’ a law student shouted out. ‘What shall we do?’

Zhuzi undid the top button of his khaki jacket and shouted, ‘We can’t ask for democracy on bent knees! Tell the bastards to stand up!’ Fuming with rage, he pushed his way to the front of the crowd and yelled, ‘Stand up! Stand up!’ to the three students still kneeling on the steps.

The students behind us shouted, ‘Stand up! Democracy shouldn’t be begged for!’ and moved forward, propelling the students in front against the swaying lines of armed police.

Through the shouting, I could hear people weeping.

‘Stop kneeling, stop kneeling!’ the students cried. The waves of noise rolled over the heads of the armed police and bounced off the glass windows of the Great Hall.

Then Bai Ling squeezed between the police and the students, held up the megaphone that Han Dan had handed to her, and cried out with tears welling in her eyes, ‘Government officials in the Great Hall of the People, the students have been waiting in the Square for eighteen hours, please come down and receive our petition.’ She was so short that all I could see was her forehead.

‘Quick, Dai Wei,’ she said, catching sight of me, ‘tell the student marshals to form a chain.’

I was terrified she’d get crushed. I quickly yelled for the marshals to hold hands and told the students behind me to stay still.

Bai Ling was now stranded inside the ranks of armed police, sweat pouring down her face. She cried out, ‘The armed police are the sons and brothers of the people! We mustn’t let this end in a bloodbath…’

An officer standing behind the police lines passed a water bottle to another officer nearby, who twisted the lid off and handed it to Bai Ling. The students who witnessed this clapped their hands in appreciation. Bai Ling swallowed a few sips, then shouted, ‘Thank you, brothers and sons of the people! The students are tired and hungry, and our tempers are frazzled. But we don’t want any of you to get hurt. You are our compatriots, after all!’ The students around her broke into applause.

The mood of the officers, who were sweating in the confused scrum, began to soften. Some of them even had tears in their eyes.

A middle-aged man rushed out from the Great Hall of the People and walked down to where the three students were still kneeling. He flung his arms around them and sobbed. We couldn’t hear what he was saying.

‘That’s Professor Chen from the Education Department!’ Chen Di said, observing him through his binoculars.

‘Are you sure?’ Liu Gang asked.