When Candles Become Taboo: How Beijing Is Scrubbing the 1989 Massacre from Games and History

The 37th anniversary of China's Tiananmen Square massacre falls on June 4, and for the first time in more than three decades, Beijing has prohibited members of the Tiananmen Mothers (天安門母親) — a group of bereaved families who lost relatives in the 1989 crackdown — from visiting the graves of their loved ones.

According to a statement released by the Tiananmen Mothers on June 1, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau notified members in advance that they would not be permitted to visit Wan'an Cemetery on June 4. All forms of mourning were prohibited: collective or individual commemorations, the reading of eulogies, and the posting of photographs.

Zhang Xianling (張先玲), a member of the Tiananmen Mothers, told reporters on June 2: "The routine things we have always done are no longer permitted. Now they won't even let us go at all. This has never happened before."

Candles Blocked Even in Mobile Games

Beijing's efforts to suppress memory of the massacre extend well beyond physical gatherings. In addition to restricting speech on social media platforms, censorship has reached online mobile games.

On June 3, the X account"Teacher Li is Not Your Teacher"(李老师不是你老师)— which monitors current affairs inside China — posted that a Chinese internet user had asked online: "Why can't you send candles in the game Sky: Children of the Light?" The post was deleted shortly after it appeared, and the user's account was suspended from posting.

The account noted that heavy official and self-censorship inside China has left many Chinese internet users genuinely unfamiliar with the events of June 4 — and that the game's anomaly is prompting some to investigate. One commenter wrote: "I first learned about June 4th Tiananmen Square Incident a few years ago precisely because of something strange in a game. Isn't that its own kind of awareness?"

​Since April 22, "Teacher Li is Not Your Teacher" has been running a joint campaign on X with Human Rights in China and Humanitarian China under the hashtag #TheTiananmenYouHaventSeen (#你没看过的六四 系列图片展), sharing rare historical photographs to reach audiences across the firewall. The images show students in 1989 smiling as they held pro-democracy banners, volunteers spontaneously cleaning Tiananmen Square, and the aftermath of the crackdown — crushed bicycles and bloodstained ground — documenting the moment a democracy movement was extinguished before it could take root.​

Hong Kong's Vigil Dispersed — Commemorations Now Global

The annual candlelight vigil in Victoria Park in Hong Kong, held continuously from 1990 until 2020, was effectively ended by the implementation of the National Security Law. What was once the largest annual June 4 commemoration outside mainland China has since dispersed across Taiwan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and online platforms.

（Related： Beijing Watch | Gold Earrings Expose China's Crisis of Trust in Local Officials ｜ Latest ）

According to information compiled by the Hong Kong Labour Rights Monitor and Pulse HK News, commemorations will take place this year in Ximending, Liberty Square, and 228 Peace Memorial Park in Taipei on June 4. Nearly 30 events are scheduled worldwide — in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and elsewhere — marking, across time zones, the 37th anniversary of the pro-democracy uprising and the lives lost when Beijing chose to end it by force.