My (former) step-mom’s birthday is June 4. Or it was, until 1989.

After that, her Chinese passport changed her birthday to June 3.

Just a reminder that the PRC began erasing June 4th, and all such birthdays, out of existence well before the invention of the internet or the Great Firewall.

And today, other countries, like the United States are using government agencies to attempt to erase aspects of history that don’t tow the party, or jingoist, line. Psychologists often say that you shouldn’t try to erase the past but accept it, learn from it, and move on. But nation-states have never been exceptional patients, so I don’t imagine my step-mom will ever get her birthday changed back to June 4.

In fact, most Americans reading right now probably have no clue of what this date represents. Fair enough, many of us in the US don’t know about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II or the dates of Native American massacres either. Don’t go calling kettles black when you’re nothing but a Pot, I suppose. So I won’t…

The remnants of the political murders that took place the night of June 3 into the day of June 4 are almost entirely gone from the public consciousness now. Perhaps we’re desensitized from living in a world where a certain world leader makes (literally) insane comments about annihilating entire civilizations on social media – daily.

But if you look hard enough – perhaps squint your eyes just a tad – you can still just barely discern what really happened back in June 1989.

That particular truth, the one where a lot of innocent university students were brutally mowed down by the PLA, will last until those that remember it die off, at which point the dominant truth – that no such thing ever happened – will become the truth. (Truths are temporary and perspective based, after all, which is why there will never be a single truth found in maps.)

Happy original (though now illegal) birthday, Jing.

I haven’t forgotten what happened… at least not quite yet.

And remarkably, I haven’t forgotten your birthday either! 🙂

No prompt provided, as this map doesn’t exist. It is not the June 4th map. That’s coming shortly.