Pomnik ku czci Chińczyków z Tian’anmen, Wrocław

Pause beside this memorial for a moment, with the ordinary movement of Oławska Street continuing around you. You are standing at Wrocław’s memorial to Chinese people connected with Tiananmen. It carries the memory of the 1989 demonstrations in Beijing, and of those killed when the protests were crushed.

The events it recalls were not abstract: soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army entered the area with tanks and assault rifles, shooting at demonstrators and people who tried to obstruct their advance. This monument also has its own turbulent history. Igor Wójcik, Robert Jezierski, and Joanna Czarnecka made its first version in 1989.

After the Security Service destroyed that original, Marek Stanielewicz created the version commemorated here. Take in the memorial at your own pace from the pavement. In a busy commercial street, it makes space for a faraway moment of courage, violence, and remembrance—and for the link Wrocław chose to maintain with the victims of Tiananmen.