Oldest university of Hong Kong launched an overnight operation on December 23, 2021 to dismantle a statue that commemorates people killed in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in latest blow to academic freedoms.

Pillar of Shame

• “Pillar of Shame” are a series of 8-metre (26-feet) high statues, constructed by Jens Galschiot.
• It is constructed on the University of Hong Kong’s (HKU) campus since 1997. In the same year, former British Colony, Hong Kong was handed back to China.
• The statue features 50 anguished faces and tortured bodies. These bodies have been piled on one another.
• It commemorates democracy protesters, who were killed by Chinese troops in 1989 at Tiananmen Square.
• Each of the statue are of bronze, copper or concrete.