Yu Dongyue - Role in Tiananmen Square Protests

Role in Tiananmen Square Protests

Yu Dongyue was formerly a fine arts editor with Liuyang News in Hunan. In May 1989, he went by train to Beijing with two other men, Yu Zhijian (Chinese: 余志坚), a school teacher, and Lu Decheng (Chinese: 鲁德成), a truck mechanic. They planned to join the ongoing demonstrations calling for democracy in China. They decided to make a disturbance that would readily be captured by news media then reporting on events in Tiananmen Square. Yu Dongyue, a graduate of the Department of Art at Xiangtan Teachers College, Hunan, was 21 years old at the time.

On May 23, the three men threw eggs that had been emptied and refilled with red, blue and yellow paint at the large portrait of Mao Zedong displayed prominently near Tiananmen Square. Splatters of paint landed on the face and shirt of the People's Republic of China's founding leader. According to news reports, other demonstrators seized the three men and turned them over to police.

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