Tiannamen Square

2011, Beijing
This was the 100th anniversary of communism in China. Foreigners and Chinese alike flocked to Tiananmen Square to take endless photos or stand in line for hours in order to see embalmed Mr. Mao Zedong. The lines were too long for me to brave plus I refused to surrender my backpack so I waited on the huge concourse for Joan to get in. It was brutally hot without a speck of shade on the vast pavement. I was both charmed and saddened that so many Chinese tourists were mugging and posing happily on vacation in this spot where hundreds of students had been killed. Did they not know what had happened on this pavement or if they did, did they care? I wondered. You demonstrate against the government in China at your own great risk.
I started off taking photos of people surreptitiously, but it soon became apparent they didn't mind at all and even leaped at the chance to pose with me, a white foreigner. I've always wondered what the three boys meant with the hand over their hearts pose.