In the midst of the hopeful anticipation of many Chinese people, the June Fourth Memorial Museum, which relocated from New York to Los Angeles, finally opened its doors this week on Monday (June 2nd).
Hundreds of guests attended the opening day ceremony. Local activists expressed that this new museum, in conjunction with the Southern California Freedom Sculpture Park, holds the promise of making Los Angeles a stronghold for future resistance against the Chinese Communist Party.
The new June Fourth Memorial Museum is established in El Monte, Los Angeles County. The exhibition hall boasts spacious areas divided into multiple sections. On the walls of the entrance corridor, pictures and reports ranging from the 1989 Student Movement to the June Fourth massacre are categorized with bilingual explanations in Chinese and English. The historical images, the faces of the departed young students, transport the guests back to the eve of that world-shaking tragedy, reliving that blood-stained memory.
A side room in the exhibition hall showcases the protests by Hong Kong residents before and after the implementation of the 2020 National Security Law, along with scenes from the annual “Victoria Park Candlelight Vigil for June Fourth” from 1990 to 2020—a commemorative event gathering tens of thousands to several hundred thousand Hong Kongers annually, now ceased as a result of the ban under the National Security Law in 2021.
In his speech at the opening ceremony, Wang Dan expressed gratitude to the volunteers who quietly contributed to the establishment and curation of the museum over the past few months, transforming this once-dreamed-of place into a shared reality. He emphasized that setting up the June Fourth Memorial Museum is not only to mourn the deceased and denounce tyranny but also a “responsibility and a continuation of the mission.”
Regarding future plans, Wang Dan stated that this place will not just be a silent exhibition hall but will also become an active cultural space. The museum will regularly hold various activities including concerts, art exhibitions, humanities lectures, book launches, and documentary screenings, with the core focus of fostering cultural transmission, intellectual exchange, and emotional connections.
Apart from the core exhibition area commemorating June Fourth, the museum will also establish research centers, activity centers, and data centers, as well as small libraries and cultural bookstores with the aim of becoming an essential part of the cultural life of the Chinese community in Los Angeles. According to Wang Dan, “This will be a convergence point for ideas, a resonance platform for emotions, and a starting point for action.”
Wang Dan summarized the museum’s mission as follows: “June Fourth will not be forgotten, history will not be silent, resistance will not cease, and the future will not be disappointed.”
Wang Chongyu, the Political Section Chief of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles, represented the office at the ceremony. In his remarks, he extended respect and gratitude to the efforts and perseverance of the museum director Wang Dan, CEO Jin Yan, and other democratic activists. He believed that the museum’s cultural salons and various activities will provide a public platform for individuals concerned about freedom and human rights to promote exchanges and dialogue, contributing to the deepening and dissemination of democratic ideals.
Ken Wu, the Secretary-General of the Taiwan Center, attended the grand opening in the capacity of “a friend of the Los Angeles Taiwanese community.” Encouraged by the completion of the museum, he expressed his hope that through the museum, people will remember the events of June Fourth.
Ken Wu also asserted that if the Chinese Communist Party remains in power, brutal suppressions like the June Fourth massacre will inevitably recur. He emphasized the necessity for unity to resist the oppression of the Communist Party and the harassment of the free world; only when everyone unites can it be toppled.
One of the guests at the ceremony, the renowned American sinologist Eugene Perry Link, Jr., mentioned in his speech the importance of having such a memorial museum in the United States. He believed it allows people to directly see the newspapers from the time of June Fourth, the names, and photographs of those who perished, providing a more immediate sense of the event. This enables overseas Chinese to remember the truth of this historical event and continue moving towards an ideal direction.
Former Hong Kong media personality Cheng Xiang described the 36-year-old Tiananmen massacre as a bloody slaughter, while the suppression of Hong Kong six years ago under the National Security Law “although not bloody, suffocated the vibrant life of Hong Kong.” Hong Kong was once a significant force propelling China’s economic development, and he lamented, “The once freest place in the Chinese world now has many people living in nameless fear.”
Cheng Xiang hoped that every Chinese person and Hong Konger would muster the courage to resist the Communist Party.
During his talk, the former renowned Chinese writer Su Xiaokang mentioned that the Communist Party’s economic rise after the June Fourth massacre was essentially reliant on China’s cheap labor force. He hoped that political leaders in Western countries would remain vigilant and not fall prey to the Communist Party’s tactics of deception and business partnerships.
Some people divide the Chinese regime into two phases, before and after June Fourth’s massacre: the first 40 years were evil, while the subsequent 36 years focused on economic development and were considered better. Chen Chuangchuang, the Executive Director of the All-China Democracy Committee, pointed out that the essence of the Communist Party has never changed.
“The June Fourth massacre made people realize that the authoritarian nature of the Communist Party is unchangeable,” he said. “Indeed, for the past 36 years, it has remained unchanged, still the same as the preceding 40 years.”
Chen Chuangchuang highlighted that after June Fourth, the Communist Party conducted a “war of memories,” attempting to erase the truth of the Tiananmen massacre. He believed that the greatest value of the June Fourth Memorial Museum lies in helping people recognize the essence of the Communist Party.
During the opening ceremony, the 2025 “Youth Chinese Human Rights Award” was presented to Cao Tian, a former billionaire entrepreneur from Henan, now a writer and lawyer in exile in the United States.
Other guests at the ceremony included Zheng Cunzhu, Chairman of the United Headquarters of the Chinese Democratic Party; Chen Weiming, founder of the Freedom Sculpture Park and sculptor; Jin Xiuhong, founder of the Democratic China Front; Zhang Bolin, a Chinese pastor in Los Angeles; Wang Chaohua, Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles; and Jie Lijian, Chairman of the International Alliance of the Chinese Democratic Party. ◇