If anyone believed that this year would herald an end of history - when the anniversary of the 1989 student-led movement enters its 21st year - the sea of candle-bearers in Victoria Park last Thursday revealed the opposite. While the flames showed that people have not forgotten the past, they also marked a new start for the June 4 commemoration in the city.
For Hong Kong people who lived through the Tiananmen Square crackdown, there is a growing awareness of the vital importance not just for them, but also for their children and grandchildren, to remember June 4.
According to a poll conducted by the Chinese-language Ming Pao newspaper at the vigil, 46 per cent of respondents were attending for the first time. Most of those were likely to be young people, born after 1989.
For the post-1989 generation, this year's anniversary is the beginning of the process of understanding the history of June 4 and the major implications for the development of China and Hong Kong.
People's wish to remember Tiananmen - and have it included as part of the nation's history - will have a profound impact on a number of matters.
An immediate issue, already a pressing concern for the administration, is how to handle the June 4 subject in schools and in public. Given the meagre mentions of the movement in history textbooks, and the scarcity of copies of June 4-related books in public libraries, the government has been accused of avoiding the issue.
Following his quick apology over remarks made in the Legislative Council last month about representing the views of Hong Kong people on June 4, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen has kept his mouth shut on the subject. His cabinet, and the government's close ally, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, have followed suit.
