On 9 June 1989, then prime minister Bob Hawke addressed a memorial gathering in Canberra. This was just days after People's Liberation Army troops in Beijing were ordered to use force against their fellow citizens.
'For more than a month now, the eyes of the world have been on China,' he said. 'We were inspired by the idealism and courage of youth, the peaceful determination of students to create a better future, and the support that rallied around their cause from throughout Chinese society.
'Our spirits were buoyed by the optimism of their vision and, no matter how far we were from the events in Tiananmen Square, our hearts were with them. Then last weekend, our optimism was shattered as we watched in horror the unyielding forces of repression brutally killing the vision of youth.'
His empathetic outpouring of grief at the state-sanctioned violence was accompanied by a captain's call beyond all others when he decreed that Chinese students in Australia, as well as their families, would be able to obtain permanent visas. Some 42,000 took up the offer and in the process constituted the largest Chinese migration to Australian since the time of the 19th-century gold rushes. By way of contrast, in 1992 around 80,000 Chinese received June 4 Green Cards when the US Congress passed the Chinese Students Protection Act.
Over the next 30 years, this June 4 generation and their children have come to exert a quiet, significant influence on Australian contemporary society. As one example, our art world has been the recipient of contributions from artists like Guan Wei, Ah Xian, Shen Jiawei and Xiao Lu. One of these, Guan Wei, won the Archibald Prize in 2016, while Shen Jiawei has been an Archibald finalist 14 times as well as a winner of the John Sulman Prize in 2006.
Like many of their contemporaries, most of these artists are now also Australian citizens and work in that liminal zone of cross-cultural exchange, often reflecting on being at once a foreigner and a local in both worlds.
The June 4 generation also brought about changes in the societal fabric of many of our cities, moving into suburbs such as Ashfield in Sydney and Box Hill in Melbourne, and transforming them into vibrant hubs of Chinese culture and cuisine and a decidedly non-English streetscape. In turn these locales attracted other Asian cultures as well. Likewise, linguistically, the steady rise of Chinese immigration has now seen Chinese languages (specifically Mandarin and Cantonese) be the first and third most spoken languages in Australian homes, after English, numbering together around 3.7 per cent of the population, or close to 900,000 people.
"Most of these artists are now also Australian citizens and work in that liminal zone of cross-cultural exchange, often reflecting on being at once a foreigner and a local in both worlds."
Hawke's compassion clearly had massive consequences, and not just on the lives of those immediately affected. Yet at the time of the 30th anniversary, it is also poignant to remember the cost of this act of state generosity.
For many of the Tiananmen Square generation, while being able to apply for permanent visas removed the stress of worrying what would happen to them once they finished their courses and returned to a China that now seemed harsh, it also began a period of intense emotional and cultural exile for them. Australia's quiet suburban streets were vastly different to the bustling alleyways of their home cities, and especially to Beijing's boulevards with its shoals of flittering bicycles. Often they were seen as being scary in their silences and their vast vacant spaces.
Chinese-Australian poet Yu Ouyang (who arrived in 1992) often writes of the feelings of dislocation felt by many of these soon-to-be citizens. One poem, known by its first phrase 'On a grey winter morning of Melbourne', contains a line describing the 'hectares and hectares of nothing-nothingness' and in another he writes 'In Australia / the boundless grass land drives me crazy.' Quite simply, Australia seemed strange, scary and even boring.
Members of this generation were also driven crazy by the fact that their university qualifications were not often immediately recognised, and many of them also spoke poor English, which meant that regardless of their cultural knowledge and specialised skills, they ended up working as kitchen hands in restaurants or any of the many other low skilled, difficult jobs that would nevertheless enable them to pay their rent and pursue their dreams. And yet they persevered and, over the decades since, their sacrifice has meant that their Australian-born children have now reaped the benefit of their hard work, as has the rest of our society as well.
The events of 4 June 1989 were horrific, but Hawke's leadership and the skills, passion and sacrifice of the generation of Chinese that stayed here in Tiananmen Square's aftermath have consequently made Australia a more vibrant society. This is decidedly one of Hawke's most significant legacies.
Dr Jeremy Clarke, PhD, is the founding director of Sino-Immersions Pty Ltd, a China consulting company, and a Visiting Fellow in the Australian Centre on China in the World, Australian National University. His company also leads people on immersions through China.
Main image: Chinese lantern hanging in a tree in Melbourne's Southbank for Chinese New Year (Nigel Killeen / Getty)