Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Free Speech Movement 50th Anniversary (FSM 50) Rally at UC Berkeley

Today, at noon, a rally took place at Sproul Plaza, University of California, Berkeley, commemorating the 50th anniversary of Free Speech Movement.

Twitter tree decorated the Sproul Plaza:

DSCN0347 _ Free Speech Movement 50th Anniversary, UC Berkeley

So did a mock Guantánamo Prison Cell:

DSCN0346 _ Mock Guantánamo Prison, Free Speech Movement 50th Anniversary, UC Berkeley

The Rally took place in front of the administrative Sproul Hall:

DSCN0340 _ Free Speech Movement 50th Anniversary, UC Berkeley

DSCN0380 _ Free Speech Movement 50th Anniversary, UC Berkeley

DSCN0383 _ Free Speech Movement 50th Anniversary, UC Berkeley

DSCN0366 _ Free Speech Movement 50th Anniversary, UC Berkeley

DSCN0354 _ Free Speech Movement 50th Anniversary, UC Berkeley

DSCN0350 _ Free Speech Movement 50th Anniversary, UC Berkeley

Shortly after the rally started, demonstrators marched onto the steps of the Sproul Hall:



Marchers with signs in support of ...

DSCN0358 _ Free Speech Movement 50th Anniversary, UC Berkeley

Palestinian rights:

DSCN0362 _ Free Speech Movement 50th Anniversary, UC Berkeley

and pro-democratic protest in Hong Kong:

DSCN0363 _ Free Speech Movement 50th Anniversary, UC Berkeley

At one point, Edward Snowden's message to the rally was read:



And one speaker commented on the racially-charged events in Ferguson, Missouri:



Near the rally, people dressed in yellow to support Hong Kong protest:

DSCN0343 _ Free Speech Movement 50th Anniversary, UC Berkeley

Hong Kong protest supporter on the left contrasted to the indifferent students from Chinese Student Association on the right (picture below).

DSCN0384 _ Free Speech Movement 50th Anniversary, UC Berkeley

I chatted with those two Chinese students and they were obviously uncomfortable when Hong Kong was mentioned.  They claimed that though they had friends from Hong Kong and Taiwan, amongst international students, they didn't talk about politics, said they emphatically. Really? It was not the case when I was an international student in the U.S. many years ago.  How time changed!

Interestingly, or sadly, one of them majored in media.  Free media with Chinese characteristics?


Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
Xi Jingping's Tian'anmen Square, Berlin Wall, or Waterloo?
- 25 Years Later, Smell of Exhausted Tian'anmen "Warriors" Lingered
- Bloody June Fourth (六四) in Beijing, 23 Years Later
- More Social Media Unavailable
- What One Cannot See on Flickr in China
- Confucius Statue in Tiananmen Square
- Tunisia, Egypt... Who's Next?
- What Chinese People's Daily Reported on Libya Crises
- The Ghost of Mao Zedong
- Facebook in China
- Where Is Ai Weiwei
- Censorship, and Behind the Kitchen Door

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