Namely, the West German government (Deutsche Telekom-) run public telephone system broke down in my dormitory and hundreds of students-many of them Chinese-stood in line for well over 72 hours calling their friends and families all over the world for free.
Due to this technological accident (or miracle), unbelievable amounts of up-to-date information came to the Chinese students on that North Rhine Westphalia campus.
It was as if the internet had been invented and millions of pieces of new information about one's homeland were suddenly available to the Chinese at the Bergische University--all for free.
Finally, as June arrived, the telephone system at my dormitory was no longer free, but the long lines to China continued.
However, the tones of those Chinese calling home became at first cries of anger, of frustration, and of pain.
It was, on June 3 and June 4, 1989 that the happiness and joy of the Chinese students in Germany disappeared quickly in trails of tears running all through the corridors of my campus dormitory in Wuppertal.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/06/01/tiananmen/index.html
The Chinese cracked down quickly, thousands of students and supporters were arrested, hundreds killed and many more disappeared in Beijing in a matter of hours.
After two days of crying and tears, fears of reprisal (and of possible communist spies on campus) swept through the Chinese communities in Western Germany--and around the world.
Quickly an eerie silence took its place. Chinese were afraid of being ratted on by their peers.
The silence of the Chinese in the corridors of my dormitory was deafening that June 1989. However, the silence also sent fear and forced changes along in Eastern Europe at a more urgent pace over the next few months of that memorable year.
http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/exhibits/intro/gdr
HOW WOULD EASTERN EUROPE RESPOND?
In summary, the same silence, sadness and hopelessness relating to the June3-4 Tiananmen Square massacres continued to reverberated across Eastern Europe.
