封从德等致记录片《天安门》制片人的公开信＊阿波罗新闻网

天安门幸存者、参与者和支持者

致记录片《天安门》制片人的公开信

作者：封从德等

在八九学运与民运20周年之际，我们，大屠杀的幸存者和这场运动的组织者、参与者、研究者和支持者，再次敦促你们 —— 就像我们在1995年的敦促一样 —— 纠正你们制作的电影《天安门》中的史实错误。

该影片有选择地引用了一些句语，同时又遗漏了一些重要的史实，创作了一些不真实的历史记录，尤其是关系到天安门广场总指挥柴玲的部份很不真实。若你们认为制作该片并无个人动机以故意诋毁柴玲和学运组织者，我们 ——许多当年就在天安门广场——敦促你们将本文张贴在你们的网站上，让公众可以考虑双方的观点，以便作出自己的判断。

你们在影片中使用选择性的引述与诠释及错误的翻译，让观众得出印象，以为柴玲在危险来临时逃跑了，却让其他学生去送死，或以为她和我们所有学运组织者在挑起并期望血腥屠杀。这种印象与当年发生在天安门广场上的事实完全不符。

显然，柴玲的用语“期待流血”被《天安门》制片人卡玛·韩丁Carma Hinton 错误地翻译并断章取义。“期待”应译为“预期或等待”(anticipate or wait)，而非影片中所谓的“期望”(hope for)。我们在现场的都知道，柴玲那句话是指我们预期可能会发生镇压，并希望一旦发生镇压是在公共场所和媒体面前，而不是在阴暗的角落、不会从世人的视野中消失，就像其他1989年之前和之后众多的民众运动那样。而且，重要的是我们预期的是镇压，而非大屠杀。另外还应注意，学运组织者已作了最大努力，以确保选择留在天安门广场的学生和民众明白风险并自愿留下。

尤为重要的是，柴玲那句“……我要求生”也被断章取义，从而给出一个虚假的印象，让人以为她自己逃跑了。而事实上，她和天安门学生和民众示威者一直留在广场，直到最后一刻，并在“六四” 清晨带领大家撤离广场，一道走回校园。正是这样的不实印象，误导了香港大学学生会会长陈一谔，导致他最近作了一个错误的公开演讲，从而被暸解真相的香港大学的学生们罢免。像陈一谔这样受误导的观众很多，这从互联网上因贵片引起的对柴玲的大量恶评就可明显看出。

上下文有助于理解真相，因此，对于你们，影片制片人，将柴玲在1989年6月8日的录音讲话遗漏掉，我们认为很不合适。在那盘录音带中，柴玲详细叙述了她在屠杀之夜的经历和见闻，这是制片人很应该留意的地方。然而，柴玲6月8日的录音讲话在贵片中几乎都没采用，如果采用了这些录音讲话，贵片中上述的录像带的翻译和剪辑的真实性就会成为问题——而在贵片中，5月28日那盘录像带倒是被大量引用，以吸引观众的注意。

柴玲5月28日的录像谈话提到求生的愿望，这是我们共同的愿望。当时的11亿中国人无一没有强烈的求生愿望。事实上，面临屠杀和监禁，我们和广场上的同伴中的许多人都作出了艰难的抉择，用牺牲求生的愿望来维护我们的责任与尊严。实际上，在“六四”屠杀后被迫转入地下的过程中，在躲藏、囚禁和流亡海外的经历中，正是这种求生的愿望，给我们以勇气和力量生存下来。正如柴玲在《绝食书》中所说的那样：“我们以死的气概，为了生而战”。

我们追求的是真相，过去是，现在依然是。在一定程度上，柴玲和我们达成了这一目标——这场运动是中国现代史上记录得最详尽的一次，留下了大量的照片、报告、书籍和回忆，为历史作证，为未来存照。这场运动不像以往的民主运动那样，被中共当局控制的媒体隐蔽在黑暗中不见天日。

很多很多年以前，托克维尔访问美国，他经过观察得出结论：“美国因良善而伟大。她的人民很善良……一旦她不再良善，美国也就不再伟大。”我们今天都很幸运，能够做这样的辩论，因为美国的国父们经过卓绝奋斗，留给我们一个开放的系统，鼓励言论自由与学术自由。就是为了这样的自由，我们也曾在中国的土地上牺牲奋斗，至今还未实现这些自由。

你们曾表示过愿意“用一种容易获得的方式，反映1989年事件背后的复杂动机与故事，并为专家和公众提供不断发展的研究素材。”我们也一直通过六四档案网站(64memo.com)向公众提供历史档案资料。因此，保持真实的历史记录，应该是我们共同的目标。

“六四”20周年即将到来，从最初向你们质疑，到现在已经14个年头了，却未见你们对《天安门》影片中的错误解读有何纠正。因此，我们这些曾冒过危险和在流亡的人，再次敦促你们将这份公开信贴到你们的网站上，这封信是我们的简短回应，以维护我们为推动中国自由民主的努力，也维护那些为了个人尊严和中国前途而冒着生命危险呐喊、甚至牺牲性命的人们，使他们的努力不致遭到扭曲或误解。

专此布达，并颂文安

2009年5月28日

签名人：

方政，北京体育大学，“六四”早晨被坦克碾断双腿

张健，北京体育大学，“六四”凌晨在天安门广场连中三枪

熊焱，北京大学，21通缉学生之一，“六四”在长安街阻拦军队

周锋锁，清华大学，21通缉学生之一，“六四”最后一批撤离广场者

封从德，北京大学，21通缉学生之一，“六四”最后一批撤离广场者

常劲，北京大学，组织过“六四”死亡调查

程真，北京师范大学，“六四”最后一批撤离广场者

潘强，山东大学，“六四”最后一批撤离广场者

盛雪，北京“六四”大屠杀的见证者

郑义，著名作家，北京知识界示威游行组织者

王容芬，中国社会科学院高级研究员，“六四”大屠杀见证者

杨建利，加州大学伯克利分校，六三夜间在天安门广场

杨巍，当时在上海的中国民联成员，因“六四”被关押一年半

张菁，当时在贵州劳改茶场，因参与八十年代民主运动受迫害

毕润全，香港社工，全程参加声援天安门学生

英文：

Open letter of Tiananmen survivors, participants, and supporters

To Carma Hinton, Richard Gordon

Director and Producer of the Gate of Heavenly Peace

May 28th, 2009

On the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Chinese Student Movement, we, the survivors of the massacre and the organizers, participants, researchers and supporters of the movement, are urging you again – as we did in 1995 – to correct the false reporting and editing in your film, The Gate of Heavenly Peace.

In your documentary, some selectively quoted statements and omissions of a few important historical facts created a false record of the history, particularly in relation to our fellow student leader Chai Ling. If you consider your production a documentary of the facts without any personal motives to intentionally discredit Chai Ling and the student organizers of the movement, we, many of whom were actually in Tiananmen Square, urge you to post this letter on your web site so that the public can consider both of our perspectives and judge for themselves.

In your documentary, you used selective quotes and interpretive and erroneous translation leaving viewers with an impression that Chai Ling had run away from the danger while sending her other students to die, or that she and all of us student leaders had provoked and hoped for the bloodshed. This impression was contradictory to the facts of what actually happened at Tiananmen.

Clearly, Chai Ling’s language "…qidai liuxue" was mistranslated by Carma Hinton, the producer, and taken out of context. "qidai" is properly translated as "hope for with anticipation or wait." Those of us who were there know that Chai Ling meant that we were anticipating a possible crackdown and hoping that the crackdown would happen in public, in front of the media, rather than being driven back to the darkness and disappearing from the world record, like so many other uprisings in China before and after 1989. It is important to note that we anticipated a crackdown, not a massacre. It also should have been noted that the student leaders made a major effort to make sure students who chose to stay at Tiananmen were volunteers who understood the risks of remaining in the square.

Above all, our fellow student Chai Ling's language "…I want to live…" was also taken out of context, and gives a false impression that she ran away. In fact, she was there with her fellow student demonstrators until the last minute at Tiananmen, and led the last protestors on the Square retreating to campus in the morning of June 4th, 1989. It was with that false impression, Chan Yi'ngok, the recently impeached Chair of Hong Kong University Students' Union, had made an errant public speech and ruined his reputation.

Context helps provide truth, thus we are critical that you as filmmakers left out Chai Ling’s audio tape from June 8th, 1989, where she gave detailed accounts on what happened during the night of massacre, and of which the filmmakers must have been aware. Most of Chai Ling’s June 8th speech was intentionally omitted from the documentary, as it would have called into question the veracity of the translation and editing of her videotaped clip in the film quoted above—a clip that was used extensively to promote and draw attention to the film.

Chai Ling’s voice on May 28th, 1989, regarding her desire to live is a voice of all of us. There is no one, among the billions of Chinese people that does not have a strong desire to live. The truth is that when the massacre and imprisonment came, many of us and our colleagues made the difficult decision to sacrifice the desire to live in order fulfill our duty and honor. The fact is also that, during those long dark days, months, and years following Tiananmen of being underground and in hiding, imprisonment, or exile overseas, the very desire to live has gave us all the courage and strength to survive. As Chai Ling said during her Hunger Strike speech: "With the courage of facing death, we are fighting for the right to live".

Our goal was, and is, truth. Chai Ling and all of us accomplished the goal to some extent in that this is one event in China's modern history that left extensive photos, reporting, books, and memoirs for the world to see and to tell the history and show the truth. This movement did not disappear into darkness as others did before, via the Chinese Government's controlled media.

Many, many years ago, de Tocqueville visited America, observed and concluded, "America is great because she is good. Her people are good…Once it ceases its goodness, America will ceases its greatness". We are all fortunate today, to have this debate, because the American founding fathers have fought and left us an open system that encourages free speech and academic freedom. The very freedom that we all fought for, sacrificed for, and yet have not achieved inside China.

We value you and your colleagues' stated interest to "reflect the complex motives and stories behind the events of 1989 in an accessible format, and to provide specialists and the public with an ongoing research resource." We, too, are continuing our effort to build a historical archive for public access via the web site: www.64memo.com. It should be our common interest to work together to preserve a true record of the history.

On the 20th anniversary remembering all of the Chinese students' and citizens' sacrifices, it has been 14 years since we first raised our concerns with you, but we have seen no action taken to correct misrepresentations in The Gate of Heavenly Peace. Again, we who took the risk and live in exile today because of it, urge you to post on your website this brief response and defense of our attempt to bring freedom and democracy to China, and of those students and citizens who risked or sacrificed their life and future to cry for a better future of China.

Sincerely,

Signatories ' Name, College in 1989, brief note

FANG Zheng, Beijing Sport University, Crushed by Tank in the morning of June 4, 1989

ZHANG Jian, Beijing Sport University, Shot in the early morning of June 4, 1989

XIONG Yan, Peking University, on the 21 Most Wanted List, among the last protestors on Chang'An Avenue

ZHOU Fengsuo, Tsinghua University, on the 21 Most Wanted List, among the last students on the Square

FENG Congde, Peking University, on the 21 Most Wanted List, among the last students on the Square

CHANG Jing, Peking University, on a Wanted List, organized the survey of deaths in hospitals

CHENG Zhen, Beijing Normal University, among the last students on Tiananmen Square

PAN Qiang, Shandong University, among the last students retreating from Tiananmen Square

SHENG Xue, witness of Beijing Tiananmen massacre

ZHENG Yi, well-known writer, organizer of Beijing Intellectuals' demonstrations