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Tiananmen

Tiananmen: The Musical is an American rock musical based on the Tiananmen massacre in 1989. The Chinese government fired at students protesting at Tiananmen Square. Wu'er Kaixi, one of those who led the protests, is alive and living in Taiwan. The musical production company has roped him into joining the team as a creative consultant and conceiver.

Scott Elmegreen has written the book for the musical, while Darren Lee is the stage director and choreographer, Steven Cuevas is the music director, and Melanie Tojio Lockyer is the casting director.

The Phoenix Theater Company in Phoenix hosts the premiere of the musical. The music is more of a tribute to the rock singers who performed in 1989 to show their support for protesting students.

Background and History Of the Tiananmen Square Massacre

The Tiananmen massacre is also known as June Fourth Cleaning, where Chinese troops armed with rifles opened fire at the students protesting at Tiananmen Square. The protests began on 15th April. They were violently suppressed on 4th June by the government.

The death of Hu Yaobang, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), caused the already anxious public to protest against the reforms, which benefited only certain groups and were harmful to a majority of the citizens. Inflation, corruption, democracy, freedom of expression, and restrictions to enter politics formed the basis of the protests.

However, the protests were unorganized as the students had different issues to raise, workers had their own concerns, and others had another set of concerns. That said, they somehow managed to come together to form a team and protest at Tiananmen Square. It's said that one million Chinese citizens assembled for the protest.

The government tried several ways to dissuade the protestors. But when this progressed to hunger strikes in May, the leadership decided to suppress the agitation by any means. Close to three million troops were mobilized to Beijing, and in the early morning of 4th June 1989, the troops fired rifles and tanks at the protests and bystanders. The death toll was in the thousands, though the exact number is unknown.

Darren Lee is a Chinese American, and he emphasized the importance of staging the musical to prevent the incident from being erased from history. Tiananmen: The Musical has an all-Asian American and Pacific Islander cast. Much information about the musical is not revealed as some of the artists have families in China.