Pillar of Shame
Fifty copper bodies, torn and twisted, eight metres tall — with the words "The old cannot kill the young forever" cut into the base.
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Danish sculptor Jens Galschiøt cast this 8-metre copper figure in 1997 to mark the eighth anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown. The black-copper mass of 50 figures represents the degradation of the individual; the base carries a carved record of the massacre in both English and Chinese — a deliberate counter-monument.
What to look for
- The 50 torn and twisted copper bodies stacked into an 8-metre column
- Base inscriptions in English and Chinese: 'The Tiananmen Massacre', 'June 4th 1989', 'The old cannot kill the young forever'
- Carved history and images of the massacre engraved directly into the base
Originally erected in Victoria Park, the 2-tonne statue was moved by university students to the podium of the Haking Wong Building at the University of Hong Kong — verify access before visiting.
Pillar of Shame is one of 34 sights worth the detour in Hong Kong, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Hong Kong pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Hong Kong
- International Commerce CentreAt 484 m, this is the only building in Hong Kong with more than 100 floors — and it had to be trimmed down so it wouldn't overtop the surrounding mountains.
- Bank of China TowerThe first skyscraper outside the United States to break 1,000 feet — its glass triangles cut the Central skyline unlike anything around it.
- Central PlazaA four-bar neon clock 374 metres above Wan Chai changes colour every 15 minutes, blinking at each quarter-hour change.
- Hong Kong DisneylandThe only Disneyland where a walkway was deliberately bent so good qi energy would not drain into the South China Sea.
- The CenterAfter dark, hundreds of neon bars scroll slowly through the full color spectrum from base to crown — a light show wired into the steel itself.
- Tsing Ma BridgeThe span that ended Lantau Island's water-only isolation — 1,377 metres of road and rail hung from two towers.