Veteran photo-journalist Hsieh San-tai received his political education during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. Thirty years later, he’s finally ready to show his images to the public.

Words and photos by Hsieh San-tai (謝三泰)

This piece first appeared in The Reporter in Traditional Chinese and is translated and reprinted with permission of the publisher.

In April 1989, budding photo-journalist Hsieh San-tai was sent to Beijing to cover high-level political meetings and sporting events. His visit coincided with the largest student protest in China's recent history, an event he captured for nearly forty days. But Hsieh's photos never made it into newspaper pages, and he left Beijing full of regret at his unfinished assignment.

30 years later, he's dusted off his photos, and compiled them into a new photobook — Howling 1989, printed by Yun Chen Publishing House. The following text and photos come from the book's preface, and are used with the publisher's permission.