Hong Kong: Michelle Shek and Edwin Mak weren't yet born when the tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square 30 years ago, but they joined a dozen students re-enacting the event for Hong Kong commuters on Monday night.

Edwin Mak, 23, and Michelle Shek, 19, right, performed a dramatisation of the Tiananmen Square crackdown for commuters at a Hong Kong ferry terminal on the evening of June 3. Credit:Kirsty Needham

As the crowd rushed from the Tsim Sha Tsui ferry terminal, the students from Hong Kong Shue Yan University sang songs and read solemnly about the evening of June 3, 1989, when the People's Liberation Army began firing on Chinese students.

A group of mainland Chinese tourists following the flag of their leader gathered for a moment in front of the performance, which featured a cardboard tank. Their leader quickly moved them on.

Shek, 19, said: "We know China bans this message and in China many people don't know this even happened. Hong Kong is the only place we can share this information."