Tea light

A candlelight vigil for the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre was held on Tuesday in Oxford. The vigil was attended by more than half of Hong Kong Oxonians and was the first memorial of its kind held in Oxford in recent years.

The student-led memorial attracted more than 60 undergraduates and postgraduates, more than attend the annual Chinese New Year gathering in Oxford. There are about 100 Hong Kong students at Oxford.

Dressed in dark colours and holding battery-operated candles, students mimicked the routines of a similar memorial held in Hong Kong every year since 1990. They observed a minute’s silence for the victims and sang songs of condolence.

On June 4th 1989 thousands of Beijing students and civilians were killed by the army following a peaceful demonstration for democracy in China. No one has been held responsible for the deaths, nor has there been an official death count. 23 years on, Hong Kong remains the only place on Chinese soil where people can mourn the victims without political intervention.

Oxford students had organised memorials for the victims in the early 1990s, but efforts subsided after. Franz Mang, one of the organisers, said, “We would like to continue the tradition here in Oxford. Last year we wanted to attend memorials in London, but found out that they were mostly linked with dubious organisations. We want to organise a politically independent memorial, solely for Oxford students.”

Timothy Chan said, “Since 1989 I spent most of my time in England. There had never been memorials of any kind, until this year.”

Dr Xu Zerong, a visiting fellow at St Antony’s College who had been jailed by the Chinese government for political reasons, was the guest speaker.

The organisers said they were encouraged by the enthusiastic turnout, and would like to involve mainland Chinese and students of other nationalities next year. Samson Yuen, one of the organisers, said, “Authoritarian regimes always want people to forget history. Remembering is our last defence.”

Manufacturers of high-end smartphones often must choose between design and functionality. One challenge is combining the camera with the lighting required. In some designs, the technical components can look bulky and the recesses in the enclosure can make the device less robust. The new LED supports smartphone manufacturers in their efforts to combine form and function.

It has two chips with 1-sq-mm of emitting surface each. The light-emitting area of the rectangular LED is optimized for the optics of the phone — the surface is flat and blends properly with the cover so that the LED can be installed inconspicuously. No additional covers or lenses are necessary. With its symmetrical emission, the LED can be installed vertically or horizontally. When switched off, it is barely noticeable.

Thanks to UX:3 chip technology, the LED provides consistent illumination for photos. At a distance of 1 m, a brightness level of 150 lx is achieved. The light is evenly distributed and covers the corners of the rectangular illuminated image, so that no hot spot is generated in the center. Because all the elements of the flash are combined in a single component, the LED is easily integrated into the phone. It is durable and resistant to shock and vibration, and its energy-efficient design enables multiple consecutive flashes.