On May 22nd, playwright Sha Yexin joined a march of intellectuals in Shanghai, representing the Shanghai cultural sector in support of the 1989 democracy movement.

In 1979, Sha Yexin wrote the play "If I Were for Real", which criticized privilege within the Chinese government. It was the first artistic work after the fall of the Gang of Four in 1976 to deal with corruption among the authorities; it aroused widespread reaction from the public, and even alarmed the Central Propaganda Department. However, Hu Yaobang, then-head of the Central Propaganda Department, was protective of the creator and opposed the imposition of charges on artistic works; thus, Sha Yexin dodged the bullet. Nevertheless, "If I Were for Real" was still banned by the authorities.

After the June 4th crackdown, Sha Yexin insisted on wearing a black veil for three days, despite his wife's resistance. Sha said, "If they kill people in public on the street, then I must wear a black veil in public on the street; otherwise I will be letting down the students who died." In the morning of June 5th, he wrote in his diary, "Beijing is bleeding. I'm shocked, I'm sad, I'm crying… I thought the government would never order shooting people, but they did. This government's sins are worthy of a myriad deaths!"

References: [《天安門對峙》("Standoff at Tiananmen")(Chinese)] (http://www.tiananmenduizhi.com/2018/07/blog-post.html); [中央社("Central News Agency")(Chinese)] (https://www.cna.com.tw/news/firstnews/201807270216.aspx); [自由亞洲電台("Radio Free Asia")(Chinese)] (https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/ytbdzhuantixilie/6430/64-05212019103326.html)