Yu Dongyue (Chinese: 喻东岳; Hanyu Pinyin: Yù Dōngyuè) was born in Liuyang, a city in Hunan province of China on December 4, 1967.
In the Tiananmen protests of 1989, following a plan made by his friend Yu Zhijian, he and Lu Decheng threw eggshells full of paint at a portrait of China’s political figure Mao Zedong.
He got a prestigious first assignment as a fine-arts teacher at a vocational school in Xiangtan city that recruited students nationwide, then was transferred to the propaganda job in Liuyang.
Yu Dongyue had been transferred to Liuyang to serve as an arts editor, his job consisted of taking photographs and draw illustrations to accompany stories in the paper.
He was an excellent basketball player and preferred to have an early-morning swim, even on winter mornings when the ice had formed at the river’s edge in Liuyang.
On May 16, after a whole night of discussion about national affairs, three young men and Li Hongwu, the best friend of Lu Decheng decided to go to Beijing.
[7] In the preparation to travel to Beijing, Yu Dongyue put his notebook, a writing pad and pens, and a camera that belonged to his work unit into a yellow backpack.
[8] Before they departed on May 17, in the square of the train station, Yu Dongyue laid out his materials on a long counter.
Using black ink on white poster boards, he wrote: “End one-party dictatorship and build up democratic China.
[10] Yu Dongyue and his friends made speeches at the Changsha railway station and solicited donations for their trip.
[14] After they decided to throw paint on the portrait of Mao, Yu Dongyue determined what supplies were needed.
He and his two friends went to Beijing’s shopping district on Wangfujing street to find the professional artist’s supplies: acrylic paints, turpentine, a calligraphy brush, an ink stone, rice paste, and four sheets of sandalwood-bark paper.
Yu Dongyue wrote nine letters, the recipients included his employer, the Liuyang Daily, his family and former classmates.
Yu Dongyue and Lu Decheng threw eggs that had been emptied and refilled with red, blue and yellow paint at the large portrait of Mao Zedong displayed prominently near Tiananmen Square, the stain adhered on the portrait, Splatters of paint landed on the face and shirt of the People's Republic of China's founding leader.
1 Prison, he spent two years in solitary confinement, he was given electric shocks, beaten and tortured in other ways[28] and he got a big scar on the right side of his head.
[29] In 1992, he wrote on a prison blackboard the words "Re-evaluate June 4" and "Down with Deng Xiaoping," the Chinese leader at the time, which led to further brutal beatings, according to a human-rights group.