The solemn strains of Shostakovich floated across the Central Triangle of Beijing University last night, as authorities staged a public commemoration for a 19-year-old student whose murder they initially tried to keep secret.
At tables set out in the warm night air, young women volunteers twisted paper tissues into white flowers, the colour of mourning, and handed them to students queuing to enter the 100-Year Anniversary Hall. Inside, mourners bowed before a black and white photograph of Qiu Qingfeng, flanked by floral wreaths and draped with orange and black ribbon.
The official commemoration, which began late yesterday, marked a capitulation by the authorities at China's most prestigious university, after two days of the most serious student unrest there since 1989. Qiu Qingfeng was raped and killed by an unknown assailant on Friday but officials did not inform students until Tuesday, and then only after the news appeared on the Internet.
The first-year politics undergraduate had sat an examination on Friday and set off on a 90minute journey by regular bus to the student accommodation she had been assigned in Changping, north of here. She was attacked as she walked home from the last bus stop along an unlit road.
Apparently fearing instability in the run-up to the June 4th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, the university banned memorial activities.
On Tuesday evening, however, 1,000 furious students defied the ban and held a vigil, and on Wednesday 2,000 staged a candlelit march to demand that the university president, Mr Xu Zhihong, meet them to discuss security. Mr Xu was booed when he appeared and there were calls for his resignation. Plain clothes security officials flooded into the university but took no action when protesters erected a makeshift memorial, piling it high with candles and flowers.
As so often happens in China, mourning turned into a venting of grievances. Last night knots of students gathered at a wall in the triangle to read impromptu protest notices, pasted among advertisements for Internet courses and kung fu championships. One said: "They don't care about our lives." They complained of poor living conditions and broken promises, and asked why a bus was not provided for Ms Qiu.
A public security notice warned students, "Do not do anything excessive," and the university defence unit wrote that they were seeking a 28-year-old unemployed man called Mr Wang Wenzhi, from Hebei province, who was allegedly a provocateur.
Wary of the possible consequences of unauthorised protests, some students at the campus said last night they may have gone too far. A man said: "Why attack the president, he's only been here for a couple of months."
In another apparent sign of official nervousness over the June 4th anniversary, a performance tomorrow in the Beijing Workers' Stadium by the rock singer, Cui Jian, whose protest songs captured the mood of the students in 1989, was cancelled without explanation.