Male, 22, unemployed. From: Beijing.

On the afternoon of June 3, 1989, Ya was outside. When he saw the tense atmosphere in the streets, he went home to tell his mother that he wanted to go with his former schoolmates to show his support for the students. At 10 p.m., on the way to Gongzhufen in the western part of Beijing, Ya was shot in the head by martial law troops. His friends and schoolmates searched for him in every major hospital and finally found his body on June 5 at the 301 Hospital (Chinese PLA General Hospital). The hospital stated that he had sustained “puncturing of the brain stem.” Ya’s ashes were initially kept at Babaoshan Cinerary Hall and were later moved and buried in Tianjin, his ancestral hometown.

After Ya’s death, his mother, Zhang Zhenxia (张振霞), was deeply traumatized and suffered from stress-related chronic high blood pressure. His father, Ya Weilin (轧伟林), developed heart ailments. On May 25, 2012, on the eve of the 23rd anniversary of June Fourth, Ya Weilin, age 73, hanged himself. He said in his suicide note that had wanted to use his own death to protest lack of redress for the injustice done to his son. He had been an active member of the Tiananmen Mothers.

Ya Aiguo’s mother and older brother, Ya Aiqiang (轧爱强), are both members of the Tiananmen Mothers.