A book of original documents, speeches, handbills, posters, manifestos and interviews. "Present[s] the sights and sounds of the cacophony of voices heard during the two-month period through the writings and recollections of the demonstrators themselves."--"Ottawa Citizen"
In the spring of 1989, millions of citizens across China took to the streets in a nationwide uprising against government corruption and authoritarian rule. What began with widespread hope for political reform ended with the People's Liberation Army firing on unarmed citizens in the capital city of Beijing, and those leaders who survived the crackdown became wanted criminals overnight. Among the witnesses to this unprecedented popular movement was Rowena Xiaoqing He, who would later join former student leaders and other exiles in North America, where she has worked tirelessly for over a decade to keep the memory of the Tiananmen Movement alive. This moving oral history interweaves He's own experiences with the accounts of three student leaders exiled from China. Here, in their own words, they describe their childhoods during Mao's Cultural Revolution, their political activism, the bitter disappointments of 1989, and the profound contradictions and challenges they face as exiles. Variously labeled as heroes, victims, and traitors in the years after Tiananmen, these individuals tell difficult stories of thwarted ideals and disconnection, but that nonetheless embody the hope for a freer China and a more just world.
What took place Tiananmen Square was a dramatic conflict. And it was, to a great extent, a media-aided conflict. Without the active involvement of both the Chinese national news media and the international news media, the conflict could never have reached such a magnitude and cast such an extensive impact on the Chinese people and on people around the world. This book adopts a theoretical framework that combines the following lines: the general social environment in which the conflict occurred and the news media operated; the societal, ideological, organisational and professional factors that influenced the news media's operations; and the interaction between the news media and the conflict. This book concentrates on the following areas to examine the effects of the news media on the movement: 1) the goals, strategies and discourse of the movement; 2) legitimisation or de-legitimisation of the movement; 3) information provision; 4) messages as signals for actions; and 5) people's attitudes.
The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this book is now available. This compelling book provides a vivid firsthand account of the student demonstrations and massacre in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Uniquely placed as a Western observer drawn into active participation through Chinese friends in the uprising, Philip J Cunningham offers a remarkable day-by-day account of Beijing students desperately trying to secure the most coveted political real estate in China in the face of ever more daunting government countermoves. Tiananmen Moon takes the reader into the thick of the 1989 protests while also following the parallel response of an unprepared but resourceful Western media. Cunningham recounts rare vignettes about life in Tiananmen Square under student leadership, including a near riot when a reporter is mistaken for Gorbachev, the saga of a tearful leader who quits and dictates her last will and testament to the author, and a dramatic account of futile resistance in the face of an unforgiving crackdown. He chronicles the opportunistic and awkward tango between naive student activists and jaded foreign journalists, in which, after a month of mutual courting, the tables turn and the now-savvy students watch the journalists, seduced and confused, run circles just trying to keep up. During the hunger strike under the light of a full moon, China bares its conflicted soul to the world, the mournful cry for reform amplified by the footsteps of a million peaceful marchers. This remarkable testament to a searing month that changed China forever serves as a witness to the rise and fall of an uprising, capturing the plaintive and lyrical beauty of a dream that endures and continues to haunt the country today.
Eyewitness account of the Tiananmen massacre where the world watched in horror as government troops opened fire on thousands of democracy campaigners in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
"Voices Carry is the moving autobiography of one of China's most prominent citizens of the twentieth century. Ying Ruocheng's lively narrative takes us from his prison cell during the Cultural Revolution back to the princely palace of his childhood. In vivid detail, he describes his unconventional education during China's revolution, which ultimately led to his theatrical work in the era of reform, ranging from a partnership with Arthur Miller on Death of a Salesman to roles in the films The Last Emperor and Little Buddha. The memoir of this internationally renowned actor, director, translator, and high-ranking government official during events in Tiananmen Square in 1989 provides a rare glimpse behind the scenes of contemporary Chinese culture and politics."--BOOK JACKET.