Tiananmen Moon

May 15, 2009
A rare Westerner who can read and speak fluent Chinese, Cunningham (media studies, Doshisha Univ., Kyoto) takes us on a historical journey through the streets of Beijing, where he had worked as a freelance journalist in the eventful days leading up to the Tiananmen Square massacre, one of the darkest moments of Chinese history. Based on his reminiscences, Cunningham's evocative day-by-day testimony of the monthlong political chess match between the students and the Communist regime before the violent military crackdown on June 4, 1989, reads as much like an action-based thriller as an historical narrative. In offering a candid view of the student leadership based on his interviews and interactions with the protesters, Cunningham's account reveals the dissent and factionalism within the student ranks. A welcome addition to our understanding of a convoluted and perplexing historical black mark that media and scholarly pundits have only begun to unravel after nearly two decades of silence, this book will be appreciated by both interested general readers and scholars.Allan Cho, Univ. of British Columbia Lib., Vancouver

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2009
Street-level view of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

Cunningham (Media Studies/Doshisha Univ., Kyoto), an American-born Asia specialist, was living on campus at Beijing Normal University during the weeks-long popular uprising that ended with the deaths of hundreds of Chinese students and intellectuals on June 4. The historic and bloody event—still the object of a"soul-chilling silence" by Chinese officials—has been much written about in the West, but Cunningham offers the intriguing point of view of a Chinese speaker who both took part in the demonstrations and covered them as a freelance journalist for the BBC. His vivid, highly personal account begins in early May, when he joined Chinese students in orderly sit-ins at the New China News Agency to protest the lack of press freedom. Amid campus rivalries, the uprising grew to include a bicycle demonstration, slogan-shouting in front of the People's Daily offices and a mid-May hunger strike that gave new urgency to the protest. Cunningham re-creates the headiness of the time and the hopefulness of young Chinese wearing headbands and carrying red flags and hand-painted posters. His many extended conversations with student leaders and others reveal the frequent mistrust among the demonstrators as well as their shared grievances over corruption and class privilege in Chinese society. As the war of nerves between protesters and government officials heated up, Cunningham experienced his own inner turmoil as a Westerner who was highly sympathetic to the uprising but nonetheless viewed with suspicion by many in the crowd. He concludes with an account of the violent government crackdown. The author says the upheaval at Tiananmen accelerated reform, and he remains in awe of the"remarkably peaceful, transformative, and uplifting weeks" that preceded the arrival of troops and tanks. His inside view of these chaotic days offers a deeper understanding of the yearning for freedom that drove youths and workers into the streets of a closed society.

A fresh perspective mainly for students and specialists.

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