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Remaking Beijing: Tiananmen Square and the Creation of a Political Space
In 1949, Beijing still retained nearly all of its time-honored character and magnificence But when Chairman Mao rejected the proposal to build a new capital for the People's Republic of China and decided to stay in the ancient city, he initiated a long struggle to transform Beijing into a shining beacon of socialism. So began the remaking of the city into a modern metropolis rife with monuments, public squares, exhibition halls, and government offices. Wu Hung grew up in Beijing and experienced much of the city's makeover firsthand. In this lavishly illustrated work, he offers a vivid, often personal account of the struggle over Beijing's reinvention, drawing particular attention to Tiananmen Square—the most sacred space in the People's Republic of China. Remaking Beijing considers the square's transformation from a restricted imperial domain into a public arena for political expression, from an epic symbol of socialism into a holy relic of the Maoist regime, and from an official and monumental complex into a site for unofficial and antigovernment demonstrations. Wu Hung also explores how Tiananmen Square has become a touchstone for official art in modern China—as the site for Mao's monumental portrait, as the location of museums narrating revolutionary history, and as the grounds for extravagant National Day parades celebrating the revolutionary masses. He then shows how in recent years the square has inspired artists working without state sponsorship to create paintings, photographs, and even performances that reflect the spirit of the 1989 uprisings and pose a forceful challenge to official artworks and the sociopolitical system that supports them. Remaking Beijing will reward anyone interested in modern Chinese history, society, and art, or, more generally, in how urban renewal becomes intertwined with cultural and national politics. .
Price: $29.17
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The Tiananmen Papers
Published to predictable international controversy, this sensational trove of documents, chronicling events leading up to, and following, the violent quashing of student protests in Tiananmen Square in June 1989, vividly details for the first time what previously had only been surmised. Zhang Liang, the pseudonym for the high-ranking Chinese official who leaked the documents, has revived the memory less to tell the truth than in a bid to advance political reform in China, which stalled as a result of Tiananmen Square. In that sense, the book is as much about hidden struggles now as it is about those in 1989. The Chinese government, unsurprisingly, has condemned it as "fabrication," and while a post- Hitler Diaries world is cautious, with experts admitting they cannot guarantee authenticity "with absolute authority," the feeling is that the records are largely credible. What they reveal is the paranoia that gripped the Chinese rulers when the death of Hu Yaobang sparked public demonstrations that showed no signs of abating. The biggest villain appears to be former Premier Li Peng, the so-called "Butcher of Beijing," who conspires to bring about an aggressive end to the "turmoil." Yet it's Deng Xiaoping, who, although officially long retired, still wields the most power, as he and his fellow Elders intervene to enforce martial law. The moderate Zhao Ziyang favors negotiation and dialogue, but as a consequence is crushed and replaced by Jiang Zemin, the present leader, plucked from obscurity and appointed in defiance of procedure. The gripping scenario that unfolds, in compulsive detail, is akin to parents bickering over the best way to control unruly children, with carrot or stick. Preceding a much longer Chinese edition, the American editors, Andrew J. Nathan and Perry Link, have performed their duties with acuity and flair, providing a lucid commentary to link the whistle-blowing government papers, minutes of meetings, speeches, eyewitness accounts, poster text, and foreign observations. The Tiananmen Papers affords a wide audience the opportunity to watch the drama unfold, blow by blow. It proves as brilliantly enthralling and explosive as a fictional thriller, allowing a rare snapshot of Chinese Communist Party factionalism in action. --David Vincent, Amazon.co.uk.
Price: $3.47
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The Power of Tiananmen: State-Society Relations and the 1989 Beijing Student Movement
In the spring of 1989 over 100,000 students in Beijing initiated the largest student revolt in human history Television screens across the world filled with searing images from Tiananmen Square of protesters thronging the streets, massive hunger strikes, tanks set ablaze, and survivors tending to the dead and wounded after a swift and brutal government crackdown. Dingxin Zhao's award-winning The Power of Tiananmen is the definitive treatment of these historic events. Along with grassroots tales and interviews with the young men and women who launched the demonstrations, Zhao carries out a penetrating analysis of the many parallel changes in China's state-society relations during the 1980s. Such changes prepared an alienated academy, gave rise to ecology-based student mobilization, restricted government policy choices, and shaped student emotions and public opinion, all of which, Zhao argues, account for the tragic events in Tiananmen. .
Price: $20.00
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Escape from China : The Long Journey From Tiananmen to Freedom
When the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations became a bloody massacre, Zhang Boli, a prominent student leader, was placed on China's most wanted list. Of the 21 listed, he is the only one to elude authorities Escape from China is Zhang's first-person account of his perilous two-year flight from his pursuers, a flight that eventually brought him to America. Fleeing from a regime that had "lost rationality and humanity", he went north--crossing into Russia for a while--relying not only on the kindness of friends, relatives, and strangers, but also on his own ingenuity. He spent months living rough in the harsh, wild, Russian-Chinese border region east of Mongolia. Zhang's narrative is blunt, precise, and commendably modest. Especially compelling are the conversations he had during his odyssey. Much of their power derives from Zhang's rendering--unblinking, no matter how gruff and vulgar. Escape from China is at once an indictment of authoritarianism and a gripping story of hardship, bravery, and determination. --H. O'Billovich.
Price: $3.99
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Beyond Tiananmen: The Politics of U.S.-China Relations 1989-2000
In the summer of 1989 soldiers of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) raced into the center of Beijing with orders to recover "at any cost" the city's most important landmark, Tiananmen Square, from student demonstrators. The United States and other Western countries recoiled in disgust after the horrific incident, and the relationship between the United States and China went from amity and strategic cooperation to hostility, distrust, and misunderstanding. Time has healed many of the wounds from those terrible days of June 1989, and bilateral strains have been eased in light of the countries' joint opposition to international terrorism. Yet strategic thinkers and military planners in both China and the United States remain locked in opposition, casting each other as the principal enemy in future conflict. Recent polls indicate that most Americans consider China an "unfriendly" country, while anti-American sentiment is growing in China. According to Robert L. Suettinger, the calamity in Tiananmen Square marked a critical turning point in U.S.-China affairs. In Beyond Tiananmen, Suettinger traces the turbulent bilateral relationship since that time, with a particular focus on the internal political factors that shaped it. Through a series of candid anecdotes and observations, Suettinger sheds light on the complex and confused decisionmaking process that affected relations between the United Sates and China between 1989 and the end of the Clinton presidency in 2000. By illuminating the way domestic political ideas, beliefs, and prejudices affect foreign policymaking, Suettinger reveals policy decisions as outcomes of complex processes, rather than the results of grand strategic trends. Suettinger sees considerable opportunity for cooperation and improvement in what is likely to be the single most important bilateral relationship of the twenty-first century. He cautions, however, that routine misperceptions of goals and policies between the two countries—unfortunate legacies of Tiananmen—could lead to an increasing level of hostility, with tragic consequences..
Price: $9.99
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