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Voices from Tiananmen Square
Beijing Spring and the Democracy Movement
Yu, Mok Chiu and Harrison, J. Frank (ed.) Publisher: Black Rose Books, Montreal, Canada
Year Published: 1990
Pages: 203pp Price: $19.95 ISBN: ISBN 0-921689-58-6
Resource Type: Book
Abstract: In Voices from Tiananmen Square, editors Mok Chiu Yu and Frank Harrison have brought together original documents, translated for the first time into English, including speeches, handbills, posters, manifestos, interviews, and eye-witness reports of the massacre and its aftermath. As such, Voices is an invaluable primary source for those who want to know more about the spring upheaval.
Because of its format, the book gives little indication of what effect the news from the capital may have had on the peasants (who make up three quarters of the Chinese population), nor of what was going on among China's ruling groups (except in so far as it directly affected the students and their fellow protestors). What this book does offer is the perspective of students, workers, soldiers, and intellectuals. As George Woodcock points out in the foreword, the book is "material for history rather than history itself."
There are dozens of passages similar to this one, a soldier's plea, dated three weeks before the slaughter: "Friends, don't treat us like dogs, don't hate us. We will improve your view of us by our manner and our actions. We belong to the people. You have suffered greatly, and we will not remain silent. Let this document support you. It is late, but sincere."
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