The People's Republic of amnesia : Tiananmen revisited / Louisa Lim.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lim, Louisa.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History.

China--History--Tiananmen Square Incident, 1989.

China.

China--History--Tiananmen Square Incident, 1989--Influence.

Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.).

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

x, 248 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2014]

Summary:

"Despite its emergence from backward isolation into a dynamic world economic power, a quarter-century after the People's Army crushed unarmed protestors--labeled anti-revolutionaries--in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, the defining event of China's modern history remains buried. Memory is dangerous in a country built to function on national amnesia. A single act of public remembrance might expose the frailty of the state's carefully constructed edifice of accepted history, one kept aloft by strict censorship, blatant falsehood, and willful forgetting. Though the consequences of Tiananmen Square are visible everywhere throughout China, what happened there has been consigned to silence. In The People's Republic of Amnesia, NPR's China correspondent Louisa Lim offers an insider's account of this seminal tragedy, revealing the enormous impact it had on China and the reverberations still felt today. Official hypocrisy and the government's obsession with maintaining stability and silence have deepened June 4th's impact on the nation's psyche. Lim interweaves portraits of eight individuals whose lives have been shaped by June 4--including the two women who started Tiananmen Mothers, one of the first and most prominent grassroots organizations outside the Chinese government's control; a student survivor involved in the protests; a soldier who took part in the suppression; and a high-ranking government administrator who played a role in ordering the tanks into the square. In the process she offers a textured, intimate, and haunting look at the national tragedy and an unhealed wound"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Soldier

Staying

Exile

Student

Mother

Patriot

Official

Chengdu.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-236) and index.

Chinese American Librarians Association Annual Best Book Award - Non-fiction, Best Book, 2014

ISBN:

9780199347704

0199347700

OCLC:

860944027