The People's Republic of Amnesia : Tiananmen Revisited
ISBN: 9780199347711
Platform/Publisher: Ebook Central / Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Limited; Download: 7 Days at a Time
Subjects: History;

In 1989, an unprecedented outpouring of public support for democracy, human rights, and good governance arose in China, but after the massacre at Tiananmen Square, the country set about assiduously forgetting the entire episode. Lim, a journalist with years of experience in China, uncovers stories from that summer, still untold after 25 years, and explores the ways they have consciously and unconsciously seeped into the state's psyche. Even now she is taking a calculated risk: "As the boundaries of what is considered politically acceptable in China narrow, the subtle algebra of self-censorship has steadily diminished free expression both within China's borders and beyond." The concurrent protests and summary executions that Lim uncovers in Chengdu are almost completely unknown even in China, although afterwards "public enmity toward the police. was so intense that policemen stopped wearing their uniforms," and she argues that similar events occurred in dozens of cities. Tracing the fallout of Tiananmen in moving portraits of victims, soldiers, activists and officials, she probes the fissures of the aging dissident movement. Of the new generation, Lim says, "I once asked a 15-year-old schoolgirl in Yunnan what she dreamed of doing when she grew up. 'I want to spend time with corrupt officials,' she answered. 'The more corrupt they are, the better.'" (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Louisa Lim is an award-winning journalist who has reported from China for a decade, most recently for National Public Radio. Previously she was the BBC's Beijing Correspondent. She lives with her husband and two children in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

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