The People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited - Rilegato

Lim, Louisa

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0199347700 ISBN 13: 9780199347704

Casa editrice: OUP USA, 2014

Riassunto

On June 4, 1989, People's Liberation Army soldiers opened fire on unarmed civilians in Beijing, killing untold hundreds of people. A quarter-century later, this defining event remains buried in China's modern history, successfully expunged from collective memory. In The People's Republic of Amnesia, NPR and former BBC correspondent Louisa Lim charts how the events of June 4th changed China, and how China changed the events of June 4th by rewriting its own history.

Lim reveals new details about those fateful days, including how one of the country's most senior politicians lost a family member to an army bullet, as well as the inside story of the young soldiers sent to clear Tiananmen Square. She also introduces us to individuals whose lives were transformed by the events of Tiananmen Square, such as a founder of the Tiananmen Mothers, whose son was shot by martial law troops; and one of the most important government officials in the country, who post-Tiananmen became one of its most prominent dissidents. And she examines how June 4th shaped China's national identity, fostering a generation of young nationalists, who know little and care less about 1989. For the first time, Lim uncovers the details of a brutal crackdown in a second Chinese city that until now has been a near-perfect case study in the state's ability to rewrite history, excising the most painful episodes. By tracking down eyewitnesses, discovering US diplomatic cables, and combing through official Chinese records, Lim offers the first account of a story that has remained untold for a quarter of a century. The People's Rebulic of Amnesia is an original, powerfully gripping, and ultimately unforgettable book about a national tragedy and an unhealed wound.

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Recensione:

Lim's important book offers a chilling vision of an Orwellian society

This reconstruction, by a correspondent for America's National Public Radio, is as important for Western readers as it is for the new Chinese generation that has grown up since 1989 and knows little of what happened. (Economist)

the book is accessible, fluidly written, and offers rich accounts of one of the most complex chapters in contemporary Chinese history. (Jennifer Altehenger, History Today)

[A] persuasive and fascinating read (Andrea Janku, LSE Review of books)

Outstanding... Its great merit is the range of people in China to whom the author has spoken, a hazardous enterprise given the acute sensitivity about the events she seeks to explore. As Lim writes, forgetting has become a survival mechanism. (Jonathan Fenby, Financial Times)

The book features an extraordinary array of witnesses... [it] explores the way violence has been so successfully deleted from public consciousness, and the social political costs of this amnesia. (Julia Lovell, Daily Telegraph)

Lim presents a sequence of sensitive, skilfully drawn portraits of individuals whose lives were changed by 1989... [This book] enhances our sense of the human costs of suppressing the past. (Wall Street Journal)

Lim tells the story elegantly. (David Wolf, Prospect)

A meticulously reported account ... The author offers a series of meticulously (and often daringly) reported portraits. (The Economist)

As well as being a scrupulously researched book, this is an unusually brave one ... [Lim] has done a terrific job. (John Preston, Daily Mail)

L'autore:

Louisa Lim has spent a decade covering China for NPR and formerly for the BBC.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: OUP USA
• Data di pubblicazione: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0199347700
• ISBN 13: 9780199347704
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 264