the people could not enter the Great Hall of the People…), we see the rabble-rousing editorials in the state newspaper that was the most rabble-y thing about the whole affair, and we see the whole protest begin to wind down, just before the tanks come in. We see them unable to attend the state funeral of someone they held dear (. But it's by no means a worthy, wordy background to it all, for we see the extended activities of the students. It's that context that leaves me to agree with the foreword, that this is not an autobiography, neither of its author nor his fictional twin. This book is practically flawless in giving a general browser's context for the whole season of protests back in 1989. I certainly didn't know of the weeks of protests and hunger strikes from the students before the massacre and the birth of the Tank Man image, I didn't know how the area had long been a venue for political protest, and I didn't know more than a spit about the people involved on either side. I never really followed the events of Tiananmen Square with much attention when it was playing out – someone in the second half of their teens has other priorities, you know. Summary: The slightly unassuming design to this book does not disguise the fact it's a perfect primer for the political unrest in Beijing in 1989, with all the hows and whos and whys the average reader could need.
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