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Zusatztext Liao shows that it was working-class Beijingers who made the supreme sacrifice Informationen zum Autor Liao Yiwu is a writer! musician! and poet from Sichaun! China. He is the author of The Corpse Walker ! God Is Red ! and For a Song and a Hundred Songs ! a memoir of the four years he spent in prison after the Tiananmen Square Massacre. His work has been published in Germany! France! Italy! Spain! Poland! the Netherlands! the Czech Republic! and Sweden. He has received numerous awards! including the prestigious 2012 Peace Prize awarded by the German Book Trade and the Disturbing the Peace Award given by the Václav Havel Library Foundation. Liao escaped from China in July 2011 and currently lives in Berlin! Germany. Klappentext "From the award-winning poet! dissident! and "one of the most original and remarkable Chinese writers of our time" (Philip Gourevitch) comes a raw! evocative! and unforgettable look at the Tiananmen Square massacre through the eyes of those who were there."--Provided by publisher. Bullets and Opium Introduction by Ian Johnson It's risky to pick turning points in world history, but it's safe to say that the Tiananmen Massacre on the night of June 34, 1989, in downtown Beijing, was one of the most important of the past half century. At the time it was recognized as a momentous eventa bloodbath in the center of a world capital usually isbut three decades later its importance has only grown, marking the end of one China and the rise of today's grim superpower. For on that night, soldiers armed with automatic weapons and tanks smashed through crude barricades, killing hundreds, possibly thousands, of Beijingers trying to stop the troops from breaking up a student protest. The students had occupied the city's gargantuan Tiananmen Square, calling for an end to corruption and official privilege and for a more open, freer society. The students were flawedas are most people, especially when they are eighteen or nineteen years old. Most had little idea of what they wanted. And some were arrogant. But they were well-meaning and idealistic, and many Chinese saw in them a hope for a better, more decent society. From across the country, Chinese traveled to Beijing to support them, wired them money, and wrote poems in their honor. And so, on that fateful night, thousands of ordinary Beijingers ran out onto the streets to confront the troops. On several previous nights the government had also tried to clear the square but sent in unarmed troops. Locals talked them out of their attack and they returned to their barracks. But this time around, China's rulers decided to teach their subjects a lesson they wouldn't forget. They sent in hardened troops with orders to shoot their way to the center of town. The carnage lasted hours and the city's hospitals overflowed with the dead and dying. The message was clear: This will not be tolerated. Ever. Since then, China's course has been set: economic development, yes; an open society, no. The government has banned, arrested, and jailed people who tried to set up new political parties or even write about the need for change. It has brought the Internet to heel by deploying thousands of censors. And it has pushed its ambitions abroad by funding Western universities and think tanks and drawing up blacklists of people who mention its deeds. These are the bullets it uses to silence opponents. The opium is the benefits of economic growththe real prosperity that makes many people inside and outside of China wary of rocking the boat. For many around the world, China has become an alluring model, and its many apologists, including leading Western politi...
“Liao shows that it was working-class Beijingers who made the supreme sacrifice”
Auteur
Liao Yiwu is a writer, musician, and poet from Sichaun, China. He is the author of The Corpse Walker, God Is Red, and For a Song and a Hundred Songs, a memoir of the four years he spent in prison after the Tiananmen Square Massacre. His work has been published in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and Sweden. He has received numerous awards, including the prestigious 2012 Peace Prize awarded by the German Book Trade and the Disturbing the Peace Award given by the Václav Havel Library Foundation. Liao escaped from China in July 2011 and currently lives in Berlin, Germany.
Texte du rabat
"From the award-winning poet, dissident, and "one of the most original and remarkable Chinese writers of our time" (Philip Gourevitch) comes a raw, evocative, and unforgettable look at the Tiananmen Square massacre through the eyes of those who were there."--Provided by publisher.
Résumé
“Moving…a memorable series of portraits of the working-class people who defended Tiananmen Square." —The New York Review of Books
“A series of harrowing, unforgettable tales...Had [Liao Yiwu] not fled the country in 2011, they may never have emerged. An indispensable historical document.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Liao Yiwu’s searing account of what happened in Beijing on June 4, 1989, and its lasting impact, doggedly collected from witnesses, demands attention.” —*South China Morning Post*
From the award-winning poet, dissident, and “one of the most original and remarkable Chinese writers of our time” (Philip Gourevitch) comes a raw, evocative, and unforgettable look at the Tiananmen Square massacre through the eyes of those who were there.
For over seven years, Liao Yiwu—a master of contemporary Chinese literature, imprisoned and persecuted as a counter-revolutionary until he fled the country in 2011—secretly interviewed survivors of the devastating 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Tortured, imprisoned, and forced into silence and the margins of Chinese society for thirty years, their harrowing stories are now finally revealed in this gripping and masterful work of investigative journalism.
Échantillon de lecture
Bullets and Opium
by Ian Johnson
It’s risky to pick turning points in world history, but it’s safe to say that the Tiananmen Massacre on the night of June 3–4, 1989, in downtown Beijing, was one of the most important of the past half century. At the time it was recognized as a momentous event—a bloodbath in the center of a world capital usually is—but three decades later its importance has only grown, marking the end of one China and the rise of today’s grim superpower.
For on that night, soldiers armed with automatic weapons and tanks smashed through crude barricades, killing hundreds, possibly thousands, of Beijingers trying to stop the troops from breaking up a student protest. The students had occupied the city’s gargantuan Tiananmen Square, calling for an end to corruption and official privilege and for a more open, freer society.
The students were flawed—as are most people, especially when they are eighteen or nineteen years old. Most had little idea of what they wanted. And some were arrogant. But they were well-meaning and idealistic, and many Chinese saw in them a hope for a better, more decent society. From across the country, Chinese traveled to Beijing to support them, wired them money, and wrote poems in their honor.
And so, on that fateful night, thousands of ordinary Beijingers ran out onto the streets to confront the troops. On several previous nights the government had also tried to clear the square but sent in unarmed troops. Locals talked them out of their attack and they returned to their barracks.
But this time around, China’s rulers decided to teach their subjects a lesson they wouldn’t forget. They sent in hardened troops with orders to shoot their way to the center of town. The carnage lasted hours …