The Power of Tiananmen: State-Society Relations and the 1989 Beijing Student Movement

Dingxin Zhao's book is a very thorough, approachable examination of the famous 1989 set of student protests in Beijing. The first five chapters, and chapter 8, are all about providing as many of the reasons behind the protests as he can. For example, in chapter 8, he provides a very good description of exactly how campuses in Beijing are set up, with some 8 students per room, all of the dorms next to each other, and many, many schools within an easy walk or bicycle ride from one another, and he describes exactly the significance of this. He also gives a description of China's economy since the 1979 reforms, including patters of student enrollment in the decade before the 1989 movement. Also, whenever he wants to make a broad generalization, such as levels of esteem the students held the government in, or the extent to which students participated in classes in 1989, or if he wants to enrich his description a little, he'll give an excerpt from one of his many interviews with Chinese students. Chapter 6 gives a blow-by-blow of everything from mid-April, when the protests started, to the violent conclusion in June. The star I take off from it is because it reads like a series of articles; you can read one chapter and set it down for a while, and in order to make the book friendly to the reader who does that, or who doesn't start at the beginning, he repeats a lot of information. Also, some of the theoretical chapters were just a bit incomprehensible to me. But overall, I consider it a great account of the event, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about it.

If you think the student demonstration a Tiananmen Square in 1989 that ended with tanks rolling in was mainly to promote democracy, in the sense of people voting for leaders, you really need to read this book. the situation was a lot messier than the way it was presented in television enws clips and newspaper articles. This book is a unique look at social change and what's involved from multiple viewpoints. The protest, like any political action was based on emotion, economics, and the unique society it was born in, as well as logic. Dingxin Zhao explains each aspect including questions that are often argued about and things essential, but ignored. Who led the student movement? The answer varied from day to day and sometimes hour to hour. The government's lack of understanding of what caused it changed the demonstration while it was going on. Here's an essential no one else talks about: the cash cost of the tents and food, water and sanitation for 200,000 people occupying the largest public square in the world. It isn't light reading because the author keeps firing new ways to look at what happened at the reader, but that's what keeps one fascinated.

Professor Zhao's book is an indispensable account of the tragic events surrounding the 1989 Chinese student movement. The book is not overly academic, which is to say that any reader will is capable of comprehending the political and societal factors that contributed to the movement's chaotic ending. As a former student of his, his research is well-founded, his writing is precise, and his explanations are thorough and convincing. Overall, a great read!