Tiananmen Exiles: Voices of the Struggle for Democracy in China

Author:   Rowena Xiaoqing He ,  Rowena Xiaoqing He
Publisher:   Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN:  

9781137438300


Pages:   212
Publication Date:   09 April 2014
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
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Tiananmen Exiles: Voices of the Struggle for Democracy in China


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Overview

In the spring of 1989, millions of citizens across China took to the streets in a nationwide uprising against government corruption and authoritarian rule. What began with widespread hope for political reform ended with the People's Liberation Army firing on unarmed citizens in the capital city of Beijing, and those leaders who survived the crackdown became wanted criminals overnight. Among the witnesses to this unprecedented popular movement was Rowena Xiaoqing He, who would later join former student leaders and other exiles in North America, where she has worked tirelessly for over a decade to keep the memory of the Tiananmen Movement alive. This moving oral history interweaves He's own experiences with the accounts of three student leaders exiled from China. Here, in their own words, they describe their childhoods during Mao's Cultural Revolution, their political activism, the bitter disappointments of 1989, and the profound contradictions and challenges they face as exiles. Variously labeled as heroes, victims, and traitors in the years after Tiananmen, these individuals tell difficult stories of thwarted ideals and disconnection, but that nonetheless embody the hope for a freer China and a more just world.

Full Product Details

Author:   Rowena Xiaoqing He ,  Rowena Xiaoqing He
Publisher:   Palgrave Macmillan
Imprint:   Palgrave Macmillan
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 1.20cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   4.853kg
ISBN:  

9781137438300


ISBN 10:   1137438304
Pages:   212
Publication Date:   09 April 2014
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

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Reviews

A compelling account of idealism and the price it exacts. - Kirkus Though China's democracy movement was crushed in the Tiananmen Massacre 25 years ago, the ideas that animated it are eternal. Rowena Xiaoqing He, one of the most courageous academics in the U.S., has written a powerful book that tracks the poignant journeys of three exiled activists and honors the sacrifices so many Chinese had to make in 1989 and after. - Adi Ignatius, Wall Street Journal Beijing Bureau Chief in 1989 and co-editor of Prison of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang This new book revives as well as preserves the memory of the 1989 Tiananmen Movement in a quintessential way. Combining autobiographical and biographical approaches with psycho-cultural analysis, Rowena Xiaoqing He has ingeniously reconstructed the entire movement in historical perspective not only to unlock the past and explain the present but also to peer into the future of China's sustained struggle against totalitarian tyranny. This is also a deeply touching narrative that the reader will find difficult to lay down until reaching the last sentence. - Ying-shih Yu, Emeritus Professor of East Asian Studies and History, Princeton University, and winner of the John W. Kluge Prize for the Study of Humanity Tiananmen Exiles rekindles our painful memories of those who paid dearly for their ideals. In this oral history project, Rowena Xiaoqing He captures the indomitable spirit of three student leaders forced into exile after the Tiananmen crackdown a quarter century ago. Their stories are powerful, moving, and inspirational. - Minxin Pei, Director, Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at Claremont McKenna College and author of China's Trapped Transition: The Limits of Developmental Autocracy


Though China's democracy movement was crushed in the Tiananmen Massacre 25 years ago, the ideas that animated it are eternal. Rowena Xiaoqing He, one of the most courageous academics in the U.S., has written a powerful book that tracks the poignant journeys of several exiled activists and honors the sacrifices so many Chinese had to make in 1989. - Adi Ignatius, Wall Street Journal Beijing Bureau Chief in 1989 and co-editor of Prison of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang This new book revives as well as preserves the memory of the 1989 Tiananmen Movement in a quintessential way. Combining autobiographical and biographical approaches with psycho-cultural analysis, Rowena Xiaoqing He has ingeniously reconstructed the entire movement in historical perspective not only to unlock the past and explain the present but also to peer into the future of China's sustained struggle against totalitarian tyranny. This is also a deeply touching narrative that the reader will find difficult to lay down until reaching the last sentence. - Ying-shih Yu, Emeritus Professor of East Asian Studies and History, Princeton University Tiananmen Exiles rekindles our painful memories of those who paid dearly for their ideals. In this oral history project, Rowena Xiaoqing He captures the indomitable spirit of three student leaders forced into exile after the Tiananmen crackdown a quarter century ago. Their stories are powerful, moving, and inspirational. - Minxin Pei, Director, Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at Claremont McKenna College and author of China's Trapped Transition: The Limits of Developmental Autocracy


'The student demonstrations of what has now become simply understood as ?Tiananmen? are relived through the lens of three prominent protesters in this revised dissertation and first book. He (Harvard) shares the sobering reality of the vacuous violence that resulted in the displacement and disillusionment of China?s intellectual class. The author herself belongs to this post-Mao Tiananmen Generation, members of which were born during the Cultural Revolution and grew up during the buoyant decade of the 1980s, only to succumb to the realities of a posttotalitarian regime. Unable to return to their homeland, movement dissidents Yi Danxuan, Shen Tong, and Wang Dan have all attained successful careers, but at enormous personal sacrifice. As these oral histories reveal, the true costs of Tiananmen are yet to be fully explicated. Summing Up: Recommended. Undergraduate and graduate collections' - A. Cho, University of British Columbia, CHOICE 'A moving and very personal account of life as a political emigrant...A convincing and powerful account of a central experience in contemporary Chinese life' -New York Review of Books 'Tiananmen Exiles is a brave book written eloquently, with controlled passion... [it is] a masterly narrative and analysis..[He's] often profound book is an unmistakable sign of her devotion to the cause' - The Spectator A compelling account of idealism and the price it exacts - Kirkus Rowena He...courageously battles state-imposed amnesia, forcing us to remember the human cost of China's 1989 - The Daily Telegraph 'Bold attempt to reclaim Chinese history from the state' -The Independent 'Rowena He herself is an example of someone who has battled for years, sometimes in the face of angry criticism, to keep alive the memories of an idealism that emerged in full force in 1989. And she's determined not to let us forget.' -Christian Science Monitor With 'Tiananmen Exiles,' Ms. He seeks to preserve those memories and share them with readers who may not have even been born yet by 1989. Her work has come at a cost: Chinese online commentators disparage Ms. He as 'anti-China' and accuse her of accepting a false story that foreign enemies of China dreamed up - The Wall Street Journal 'As long as the Communist Party continues to refuse to tolerate any conversation about June Fourth, it will only ensure that voices like Ms. He's echo even louder in the silence. - The Wall Street Journal Real Time Those who have chosen, or were forced by circumstances, not to live the official lie, including Rowena He, are condemned as traitors to China rather than as critics of the regime. For the three student leaders interviewed in her book, the events of 1989 and their subsequent exile created a permanent post-traumatic state. Much the same could be said of the nation they left behind, a nation that is waiting for the moment when the legacy of the tragedy suffered a quarter-century ago can be faced. - New Statesman Though China's democracy movement was crushed in the Tiananmen Massacre 25 years ago, the ideas that animated it are eternal. Rowena Xiaoqing He, one of the most courageous academics in the U.S., has written a powerful book that tracks the poignant journeys of three exiled activists and honors the sacrifices so many Chinese had to make in 1989 and after. - Adi Ignatius, Wall Street Journal Beijing Bureau Chief in 1989 and co-editor of Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang This new book revives as well as preserves the memory of the 1989 Tiananmen Movement in a quintessential way. Combining autobiographical and biographical approaches with psycho-cultural analysis, Rowena Xiaoqing He has ingeniously reconstructed the entire movement in historical perspective not only to unlock the past and explain the present but also to peer into the future of China's sustained struggle against totalitarian tyranny. This is also a deeply touching narrative that the reader will find difficult to lay down until reaching the last sentence. - Yu Ying-shih, Emeritus Professor of East Asian Studies and History, Princeton University, and and winner of the John W. Kluge Prize for the Study of Humanity Tiananmen Exiles rekindles our painful memories of those who paid dearly for their ideals. In this oral history project, Rowena Xiaoqing He captures the indomitable spirit of three student leaders forced into exile after the Tiananmen crackdown a quarter century ago. Their stories are powerful, moving, and inspirational. - Minxin Pei, Director, Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at Claremont McKenna College and author of China's Trapped Transition: The Limits of Developmental Autocracy Tiananmen Exiles has organically tied the Cultural Revolution and Tiananmen movement together through the lives and agonies of three former student leaders, and through them, the lives and struggles of their generation. - The Journal of East Asian Libraries


Author Information

"Born and raised in China as a member of the ""Tiananmen Generation,"" Rowena Xiaoqing He moved to Canada in 1998, where she received her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. Today she teaches at Harvard University, where her seminars on the Tiananmen Movement have earned her a Certificate of Teaching Excellence for three consecutive years. Her writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Globe and Mail. She has been interviewed by The Harvard Gazette, the Harvard Crimson, the Harvard Magazine, the Boston Globe, The Daily Telegraph, The Time, The Associated Press, The Christian Science Monitor, The Guardian, LA Times, the NBC, the CBC, the BBC, CTV, and various international media."

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