Tiananmen Moon: Inside the Chinese Student Uprising of 1989 (Asian Voices) (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Tiananmen Moon is at its best when Mr. Cunningham captures the disarray as the protests evolved and especially as the massacre began. . . . [Cunningham] deals with events that cannot be discussed in China today. The media censorship is so strong that students have little idea of what their counterparts did 20 years ago. But more than a million Beijingers had publicly supported the students, and memories must linger in the minds of many, not only in the capital but throughout the country." --Wall Street Journal

"A superior--and often brilliant--writer. . . . [Cunningham] presents richly drawn characters and dramatic threads that pull us in like a novel, while providing remarkable yet organic insights. In Tiananmen Moon, Cunningham's high points--which are many--are equal to the best of any nonfiction author writing today. The book is not just a well-wrought story, though; it is a seamless blend of memoir and history; past and present; narrative and reflection; gemlike description and unadorned information. . . . Tiananmen Moon provides the . . . steady, reflective, nuanced eye of someone who knows China and is not afraid to let the truth fall where it may." --Asia Times Online

"An exciting window on China and the Chinese; an important story and a valuable contribution to contemporary Chinese history." --William Kovach, founder of the Committee of Concerned Journalists

"In offering a candid view of the student leadership based on his interviews and infractions with the protestors, Cunningham's account reveals the dissent and factionalism within the student ranks. A welcome addition to our understanding of a convoluted and perplexing historical black mark that media and scholarly pundits have only begun to unravel after nearly two decades of silence, this book will be appreciated by both interested general readers and scholars." --Library Journal, May 2009

"Philip Cunningham wrote his journal-like book with such honesty and power of observation that he captured my imagination. Tiananmen Moon is a fascinating look not so much at a series of events, but at the incomprehensible nation of China itself. Like Philip Cunningham, we'll never be able to fully understand it, but Tiananmen Moon is a good place to start." --Jack Shakely, July 10, 2009, www.internetreviewofbooks.com

"There is great attention to detail, recounting Cunningham's student life, simple pleasures in a developing country with strict government controls. One highlight of Tiananmen Moon is a fascinating interview with protest leader Chai Ling. Like Cunningham himself, the reader begins as an outsider to the movement and gets drawn further and further in, first out of curiousity and then a sense of solidarity. The author--friends with students and other liberal Chinese, and fluent in Chinese--gets as far inside perhaps as a Western eye can get. His account, accessible and readable, is a foreign perspective--perhaps being partially outside the frame helps to see the greater picture at times, to ask the right questions--but one with an insider's fondness for and grasp of China's idiosyncrasies. It is deeply personal and the reader invests much in the outcome, a tribute to Cunningham's highly convincing and moving recounting of events. This is a ground-level view of the struggle, not just ring-side but inside." --Ezra Erker, Bangkok Post

"There is no American more qualified to write about China today than Philip Cunningham. He speaks and reads Chinese, his descriptive writing evokes a clear sense of place and time. He was one of the marchers back in 1989 during the student movement and crackdown at Tiananmen Square. His book, written with the dual perspective of a participant in the movement and as a freelancer working with the international press, is the first and last word on that historic and horrific moment in the rise of modern China." --Gay Talese, author of A Writer's Life

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. (May 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0742566722
• ISBN-13: 978-0742566729
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #483,456 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Tiananmen Moon, June 7, 2009

By	Linda McNell "Linda McNell" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Twenty years ago on June 3 and 4, 1989 the Peoples' Liberation Army opened fire on unarmed demonstrators, killing hundreds, probably thousands , of peaceful students and citizen bystanders. Reading TIANANMEN MOON is an excellent way to commemorate the massacre and to honor the heroes of 1989, those men and women who carried banners to Tiananmen Square demanding democracy and freedom, defying the rulers of China. TIANANMEN MOON is a thoughtful,poignant, brilliantly readable and utterly compelling account of the Tiananmen uprising. This beautifully observed book reads like an extensive letter from a wise, old friend. It is the perfect introduction for those who know little of the events of that spring in Beijing. Yet it will also provide ample food for thought to those who imagine they know it all too well.