Within a framework of analysis and background by the four editors, this book presents a view from the grassroots of the 1989 student and mass movement in China and its tragic consequences. Here are the core eyewitness and participant accounts expressed through wall posters, students speeches, movement declarations, handbills, and other documents. In their introductions to the material, the editors address the political economy of the democracy movement, the evolving concept of democracy during the movement, the movement's contribution to China becoming a civil society, and the changing view of the Chinese Communist Party by students, intellectuals, workers and others, as the crisis unfolded.
Foreword, Preface, Acknowledgments, List of Documentary Sources and Abbreviations, PART I: SUMMER 1988-SPRING 1989 The Ferment Before the "Turmoil": Economic Crisis, Social Change, Cultural Disintegration, and Political Stagnation, PART II: APRIL 15-APRIL 27: The Movement Begins: Hu Yaobang's Death Sparks Mass Demonstrations, PART III: APRIL 28-MAY 12 The Conflict Escalates as the Students Defend Their Patriotism, PART IV: MAY 12-MAY 19 The Hunger Strike: From Protest to Uprising, PART V: MAY 19-JUNE 3 Sliding Toward Tragedy: Martial Law, PART VI: JUNE 3-JUNE 4 The Beijing Massacre and Its Aftermath, Bibliography, Index
