This is a gripping story told with page-turning brio by an American who had ringside seats for the gathering student protests in May 1989 that ended in the early hours of June 4 with the massacre of hundreds of protesters by security forces in the streets and alleys off Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
Philip J. Cunningham, fluent in Chinese, was a student in Beijing at the time, marched with the protesters and worked as a freelance assistant to the BBC. His fast paced chronicle of the prodemocracy student movement features encounters with student leaders and thoughtful assessments of what he observed during the gathering storm.
Drafted in the wake of the crackdown, batted back and forth between film and book projects throughout the 1990s, it is amazing that it took so long to publish this splendid firsthand account that anyone interested in modern China should read. Cunningham evokes powerfully the smells, sounds and shifting mood on the streets, making the reader feel like one is there alongside him as he tries to figure out what is going on, where the protests are heading and how the peaceful movement morphs into bloodshed.