Tiananmen Moon

This compelling book provides a vivid firsthand account of the student demonstrations and massacre in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Uniquely placed as a Western observer drawn into active participation through Chinese friends in the uprising, Philip J Cunningham offers a remarkable day-by-day account of Beijing students desperately trying to secure the most coveted political real estate in China in the face of ever-more daunting government countermoves. Tiananmen Moon takes the reader into the thick of the 1989 protests while also following the parallel response of an unprepared but resourceful Western media.
In this revised and expanded edition, Cunningham recounts rare vignettes about life in Tiananmen Square under student leadership, including previously unpublished material. There is an account of the Goddess of Democracy being unveiled, a whimsical trip to the countryside that ends up on a collision course with PLA troops readying for attack, the tale of a near riot when a reporter is mistaken for Gorbachev, the saga of a tearful leader who quits and dictates her last will and testament to the author, and a dramatic account of futile resistance in the face of an unforgiving crackdown. The book chronicles the opportunistic and awkward tango between naive student activists and jaded foreign journalists, in which, after a month of mutual courting, the tables turn and the now-savvy students watch the journalists, seduced and confused, run circles just trying to keep up.
During the hunger strike under the light of a full moon, China bares its conflicted soul to the world, the mournful cry for reform amplified by the footsteps of a million peaceful marchers. This remarkable testament to a searing month that changed China forever serves as a witness to the rise and fall of an uprising, capturing the plaintive and lyrical beauty of a dream that endures and continues to haunt the country today.

Philip J Cunningham is a freelance writer and teacher of media studies.

Prologue to the 25th Anniversary Edition: Tiananmen: Trying to Remember, Trying to Forget
Preface
Part I: New Moon
May 3 (AM): Blue Skies over Tiananmen
May 3 (PM): In Search of the Real China
May 4 (AM): The New May Fourth Spirit
May 4 (PM): Running with Rebels
May 10 (AM): Ten Thousand Bicycles
May 10 (PM): People's Daily
Part II: Waxing Moon
May 13 (AM): Democracy Walls
May 13 (PM): Hunger Strike
May 14 (AM): Sun and Stars
May 14 (PM): Overnight Vigil
May 15 (AM): Food for Fasters
May 15 (PM): Looking for Gorbachev
May 16: Working-Class Heroes
May 17: Rising Tide of Rebellion
May 18 (AM): Water Strike
May 18 (PM): Criminal Elements
May 19 (AM): The New Red Guards
May 19 (PM): Breaking the Fast
Part III: Waning Moon
May 20: Martial Law
May 22: Provincial Vagabonds
May 23: Egg on the Face of Mao
May 24: Tiananmen Headquarters
May 26: Radical Camp
May 27: BBC Does the Countryside
May 28: Last Will and Testament
May 28: Clandestine Interview
May 28: Going Underground
May 28: Midnight Rendezvous
May 29: The Goddess
Part IV: No Moon
June 2 (Night): Troops Are Coming
June 3 (Morning): Behind the Great Hall
June 3 (Evening): Point of No Return
June 3 (Night): Of Tanks and Men
June 3-4: Eve of Destruction
June 4: The Sky Is Crying
Afterword