LibGuides: Year 11 Modern History- Case Studies: Tiananmen Square

Resources in Accessit

Here are some books that you may find useful during your studies. Search the Bennies catalogue Accessit for more, or browse the Non-fiction collection NFS..

Tiananmen Square by Andrew Langley
Call Number: NFS 951.05 LAN
ISBN: 9780756541019
Publication Date: 2009-01-01
Pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989 in Beijing's mammoth Tiananmen Square led to a violent crackdown by the Chinese army that killed perhaps several hundred people and shocked the world. Hardly anyone thought the government would treat its own citizens so harshly. The suppression was followed by attempts to seize and punish people connected with the protests, especially the student organizers. Some were executed, and others were still being held almost 20 years later, as China hosted the 2008 Olympic Games.
Beijing Confidential by Jan Wong
Call Number: NFS 951.06 WON
ISBN: 0732287472
Publication Date: 2008-02-01
'I contemplate my own mission impossible. How will I find a stranger in a country of 1.3 billion. The bittersweet irony is that, 33 years after I turned her in, I am on a planeload of mainland Chinese returning home of their own free will ...'Jan Wong first arrived in China at the height of the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s as a fervent young Maoist. Determined to change the world, instead she found her own world turned upside down. The result was a groundbreaking memoir, Red China Blues.In Beijing Confidential Wong returns to witness one of history's most extreme makeovers as the city feverishly prepares for its moment on the world stage for the 2008 Olympics. But she has a much more compelling personal reason to revisit her past. Haunted by her guilty conscience, Wong is convinced she ruined the life of a former fellow student, Yin Luoyi, all those years ago. When Yin asked for help to get to America, Wong promptly reported her comrade.More than three decades later she needs to make peace with the woman she betrayed - and herself.But finding absolution proves difficult in a country where cultural amnesia has become a way of life.As Wong searches for answers in a city where the past is being bulldozed daily, she is confronted with the breathless pace of change that's transformed Mao's once xenophobic country into the Great Mall of China, former comrades into capitalists, and much more.Beijing Confidential is a fascinating journey into China's past and present as two extraordinary women's journeys come full circle against the backdrop of a city in the midst of yet another transformation.

The History Channel

You Tube

Useful Links

Tiananmen Square 1989 The US National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 16 documents the military action by the Chinese government on pro-democracy demonstrators in and around Tiananmen Square in Beijing in June 1989.

BBC On This Day- Tiananmen Square A BBC description of the June, 4th 1989 events in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China. The article places the event in context and includes a video of the events.

The Tianamen Papers The U.S. Tiananmen Papers from the 'National Security Archive', provide a documented account of the behind the scenes manoeuvring in China and the United States before, during and after the dissident uprising in Beijing in 1989.

Tianamen: The Gate of Heavenly Peace This site provides a tour of Tiananmen Square and highlights its significance. The site also addresses issues, such as democracy, that have arisen in China related to the events of 1989.

Revolution and Evolution in Modern China The Canadian broadcaster CBC has archival footage of the events in Tiananmen Square (Beijing) in June 1989 as well as other television and radio broadcasts covering the period of Chinese history from 1948-2005.

The Tank Man A PBS website to accompany a TV programme about the Tiananmen Square events in 1989. The website includes a timeline of events, eyewitness accounts, censorship, analysis and in journalist interviews

Images

ClickView

China's Capitalist Revolution

Twenty years on from the massacre at Tiananmen Square this series attempts to answer why capitalism contributed heavily to the tragic events of that day. From UK in English and Mandarin.

Tiananmen Square Declassified

This episode of Declassified tells of the birth and death of a movement, and the secret story of how the demonstrators changed China forever.Long synopsis: It started out as China's answer to Woodstock, but it ended like Kent State. Here, using unseen footage and declassified diplomatic sources is the true story of the battles and deaths of 500 young Chinese students: martyrs for democracy at Tiananmen. This episode of Declassified tells of the birth and death of a movement, and the secret story of how the demonstrators changed China forever.

Foreign Correspondent- Tiananmen Australia's Witnesses

China has changed dramatically since the crackdown and wholesale slaughter in Tiananmen Square 25 years ago. For the first time Australia's embassy staff assemble with their first-hand accounts of the days that stained China.

The Tank Man

On June 5, 1989, one day after Chinese troops expelled thousands of demonstrators from Tiananmen Square in Beijing, a solitary, unarmed protester stood his ground before a column of tanks advancing down the Avenue of Eternal Peace. Captured by Western photographers watching nearby, this confrontation became an icon of the fight for freedom around the world.

Year 11 Modern History- Case Studies: Tiananmen Square