Tiananmen Diary: Thirteen Days in June by Harrison Salisbury looks at the Tiananmen Square Massacre from the perspective of a journalist. Having gone to China to film a documentary unrelated to the student protests, Salisbury spent a few days trying to assess the situation on the Square, visiting with and encouraging the students while the impending outbreak of violence delayed the shooting of his documentary. When the violence finally began and after dodging bullets in their hotel for a couple days, Salisbury and his documentary crew finally made it out of Beijing and into the Chinese countryside, hoping it would be safer to work away from the city. As tensions escalated and Western countries called for all tourists and diplomats to leave China, Salisbury heeded the call and left China after thirteen days.
The book is not a complete history of events and the political situation leading up to the massacre--making the brief introductions of the major players in Chinese politics and positions hard to follow if you're not already familiar with Chinese history. Instead the story unfolds the same why it did for Salisbury, hour by hour, day by day. Frightening at times, confusing at others, and with hope stubbornly hanging on beneath the surface...first hope that the student protest will make a difference, then hope that the government will deal kindly with the students, then hope that change can be brought to China, and finally hope that the students sacrifice will not be in vain. All of this made the book intense but difficult to relate to the images the world is used to seeing of the massacre. I kept wishing that instead of reading about events in the moment they happened I could get some sort overview of what was happening outside of Salisbury's hotel window.
With a perspective of history that comes with time (impossible for Salisbury to have in the moment), it was sad reading about all the whispered conversations and speculations amongst the foreigners in China about the impact Tiananmen must be having on the rest of the world. In the end, nothing really changed, just a country here and there slapping a sanction of China (I have to add--have these sanctions ever worked?). By the afterword, Salisbury has begun to examine what may have led the violence to boil over. His journalism instincts shine as he puts the different pieces together into a beautiful, sad story about a country he's loved for years that's struggling for hope as much as he is.
[Reactie lezer, 2015]