I remember watching the coverage on television, mouth agape, at the sudden exuberant explosion of peaceful protests in Beijing. The crafting of the Goddess of Democracy statue in the square, the excited demands, hopes, yearnings for freedom of thought, expression, and democratic governance. The hopefulness of it all. The crazy courage and determination of protesters from all walks of Chinese life.
And then, of course, came this.
The Chinese government has not just whitewashed the brutal crackdown, in true Orwellian fashion it has attempted to remove the entire episode from national historic memory.
Louisa Lim’s new book, The People’s Republic of Amnesia, takes us back to those momentous times, and individuals whose lives were forever changed by the protests and crackdown. National Geographic just published a brief interview with her.
