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Timesonline reports that Chai Ling, the contemplative figure on the left in this thought provoking photo taken in 1989, is suing the makers of a film about the massacre in Tiananmen Square. What makes this move so startling is that Chai Ling was one of the leaders of the ill-fated student uprising in Beijing that same year. Her critics are arguing that she has abandoned the principle of free speech, one of the very freedoms sought by the 1989 movement.

 

Beside her in the picture is a youthful looking Phillip Cunningham, who conducted a famous interview with Chai shortly before troops were ordered to fire on their own people. In that interview Chai Ling spoke ominously of what was to follow shortly after: 

“Only when the square is awash with blood will the people of China open their eyes. Only then will they really be united. But how can I explain this to my fellow students?”

“The students kept asking, ‘What should we do next? What can we accomplish?’ I feel so sad, because how can I tell them that what we are actually hoping for is bloodshed, for the moment when the Government has no choice but to brazenly butcher us?

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Prophetic, chilling words.

Those that looked to her for leadership at that time, those loyal followers that protected her from the authorities and plotted her escape to the west, must be feeling a little abandoned at this moment. Assuming, that is, they survived the punitive backlash in the months that followed.

I think they could accept Chai Ling’s willingness to move on or her viewing the student uprising differently with the benefit of two decades’ reflection, but adopting a sweep-it-under-the-carpet approach more reminiscent of the CCP has got to leave a bitter taste.

Worse still, Chai Ling’s betrayal of her ideals helps to paint a false picture of the Tiananmen ringleaders as self-serving individuals who placed personal ambition before the people’s needs. Fortunately, other prominent student leaders of the time speak more openly about 6/4, as in the excellent recent article by Isabel Hilton at The Observer (well worth a read).

And what of Phillip Cunningham’s forthcoming book Tiananmen Moon? Cunningham was right there, in the thick of it, and perhaps more so than any other foreigner in Beijing at that time, as evidenced by his interview with Chai Ling that foretold of the coming tragedy. He hasn’t always endeared himself to the Sino-blogging community, and his obvious friendship with CCTV’s unctuous Yang Rui is off-putting, but I fancy we can rely on him to deliver a well-balanced analysis from 20 years ago in Tiananmen Moon (excerpts can be read at chinabeat).

It should also be a fascinating read given his proximity to the most important players in an event that shaped China’s last two decades like no other, as well as serving a timely reminder to Chai Ling that hundreds, possibly thousands, did not escape to the comfort of a free society.

• 6/4 , Free speech , In the news
• Comments(7)

7 Responses

1. Hao Hao Report Says:
   May 5th, 2009 at 1:17 pm

   Someone thinks this story is fantastic…

   This story was submitted to Hao Hao Report – a collection of China’s best stories and blog posts. If you like this story, be sure to go vote for it….

2. Cunningham Reliving Tiananmen | Lost Laowai China Blog Says:
   May 6th, 2009 at 12:34 am

   [...] ran across an article at Found in China entitled Chai Ling: then and now, which made mention of Philip J Cunningham, author of a new book called Tiananmen [...]

3. Skeptical Says:
   May 7th, 2009 at 7:04 am

   Well, what was Cunningham anyway? Then he calls himself an observer, and a protestor or fellow demonstrator in various posts.
   I guess he was a student.

   But then he says he was a reporter. Ok, who did he work for? How was he accredited? With which news organization? Wasn’t that illegal, if you are a student?

   If you goggle his name, you find out that Cunningham was at Harvard the following year. How do you go to Harvard on a Nieman Fellowship if you are not a journalist? Was he one? How come he does not claim that in his posts now?

   What is going on here?

4. stuart Says:
   May 7th, 2009 at 9:54 pm

   “What is going on here?”

   I’m not sure, Skeptical.

   Cunningham has always been a bit of a mystery, and I’ve seen him involved in several online spats with other China-watchers in the blogosphere.

   I know him mainly from his appearances on CCTV’s ‘Dialogue’ and his cosy relationship with Yang Rui. I guess his fierce criticism of American secured his invitations back to the studio. Off-air Cunningham has written more critically (in an objective way, it must be said) of some of China’s past indiscretions and current problems.

   One thing’s for sure; the man was really there and got to see what was going on from the epicentre. As such, whatever his role in Beijing at the time, his contribution is of considerable value to a piece of China’s historic record that the CCP are determined to erase.

5. Zhao Ziyang’s Tiananmen memoirs to be published | Foundinchina.com Says:
   May 18th, 2009 at 8:29 pm

   [...] And well he might – he was most definitely there. [...]

6. Ben Says:
   June 4th, 2009 at 8:13 pm

   Did you see this, the student protesters who were actually there support Chai Ling:
   The open letter
   http://www.64memo.com/d/Default.aspx?tabid=97

7. stuart Says:
   June 4th, 2009 at 9:45 pm

   Interesting, Ben. I’ll have to get my wife to help with translation, though.

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