Excellent But Not As Advertised

This is the fourth Liao Yiwu book that I have read. It is well-written, like the others. Unfortunately, the book is "not as advertised."

I do not believe Liao Yiwu was at Tiananmen Square in 1989, but he took the massacre personally and wrote several poems and plays about it. This lead to his own arrest and four year imprisonment, resulting in his autobiographical "For a Song and a Hundred Songs."

Both the publisher and the author, in the prologue, claim that the book focuses on the "thugs" who participated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests - "thugs" being the Chinese government's word for non-student protesters. The first part of the book, called "Beijing," deals with these stories, but it is only 130 of the book's 312 pages. These vignettes told in the form of interviews are wonderful, though. They are heart-wrenching in their sincerity. Using a friend to help him track down victims of the massacre, Liao Yiwu recorded their stories and transcribed them later.

The second half of the book, called "Sichuan," deals with the stories of student protesters and intellectuals, all of whom appear to be friends and colleagues of Liao Yiwu. They are interesting, but certainly not in the same vain as the other nine stories. They are more poetic and high-minded, less concerned with everyday reality. There is a long addendum to the book that is largely unrelated to the rest of it. It is a series of letters between Liao Yiwu and his friends in Germany. They are trying to help the intellectual dissident Liu Xiaobo out of China in his last days. It is heartfelt, but largely repetitive and out of place in this book, and takes several potshots at Ai Weiwei, another dissident artist. Lastly, the book includes a fifty-page appendix of names that is publically available from the Tiananmen Mothers group. Each name includes a brief paragraph about the circumstances of their deaths.

I just wish the book contained more interviews and less personal interjection. Nevertheless, it is worth reading because the Tiananmen Massacre needs to be remembered. ( )