Tiananmen: Lives of the Poets

International audienceAn illustrated personal account of the role and lives of contemporary Chinese poets before and after the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre:The year 1989 was meant to be a year of taking stock; 40 years since the founding of the People’s Republic, 70 since the May 4th protests against the ignominious Versailles Peace Treaty - protests which also ended with brutal suppression on Tiananmen Square —, and 10 years since the “demolition” of Democracy Wall, and the arrest of pro-democracy activist Wei Jingsheng. At the beginning of 1989 the astrophysicist Fang Lizhi in his open letter to Deng Xiaoping had highlighted the significance of these anniversaries and called for clemency and the early release of Wei.In 1989, expectation was in the air. But no-one expected the sudden death of disgraced, liberal-minded former Premier Hu Yaobang. It was represented by reformers as a re-run of 1976 when Zhou Enlai’s death prompted protestors onto the streets. It would prove to be a spark igniting the 1989 protests