June Fourth: The Tiananmen Protests and Beijing Massacre of 1989 by Jeremy Brown

Abstract

Reviewed by: June Fourth: The Tiananmen Protests and Beijing Massacre of 1989 by Jeremy Brown Brian DeMare Jeremy Brown. June Fourth: The Tiananmen Protests and Beijing Massacre of 1989. New Approaches to Asian History Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 266 pp. Hardcover ($79.99), softcover ($29.99), or e-book. This much-anticipated book by Jeremy Brown is the first truly historical study of the Tiananmen protests and Beijing massacre of 1989. Thoughtfully penned by a scholar reflecting on his process and his role in producing history, June Fourth echoes Brown's previous research with its focus on nonelite historical actors and a meticulous attention to textual sources and their limitations. The book, in my reading, straddles two modes of history for two distinct audiences. On the one hand, Brown has drafted a readable narrative, suitable for students and readers curious about just what happened back in 1989. But Brown also wrote for specialists, purposefully crafting a thorough although not exhaustive book on one of the essential topics of the history of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The achievements of this book are many. Brown rightfully removes the blame for the massacre from student activists and puts it squarely where it belongs. He remaps the massacre out of Tiananmen Square and into the broad avenues and winding hutongs of Beijing, while also repositioning the protests on a national scale. Not least, he powerfully highlights the forgotten and unknown victims of the massacre, firmly establishing their voices in the historical record. The book's structure, thirty short chapters broken up into five parts, helps keeps the narrative pace moving. Readers should find this particularly helpful, as many of the chapters are filled with gut-wrenching content. Part 1 introduces readers to China in the 1980s, a time of both opportunities and repressions. This includes a look at the aging core of the PRC leadership; from the start, Brown positions Deng Xiaoping as the old man deciding the fate of China. As a social historian, however, Brown is not primarily interested in elite politics and explores the 1980s largely through two protesters, Lu Decheng (鲁德成) and Chai Ling (柴玲). Brown's treatment of Chai Ling, by far the more famous of the two, will draw the attention of specialists. Chai Ling is a controversial figure thanks in part to the highly influential documentary The Gate of Heavenly Peace (1995), which Brown criticizes for putting far too much blame on student leaders, particularly Chai Ling. To be sure, Brown's nuanced take on Chai Ling and her life as a young woman does much to put her and the portrayals of her activism in context. His reappraisal of Chai Ling, however, would have benefited from an explicit discussion of her role in the lawsuits filed against the filmmakers. In part 2, Brown turns to the start of the Tiananmen protests, skillfully weaving together multiple narrative threads. Brown, by necessity, includes a detailed look at top-level politics, exploring how Li Peng and Zhao Ziyang battled for the ear of Deng Xiaoping, China's godfather. But the debates among these leaders are interspersed with the view from below as students marched for miles, flooding into Tiananmen Square to [End Page E-1] protest the shoddy funeral given to reformer Hu Yaobang. The students were not alone, however, and Brown puts much of his efforts into detailing the agency and the actions of the group that emerges as the book's heroes: the people of Beijing. Throughout this account of the protest and subsequent crackdown, Brown is unflinching in passing judgement. Western observers are declared to be victim-blamers for suggesting that students sparked the movement's violent suppression. Zhao Ziyang's final speech to student protesters is labeled as weak and pathetic. And above all party leaders, Deng Xiaoping is blamed for the deaths associated with Tiananmen. These deaths are the focus of part 3, which details the massacre in grueling language that many will find disturbing. Given the repression surrounding the issues at hand, readers will not find easy answers for long-standing questions, most notably the true death toll of the massacre. But Brown locates insightful sources, including a...