Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. An indispensable historical series of portraits of the working class people who defended Tiananmen Square during the protests from the award-winning poet, dissident, and one of the most original and remarkable Chinese writers of our time. Tortured, imprisoned, and forced into silence and the margins of Chinese society for thirty years, their harrowing and unforgettable stories are now finally revealed in this 'indispensable historical document' (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). For over seven years, Liao Yiwu-a master of contemporary Chinese literature, imprisoned and persecuted as a counter-revolutionary until he fled the country in 2011-secretly interviewed survivors of the devastating 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Much has been written about the Tiananmen Square protests, but very little exists in the words of those who were actually there. A 'memorable series of portraits of the working class people who defended Tiananmen Square' (The New York Review of Books) during the protests from the award-winning poet, dissident, and 'one of the most original and remarkable Chinese writers of our time' (Philip Gourevitch). Liao succeeds in sharing the mental and physical damage protesters of his generation endured.Book Description Paperback. The dark tone reflects the author's struggle to come to terms with his history of displacement and witness by honoring those who perished.

Part II, titled 'Sichuan,' for Liao's native province, includes a sardonic self-description as the only 'writer in China who writes exclusively for the police' because of the surveillance he has been under.

Part I includes nine profiles of 'working-class people and peasants' present at the square in Beijing on June 4, who recall the exhilaration of the demonstrations ('it felt like we were celebrating a holiday') and then the carnage, with 'pools of blood everywhere.' Some recount prison experiences similar to Liao's. Following his release, he eked out a living until 2011, when he escaped and settled in Germany.

Upon reciting his poem about Tiananmen Square in 1990, the author was imprisoned and tortured for four years.

On June 4, 1989, Communist Chinese troops murdered and injured thousands of demonstrators to quash the budding pro democracy movement. Describing himself as a 'remembrance worker,' former political prisoner and poet Liao compiled this album of harrowing interviews of fellow protesters to mark the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Bullets and Opium: Real-Life Stories of China After the Tiananmen Square Massacre Bullets and Opium: Real-Life Stories of China After the Tiananmen Square Massacre by Liao Yiwu Write The First Customer Review Shipping 'Originally published: Die Kugel Und Das Opium: Leben und Tod am Platz des Himmlischen Friedens.

Bullets and Opium by Liao Yiwu