Product Description
Ian Buruma approaches China through the stories of its dissidents: ordinary, brave people who oppose a regime that uses repression in the name of social order. What does dissidence mean in an authoritarian society? And what chance do they have of succeeding in the face of the largest remaining dictatorship on earth? Who speaks for China? Is it the old men of the politburo or activists like Wei Jingshsheng, who spent eighteen years in prison for writing a democratic manifesto? Is China's future to be found amid the boisterous sleaze of an electoral campaign in Taiwan, or in the maneuvers by which ordinary residents of Beijing quietly resist the authority of the state? These are among the questions that Ian Buruma poses in this enlightening and often moving tour of Chinese dissidence. Travelling through the US, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the People's Republic, Ian Buruma tells the stories of Chinese rebels who dare to stand up to their rulers, exploring their chances of success in the face of the most powerful dictatorship on earth. From the exiles of Tiananmen to the hidden Christians of rural China, he brings alive the human dimension to their struggles and reveals the world's most secretive superpower through the eyes of its dissidents.
From the Inside Flap
China is the world's most secretive superpower and in BAD ELEMENTS Ian Buruma reveals the Chinese-speaking world through the eyes of its dissidents. As China's leaders attempt to refute the Tiananmen Papers, condemn Fauln Gong protests, and press Taiwan to embrace the one-China principle, a burning question emerges: Who are these opponents - struggling not only in the People's Republic but overseas, in the U.S., Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan - who dare to stand up to the Communist party's powerful rulers, and what drives them? Buruma reports dramatically on exiles in California and religious dissidents in Beijing. He explores the tensions between cultural traditions and contemporary politics, illuminating Taiwan's transition from dictatorship to democracy and the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. Part travelogue, part analysis, BAD ELEMENTS illuminates the story of the Chinese opposition for Western readers who want to understand where China is headed. Ian Buruma was educated in Holland and Japan, and spent many years in Asia, writing about it in books such as God's Dust, A Japanese Mirror, Behind the Mask and The Missionary and the Libertine. He is also the author of Playing the Game, The Wages of Guilt and Voltaire's Coconuts. He lives in London.
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