Amongst other commemorations stymied by COVID_19, the Hong Kong Vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre was cancelled this year. The cancellation of this annual vigil seems highly significant because of the protests in Hong Kong — and even more so now because China has taken advantage of worldwide attention on events in America to introduce harsh new anti-sedition laws to repress dissent in Hong Kong.

So it's timely to look at a thoughtful new coming-of-age memoir by a young Chinese woman who was present at the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989. For most of us, knowledge about these events is sketchy, framed by the iconic image of Tank Man and the Western media's focus on the students and their campaign for democracy. We know very little about what ordinary Chinese people knew about those protests and the brutal crackdown on June 4th. This memoir fills in some of those gaps.

The early part of the book is interesting because it describes the benefits and limitations of living in a central economy managed by an authoritarian elite. Anna Wang grew up believing the slogans she was taught but occasionally found ways to circumvent rules about where she might live, study and work. Some of these limitations seem bizarre to us, and some, like the judgements passed on women with bound feet, seem cruel. (Bound feet were a symbol and evidence that couldn't be hidden, that the women had not been peasants or workers in pre-Communist China).

Anna becomes a clever young student with a rebellious streak, but what rebellion meant in China was by Western standards trivial. She found ways to get residency rights in Beijing, and she found a way to switch a university course that didn't suit her, to one that did, studying literature instead of more advantageous subjects. She lived with her grandmother instead of her parents, and she wangled her way into a job with the newly established Japanese Canon office. Her coming-of-age coincided with China's transition out of a planned economy, and she was convinced that she was on her way to joining the emerging middle-class. It also coincides with the student protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989...

The long build-up to the massacre coincides with Anna's first love affair, with a married man called Guo Yan. Guo Yan is very keen on her, but when Anna finds out about his wife she no longer trusts him, and this extends to interpreting what he says through a political lens. People are used to concealing any thoughts that might be considered subversive and many of this couple's flirtatious exchanges reveal him to be imprudent and opportunistic about what might emerge from the growing protest movement. Changes in government policy and economic reforms might have benefits but clearly caution is needed: previous changes in the social and economic order under Mao such as The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution underwent sudden reversals, and it was literally fatal to have supported the old ideologies.

This on-off romance wears a bit thin for the reader, and the lead-up to the massacre is rather drawn out. However, what it shows is Anna's conflicted reactions to what was happening. She is curious and hopeful, but concerned about possible impacts not just on those she knows but also on China itself. She's very anxious about the students especially when they go on a hunger strike, but she's a bit cavalier about her grandmother's concern that the turmoil might reach them at home. It's also clear that people were ready to turn on each other for supporting the cause, or not. (Later, she is shocked to learn that some of her neighbours didn't want the students to escape).

Yet Anna is willing to take some risks to see what's going on. Her workplace was very close to Tiananmen Square, and her Japanese boss like many others was concerned that the protests would disrupt the company's operations. With the benefit of hindsight it seems incredibly naïve of him to send her to the Square to take photos so that they can monitor events, but that's how she became a first-hand witness to events.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2020/06/08/inconvenient-memories-by-anna-wang/ ( )