PICNIC IN TIANANMEN SQUARE
sample read
Sunday, June 4, 1989
I walked into the lounge and saw my family staring at the television.
They were watching the evening news.
I was horrified!
I saw armed troops, tanks crushing barricades, and buses and trucks on fire. In the background, I heard gunfire. The commentary talked about a brutal attack on Tiananmen Square, massacres, and the unofficial death toll being over 1000, with many more injured. There was a blurred picture of an armoured vehicle knocking down the Goddess of Democracy, a replica of the Statute of Liberty built by students on Tiananmen Square only last week.
The commentary said tanks and armoured personnel carriers had driven onto the square indiscriminately crushing temporary shelters with many students still asleep inside. Another account said that as students left the square, troops had fired on them, felling the first row of 100, and then the second.
I switched between channels and one commentator, from the BBC, I think, reported that while watching from the Beijing Hotel, he saw troops shooting at students at the monument in the centre of the square.
Nothing made sense.
I was there just a couple of days ago.
If you would like to read a sample from the novel, click on the pages below. Apart from the section headed, Sunday, June 4, 1989, there are five pages to read.
George writes well about life in a Chinese provincial university and provides a glimpse into life in China itself - a must read for anyone visiting China. First and foremost, this is a novel to be enjoyed. Some readers might become engrossed in the more serious issues surrounding human rights and the student protests in China in 1989. A few might become infuriated with what happened in Beijing.
