In a growing cage - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia by Fantake via Flickr

Just days ahead of June 4, celebrity author Zhang Lijia remembers in the New Work Times her May-days in 1989 when she helped to organize demonstraties, like they took place all over China, adding to the concerns of the leadership in Beijing.
Despite the setbacks and the brutal repression Zhang Lijia ends with an optimistic tone:

We’re still in a cage here. But for many, my fellow marchers included, it has grown so large that we hardly feel its limits. In that sense the 1989 protests weren’t a total failure. Without our efforts, China’s rulers might have not expanded the cage at all.

More in the New York Times.

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Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Soon this story of her, together with about twenty other often personal accounts of our speakers will document "A Changing China" as the book is called. Do subscribe to our mailing list to stay updated.