Inconvenient Memories

A Personal Account of the Tiananmen Square Incident and the China Before and After

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Buy on Amazon Buy on BN.com Buy on Bookshop.org
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app

1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 15 May 2019 | Archive Date 18 Oct 2019

Talking about this book? Use #InconvenientMemories #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!


Description

Inconvenient Memories is a rare and truthful memoir of a young woman's coming of age amid the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989.

In 1989, Anna Wang was one of a lucky few who worked for a Japanese company, Canon. She traveled each day between her grandmother's dilapidated commune-style apartment and an extravagant office just steps from Tiananmen Square. Her daily commute on Beijing's impossibly crowded buses brought into view the full spectrum of China's economic and social inequalities during the economic transition.

When Tiananmen Protests broke out, her Japanese boss was concerned that the protests would obstruct Canon's assembly plant in China, and she was sent to Tiananmen Square on a daily basis to take photos for her boss to analyze for evidence of turning tides.

From her perspective as a member of the emerging middle class, Wang observed firsthand that Tiananmen Protests stemmed from Chinese people's longing for political freedom and their fear for the nascent market economy, an observation that readers have never come across from the various accounts of the historical events so far.

Inconvenient Memories is a rare and truthful memoir of a young woman's coming of age amid the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989.

In 1989, Anna Wang was one of a lucky few who worked for a Japanese...


A Note From the Publisher

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Born and raised in Beijing, China, Anna Wang received her B.A. from Peking University and is a full-time writer. She has published nine books in Chinese, including two short story collections, one essay collection, four novels and two translations. An English translation of her short stories, Beijing Women: Stories, was published by MerwinAsia in 2014. Inconvenient Memories is her debut book written in English. She resides in California.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Born and raised in Beijing, China, Anna Wang received her B.A. from Peking University and is a full-time writer. She has published nine books in Chinese, including two short story...


Advance Praise

“The events of the June Fourth massacre in Beijing in 1989 were so extreme that descriptions of it tend to be emotional. Anna Wang’s story of her decision to stay in China, hoping that economic development would bring democracy (while many of her friends were emigrating) helps us to understand what an ordinary Chinese citizen’s life felt beneath all the sturm und drang of the times. The color of her descriptions brings to life a period of Chinese history that large forces seem to have pressed colorless.” -- Perry Link, Emeritus Professor of East Asian Studies at Princeton University

"Wang's memoir artfully braids the personal and the political. This is an analytically rigorous and exceedingly thoughtful autobiography that intelligently chronicles the grand forces of history without ever forgetting about the lives caught up in them. A moving recollection of personal and national identity." --  Kirkus Reviews

"A deeply intimate and revealing portrait of 'real life' inside China before and after the climactic Tiananmen Square Incident. Writer Anna Wang confronts her own country's history with eyes wide open. Breathtaking!" -- John J. Kelly, Detroit Free Press

"Not only is this book extraordinarily entertaining and well written, it is likely to become a significant source of China's history and development as personally witnessed by an insightful participant. Highly Recommended on many levels." -- Grady Harp, Amazon Top 50 Hall of Fame Reviewer

“The events of the June Fourth massacre in Beijing in 1989 were so extreme that descriptions of it tend to be emotional. Anna Wang’s story of her decision to stay in China, hoping that economic...


Available Editions

EDITION Hardcover
ISBN 9780996640572
PRICE $29.95 (USD)

Average rating from 14 members


Featured Reviews

This was a gem of a non-fiction piece, and one of the most fascinating, that I got to read in recent time. A breathtakingly wonderful narration of the events that built up to Tiananmen Square protests incident in Beijing, China, commonly referred to the June Fourth incident or simply the 6/4 incident. It's wonderful that Wang hasn't stopped with focusing just on the protests, but allows to have a glimpse into the aftermath of what occurred, and how it impacted everyone involved, with the effects lasting for decades and generations for some people. For those of us who are new to Chinese history, this is a beautiful eye-opener from Wang.

We get to read a lovely memoir that covers a whole platitude of other aspects as well. Starting from when she was born in 1966, moving into the care of her grandmother after having been abandoned by her parents (I particularly loved the fables narrated by the grandmother, which are so vivid that we can't help but visualize those), it's captivating to read through Wang's growth and development, as her ideals, beliefs, and values progress, as she discovers the socio-economic system, the regimes, and the policies. Peking University, where she pursues a major in Microelectronics, is where she discovers the nuances in politics, and gets thrown into the midst of the Tiananmen Square protests to cover the updates for her employer. As the reader, one is able to empathize with her heart-wrenching angst as she recalls the days of gore and gruesome fear. Wang then allows us to get to know the rest of her life till date, as she tends to her family, traverses continents, achieves milestones, earns success, and lives it all up.

I'd absolutely recommend this book to lovers of memoirs and politico-philosophy. Many thanks to Smith Publicity @Smith Publicity and Anna Wang for gifting me a copy of this book for an honest review.

Was this review helpful?

An excellent way of supplementing an understanding of a historical event gained from history and political books is to read memoirs and accounts of people who were actually present at such a time and place. This is certainly the case here as a large section of Anna Wang's fascinating account of her life in China and beyond is devoted to the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989 commonly known in mainland China as the June Fourth Incident.

Living and working nearby Anna Wang presents an evocative and perceptive narration not only from a street level prospective but she also looks at the underlying political and social economic factors that caused the protests. China at that time was undergoing huge economic changes as it moved from a state controlled to a more hybrid market economy. There was a fear of this together with a demand for more political freedom which if granted would of course pose a direct threat to the all powerful Chinese Communist Party. By working at the time for Japanese company Canon who were concerned at the threat that the protests would have for their business expansion, Anna would be asked by her boss to go to Tiananmen Square on a daily basis to take photos so he could assess the situation and report back to head office in Tokyo.

As the protests increase in intensity there is a sense of foreboding, uncertainty but above all of confusion as we approach the dramatic inevitable violent crackdown by the authorities. There is much more here than just the Tiananmen Square story and you will learn what it is was like growing up and living in what was essentially (and still is) a police state.

One of the propositions that Anna Wang puts forward as to why the democracy movements has failed in China is simply due to the fact that so many writers, intellectuals and educators who would have been at the vanguard of such a movement have simply left China, some never to return. Indeed one of the central themes running through this honest account of her life is how Anna would constantly struggle with her own sense of identity and sense of belonging. If you want to look behind the headlines and gain a deeper appreciation of this increasingly important but complex country then I recommend a reading of this book.

Was this review helpful?

It was very interesting to read this book, because it was very unlike most books that I've read and a subject that I knew little about. I learned a lot about everyday life in China during that time period.

Was this review helpful?

We all remember the event that was the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the rhetoric, denials and stoic face of the Chinese government; but what do we really know about the events that led up to this watershed moment in Chinese history. The author provides an interesting, intimate and revealing insight behind China’s Iron Curtain into the student life at the time in and around the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Wang offers us the insider’s look from someone who was trying hard to navigate her way to the top of a country she recognized as flawed, but still deeply loved. Her struggles with impact of the breaking with tradition, how the people’s desire for freedom and democracy led to those protests, how her own political views developed, and how she and her family fit into the world at large.

This is a powerful and deeply personal story of China, human rights, and the progression of a people. It’s a fascinating and engaging memoir that you won’t be able to put down.

Was this review helpful?

These memoirs of a young woman in the years leading up to Tiananmen Square are truly eye opening! It was interesting reading about her personal experiences and what she witnessed. I think I appreciated most that she provided a detailed account of what was happening politically at each point in her life. This helped me delve deeper into her story and what it meant to be alive in China during that specific time frame.

I am grateful to the publisher and #netgalley to have the opportunity to read and review this book.

Was this review helpful?

This is not a subject that I typically like to read but am I really glad I decided to read this book. I found this book to be excellent and very well written. It gave an inside perspective of events in China that led up to the Tiananmen Square protests incident in Beijing. In particular I enjoyed how the author presented the changing politics and how this influenced the culture and lives of the Chinese people. In particular, it was interesting to learn about the differences in perspectives between the younger and older generations and the changes the younger generation pushed for.

Was this review helpful?

When we study those big moments of History — the revolutions, the wars, the bloodshed — sometimes it’s easy to only focus on the enormous impact they had in society as a whole.

This books does a brilliant job of reminding us that those events happened to people. Real people with dreams and hopes and sorrows who had to live through the consequences of those events. Regular people, who were just studying or going to work. Bystanders, in a way, but so completely immersed and affected by those grand moments of History.

The writing is very beautiful, very real. The picture the author paints us of her life — all the different stages of it — is so very rich! I was very much transported into her world and life and it was an amazing experience.

Definitely worth the read!

Thanks netgalley for the free copy!

Was this review helpful?

A beautiful, heartbreaking memoir told with such grace and honesty. Passion and aching for finding her home, the author has given us an outstanding portrait into what it’s like to be an immigrant, to be Chinese, and to be a survivor of the memories of home. She also includes unflinching narratives of what it was like to grow up and live in China and the censorship, and her experience with the Tiananmen Square Massacre as well.

Was this review helpful?

A remarkably honest and open memoir about growing up in China and coming of age during the 1989 Tiananmen protests. Although the author did not take part in them she was aware of the brutality with which they were put down. What I found fascinating about this memoir was that it gave a portrait of a woman moving into the middle class. So many Chinese memoirs concentrate on the poverty in the countryside, the hardships of surviving in a rural environment, whereas this one is about someone who went to University, who gained employment with foreign companies, who witnessed the growth of international trade, and who later on lived, studied and worked abroad. Some of her behaviour and decision-making might seem alien to a western readership, but what I gained from the book was a deeper understanding of what life in China was like for ordinary, but not necessarily underprivileged, people during this turbulent time, and how their decision making was informed by the growth of China as an economic powerhouse. A very readable and compelling autobiography.

Was this review helpful?

Readers who liked this book also liked: