Probing China's Soul: Religion, Politics, and Protest in the People's Republic

by Julia Ching

An in-depth look at freedom and repression in China and an analysis of Western perceptions and stereotypes overturned by Tiananmen Square.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0062501399
• ISBN13: 9780062501394
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 269 Pages
• Weight: 1.39 lbs.

Customer Reviews

a major piece of constructive national self-criticism

Ching wrote this book in the heat of reaction to the 1989 Tien'anmen Square massacre. But she did it with a wide-angle view, examining the whole span of Chinese history. Just as the communist system was peacefully yielding to popular demands, Ching issued her multi-sided, passionate but scholarly argument for China's democracy movement. She examines the roots of autocracy, and the history of movements against it. She traces ancient traditions of local autonomy, upheld by village leaders, philosophers, and rebel movements. Clearly, ordinary people were ready for more self-determination all these centuries. That was their dream since the first warlord conquests of primitive villages. Ching examines four decades of struggle within the Communist Party, and its prospects of change in the years to come. She shows the depth of popular feeling for human rights among village people, student leaders, scientists, and urban workers in the wake of the clampdown. It's a major piece of constructive national self-criticism.