Tiananmen Square

Simmie and Nixon, Canadian journalists who have both served as consultants to China Central Television, worked in Beijing for more than a year prior to the student unrest of spring 1989 and the June 4 massacre in Tiananmen Square that abruptly ended an outpouring of democratic sentiment. Their absorbing account of the day-to-day developments of the doomed protest is intercut with portraits of key political figures such as Premier Li Peng and with perspectives on the waxing and waning of various political philosophies during China's volatile 40 years of Communist rule. Black-and-white photos, with the eyes of many subjects obscured to protect their identities, include haunting images of a government warring on its youth. Despite their obvious sympathies for the protesters, an unwieldy cast of characters and occasional lapses into bombast, Simmie and Nixon do justice to the dramatic events that have made Tiananmen Square a watchword for the dangers of free expression under a repressive regime. (Jan.)