Mandate of Heaven: A New Generation of Entrepreneurs, Dissidents, Bohemians, and Technocrats Lays Claim to China's Future

In the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, observes Schell, a generation in China has seemingly lost the grand hope of radically reforming the political establishment. Nevertheless, Schell ( To Get Rich Is Glorious ) offers valuable firsthand reportage not only on April-June 1989 but also on spontaneous acts of resistance and mini-rebellions since then. He also profiles China's new muckrakers, underground publishers, artists, rock musicians and entrepreneurs who are flourishing in ``gray zones'' of commerce and culture outside the party-state structure. If another upheaval comes, Schell surmises, it will arise over economic rather than political issues. He takes us inside China's abysmal prisons, arbitrary courts, the vast gulag of forced-labor camps and the nascent union movement. He interviews astrophysicist and dissident Fang Lizhi and exiled labor activist Han Dongfang. Schell's mix of trenchant reporting and political analysis makes him an indispensable guide to a new China struggling to be born. (Sept.)