A review by nini23
Bullets and Opium: Real-Life Stories of China After the Tiananmen Square Massacre by Liao Yiwu

4.0

This is a very timely nonfictional book to read, especially on the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre. Media attention then was on the students and prominent protesters who happened to be immortalized in western media photos such as 'The Tankman." But what of the blue collar workers, the everyday populace who turned up to support the students - the factory worker, car mechanic, vegetable seller. After the hue and cry died down, these people were identified, arrested, tortured, imprisoned, killed. Those that were fortunate enough not to be killed were incarcerated for many years, performing unpaid gruelling work. The author has unprecedented access to interviewing them.
This is their unflinching brutal story.