Toward the Truth in Tiananmen
Documentary focuses on failure within student movement
By Calvin Liu

It took six years for Richard Gordon and Carma Hilton to piece together The Gate of Heavenly Peace, a three-hour documentary tracing the failure of the 1989 student demonstration in Tiananmen Square and putting into perspective its bloody aftermath. Using news coverage, interviews with key participants and historical footage, Gordon and Hilton offer a truly intelligent and insightful look at a major modern uprising that is often misunderstood and glorified from a Western perspective.

While the documentary is an obvious indictment of the hardline Chinese government’s rejection of responsibility toward the student movement, The Gate of Heavenly Peace focuses its criticism on the inability of the student leadership itself to maintain ideological solidarity. In fact, student leaders like Chai Ling, Wang Dan and Wuer Kaixi are depicted as contradicting themselves in various stages of the movement, and are shown attempting to undermine each other’s authority. Ultimately, the documentary likens the power struggle within the Coalition of Independent Student Unions to an ascent toward dictatorship.

But there is not only internal conflict within the movement, but also external pressure from the disapproving liberal intellectual community. Fearful that mounting frustration within the government would lead to catastrophic measures, intellectuals who were welcomed to rally the crowds instead tried to convince the students to disperse. Despite the stature of some of these individuals, some students start expressing disgust toward the intellectuals, whom the students felt were speaking to them like children.

And while Chai, the de facto “commander-in-chief” of the movement, predicted that the government would move violently against the demonstrators, she is unapologetic in urging her colleagues to stay in Tiananmen Square: “Only when the square is awash with blood will the people of China open their eyes.”

In some instances, we see Chai grow frustrated as People’s Liberation Army troops run into human barricades and are forced to turn around before reaching Tiananmen Square, and more important, they avoid conflict. In some of the most evocative footage, troops are filmed as they bury their faces in shame while demonstrators make appeals for non-violence.

Even as The Gate of Heavenly Peace succeeds on this intense emotional level, the documentary is, perhaps, more engaging on an intellectual level. The most intriguing argument the documentary makes is that, in the context of post-Mao China, any uprising would be considered a revolution (or counter-revolution, for that matter), wholly inseparable from Communism. And though we can glorify the students for their bravery in the face of violence, the documentary argues, it is important to keep in mind that the students had no intention of changing existing constitutional laws (simply having them fairly enforced), and that the movement itself was, in fact, not revolutionary, but an inevitable stage in fulfilling the promise of Communism.

The National Asian American Telecommunications Association distributes The Gate of Heavenly Peace for educational use only. The full-length, 189-minute version can be purchased for $395 or rented for $95. The 150-minute version can be purchased for $325 or rented for $85. For more information, call 415-863-0814 or visit the NAATA distribution Web site at http://www.naatanet.org/distrib.