Two Views from Inside

...Here is a senior historian, who requested anonymity, speaking about the agony of self-censorship: "Every time I write, I seem to feel a shadow peering over my shoulder?shouldn't say this...

...Having grown from a young apologist to a mature observer scarred by memories of theTiananmen Square massacre, Terrill is especially well-equipped to evaluate the brief history and present state of the People's Republic...

...At the time Link was serving as director of the National Academy of Science Office on Scholarly Exchange with China...

...Perry Link, in Evening Chats in Beijing, provides a gloomier assessment...

...His book is an incisive analysis of their inner thoughts, revealed in numerous conversations...

...A veteran journalist, for instance, tells the author that only "the worst kind [of people] in China" are reaping the wealth...

...mustn't phrase that point quite that way....'" Another professor described the mood of students at Beijing University: "Their attitude is: If I try to do something for China, I simply waste my time...

...The conclusion of China in Our Time is guardedly upbeat...

...the younger ones (25-35), who do not have the "historical burden" of the previous two...

...Deng Xiaoping's economic reform, particularly his accepting that some will get rich first, has merely bred cynicism...

...To understand the craze to emigrate, one need only listen to the words of Link's interlocutors...

...The "Four Basic Principles" (the socialist road...

...He claims that at his urging—via the same aide—Zhou issued a "clarification'' of Beijing's policy on Taiwan while discussing the subject with three prominent American journalists...

...As for the young, almost the entire generation is infected with "vanity, pro-Westemism, and fever to go abroad...

...His latest work is a summation of nearly three decades of study and travel...

...I was struck, too, by his knowledge of the language, particularly his appreciation of the double meanings of certain ideographs...

...Marxist-Leninist-Maoist thought) are today viewed as nothing more than reactionary rhetoric...

...The title is taken from a famous newspaper column in 1961-62 called "Evening Chats at Yan-shan," another name for Beijing...

...In his exchanges with students, teachers, workers, professors, and pedicab drivers, Terrill captures the current disaffection with the government and the yearning for a China that resembles the West...

...The one-year mission (1988-89) afforded him unique access to China's leading poets, writers, critics, artists, scientists, professors...

...A professor of Chinese literature at Princeton University, Link won world fame for his role in helping Fang Lizhi, the dissident astrophysicist, obtain refuge in the U.S...

...Therefore I work formy-self...

...Reviewed by Timothy Tung Former research professor, China specialist, City College, City University of New York With the publication of his first book, 800 Million: The Real China (1972), Ross Terrill became an instant hit among readers starved for information about that nation...

...Ross Terrill believes "the dynasty of Communism is...

...Indeed, it is commonly believed that most of the top leaders have sent their children or grandchildren to the U. S., and that some have obtained permanent residence...

...He has returned there a total of 19 times—as journalist, teacher, adviser to policy makers (including former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Senator Edward M. Kennedy), lecturer on luxury cruise liners, and friend to Chinese of all walks of life...

...Link points out that there is "widespread popular contempt" for Marxism, and that the nation's "most erudite Marxists have all been forced either into foreign exile or internal alienation from the Chinese regime...

...Embassy in Beijing during the Tiananmen crisis...

...And his explanation of the differences between "real" and "official" views could have come from a native professor...

...China in Our Time should help to restore Terrill's reputation...

...the chapter entitled "Identity: Language and Ideology" is a gem...

...No wonder the dissident journalist Liu Binyan, in his appreciative Foreword, laments: "A book like this should have been written by a Chinese...

...The eldest still can identify with the primacy and dignity of China, despite their antagonism toward the government, but the rootless young see only one way out: Go West...

...and the youngest (16-24), who were educated during the "moneymaking decade of the '80s"—Link displays a remarkable grasp of China's recent history...

...drawing to an end," and "democracy [in some form] will take hold in China one day...

...Evidently Kissinger told the author:" 'They were the first thing I gave the President to read in preparation for the trip....'" •Herecalls how during the 1980 U. S. Presidential race he advised Assistant Foreign Minister Zhang Wenjin that China should not fear Ronald Reagan, because "his strategic anti-Russian point of view will prevail...

...If it is true, as he asserts, that the wish to leave has become "almost universal" among elite university students, and that "nearly all who make it to the West aim to stay if they can," the blow to China could be incalculable...

...the middle ones, who were indoctrinated in the '50s and "crippled" by the Cultural Revolution...

...After speaking with the country's brightest minds, he sees a wholesale exodus to the West by the young Chinese intellectuals...

...In 1964, as a young Australian student brimming with idealism, he was among the relative handful of Westerners to penetrate what was then known as "Red China...

...his knowledge of American events, of my own background...

...But I can't work for myself very well in this country...

...over his moral pro-Taiwan point of view...

...24.95...

...In all, he has produced half a dozen books on his favorite subject...

...Therefore I leave...

...By placing the country's intellectuals into four generational groupings—the older ones, who had the opportunity to experience "free" or "Western-style" education...

...dictatorship of the proletariat...

...It was written in the style of the great '30s satirist, Lu Xun, by Deng Tuo, a courageous journalist who was driven to suicide for his biting criticism of Mao Zedong...

...Yet even then he offers a few tidbits that this reviewer found notable: •He credits himself with indirectly coaching Zhou Enlai on world affairs in 1971 through a conversation with an aide of the Prime Minister...

...Besides illustrating his familiarity with contemporary events and opinions, Evening Chats in Beijing shows Link to be exceptionally versed in the complexities of Chinese thought—no mean feat for a Western scholar...

...some of the student leaders he got to know during the Tiananmen uprising, Terrill is dismayed to find that "the [democracy] movement in exile is divided, many of its members are in transition to a permanent life in the West...

...His previous one, however, The White-Boned Demon (1984), was a gossip-ridden biography of Mao Zedong's wife written with an eye on the best-seller list...

...leadership of the Party...

...A young humanist told the author that "the children of the high officials are the first to jump—to the West...

...Like many other Sinologists of his generation (Orville Schell for one), Terrill suffered periods of uncertainty as his initial sympathy turned to indifference, disappointment and, finally, disillusionment...

...Evening Chats in Beijing: Probing China's Predicament By Perry Link Norton...

...Encountering in the U.S...

...This led Kissinger, in his memoir The White House Years, to praise as "stunning" Zhou's "command of facts...

...For the intellectuals who were once ardent followers of the Communist Party, so brazen a sign of its ideological bankruptcy is especially wrenching...

...In the course of demonstrating his expertise, Terrill occasionally indulges in self-aggrandizement...

...Roundly criticized, it was based on material in largely unreliable Hong Kong Chinese publications bearing titles like "The Scandalous Affairs and Amorous Liaisons of Jiang Qing...

...321 pp...

...It is a poignant presentation of firsthand information, impressions, and talks with Chinese acquaintances who range from commoners to intellectuals to government officials...

...He also reports, though, that the democratic forces within China do not expect much from the exiles, reflecting an "endemic fatalism" in Chinese society...

...He says it was his magazine articles on China that enlightened President Richard M. Nixon before the historic meeting with Mao...