Special report | Children of the revolution
Might freedom-seeking youths rise up again?
Self-assured young Chinese will at some point balk at brute repression
THE RED building is a half-hour stroll from Tiananmen Square, yet few sightseers venture there. This former part of Peking University is now a state museum to China’s first pro-democracy protest. In the 1910s the “new culture” movement flourished behind its walls. Members rejected old-world Confucianism for Western science, democracy, female emancipation and a global outlook. These, they reasoned, would help China stand tall.
This article appeared in the Special report section of the print edition under the headline “Circling the square”
From the January 23rd 2021 edition
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