Deng Xiaoping (pictured) was wrestling for control of China with Hua Guofeng when Anne E. McLaren was a PhD research student in Shanghai, from 1978 to 1979. Her book, Slow Train to Democracy, recounts the dramatic drive for social change that took place there at the time. Photo: Xinhua Deng Xiaoping (pictured) was wrestling for control of China with Hua Guofeng when Anne E. McLaren was a PhD research student in Shanghai, from 1978 to 1979. Her book, Slow Train to Democracy, recounts the dramatic drive for social change that took place there at the time. Photo: Xinhua
Deng Xiaoping (pictured) was wrestling for control of China with Hua Guofeng when Anne E. McLaren was a PhD research student in Shanghai, from 1978 to 1979. Her book, Slow Train to Democracy, recounts the dramatic drive for social change that took place there at the time. Photo: Xinhua
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Review |
Democracy movement in China in 1978-1979 recalled in memoir of a foreign student in Shanghai who witnessed it

  • Anne E. McLaren’s book about her time as a student in Shanghai in 1978 and 1979 stands out because it takes place in a time of huge transition in China
  • Slow Train to Democracy recalls the city’s protest poster movement, and encounters with Chinese students who spoke about politics and changes in the country

Topic |   US-China relations
Susan Blumberg-Kason

Updated: 6:47pm, 20 Jul, 2020

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Deng Xiaoping (pictured) was wrestling for control of China with Hua Guofeng when Anne E. McLaren was a PhD research student in Shanghai, from 1978 to 1979. Her book, Slow Train to Democracy, recounts the dramatic drive for social change that took place there at the time. Photo: Xinhua Deng Xiaoping (pictured) was wrestling for control of China with Hua Guofeng when Anne E. McLaren was a PhD research student in Shanghai, from 1978 to 1979. Her book, Slow Train to Democracy, recounts the dramatic drive for social change that took place there at the time. Photo: Xinhua
Deng Xiaoping (pictured) was wrestling for control of China with Hua Guofeng when Anne E. McLaren was a PhD research student in Shanghai, from 1978 to 1979. Her book, Slow Train to Democracy, recounts the dramatic drive for social change that took place there at the time. Photo: Xinhua
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