Documenting a controversy

Carma Hinton spoke in King 306 Wednesday night. Hinton and her husband produced a film chronicling the Tienanmen Square uprising. Hinton discussed dissident reaction to her film.

"Star dissidents really disliked this film because it questions their official history," she said.

"The American press, when they met these students, completely threw aside their critical faculties. The questions were always, 'Why are you so brave?' and 'Why are you so smart?' In Washington, one Chinese-American journalist asked, very politiely, 'Do you have any regrets?' The student gave her answer, and she sounded just like a bureaucrat. And then when we went downstairs and got into the taxi, she slumped into her seat and said, 'They don't understand us.' I told her, 'You wanted democracy and a free press. Here's a free press for you and they're asking very polite questions. You cannot get angry at their questions. There are much worse questions. You want new politics in China, you must not set the same kind of limits.'

"Some of them wrote articles denouncing the film, using language that was very familiar from the Cultural Revolution. These filmmakers are flies, they said. We were so amused. We were calling each other Comrade Fly. Hello Fellow Fly!"

(photo by Matthew Green)