Freedom Fighter

Lien Shengde is a man who grew up in the city of Chengdu in central China during Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution. While a student at the University of Tianjin, he became directly involved in the student protest that came to an unfortunate conclusion in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Shengde had hoped the protest would end in a constructive dialogue between the Communist government and the Chinese people; instead it ended in murder and mayhem and Shengde found himself imprisoned for 18 months on what he characterizes as trumped-up charges. Filmmaker Mary Flannery's Freedom Fighter documents these events, as well as bits of Shengde's childhood and his present life with his wife, working in Washington, D.C. while actively seeking meaningful political and social change in China. Shengde may well be tilting at windmills in his quest to liberalize the Maoist government of China, but time will tell. He comes off, however, as a very earnest and lucid spokesman, and the story of his difficulties in China offers yet another testament to the complete failure of any Communist government to provide for its citizens what Aristotle deemed "the sufficient life." Recommended. [Note: a Mandarin-language version of this program is also available.] Aud: H, C, P. (P. Van Vleck)