Smith College China Expert to Lecture on Misinterpretations of Tiananmen Square Uprising

In 1989, when tens of thousands of Chinese students and protesters amassed on the concrete of Tiananmen Square to demand democratic reforms, Smith College Professor of Government Steven M. Goldstein was asked by CNN and CBS to comment on the event on camera from Beijing.

Goldstein, an expert on Chinese politics and government, will give a lecture at 4:30 p.m. Monday, November 9, titled "Tiananmen, 1989: Witnessing History and Getting it Wrong?" The lecture is free and open to the public and will take place in Stoddard Auditorium at Smith. It is the first of three in a series titled "Three by Three" that features inaugural talks by the college's recently chaired professors. Goldstein has been named Sophia Smith Professor of Government.

Being so close to the historical incidents surrounding the Beijing demonstrations and Chinese military's violent quashing of the protests may have given Goldstein a mistaken view of what really took place, he says. "Being an eyewitness to events there caused me to misinterpret much of what was going on," he says. In his talk, Goldstein will clarify his interpretation of events in Beijing while addressing the broader implications of global misinterpretations of the uprising.

Goldstein, who has been a member of the Smith faculty since 1968, has served as the consultant on China to the White House Press Corps for President Reagan's trip to China in 1984, and as a commentator for CNN in 1996 during the Taiwan presidential elections and again in 1997 when control of Hong Kong was assumed by China.

Also in the series, on Monday, November 30, Charles N. Clark Professor of Government Donald L. Robinson will give a lecture titled "The Virtues of Constitutional Democracy," and on Monday, April 12, 1999, Sophia Smith Professor of Music Ruth A. Solie will speak on "A Musicology of the Everyday."