Jump to content

Chai Ling

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by S5100e1300 (talk | contribs) at 22:18, 11 April 2006. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Template:Chinese name Chai Ling (Chinese: 柴玲; pinyin: Chái Líng) (1966-) was one of the leaders in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

She graduated from Beijing University with a degree in Psychology in 1987. She was a graduate student during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. She was relentless and also paranoid that students from other provinces would usurp her. This was confirmed when one night in May, she and her husband at the time, Feng Congde, were gagged and almost kidnapped by other student protestors.

The most controversial aspect of her role in the protests was her uncompromising stand. Regardless of cost, she would accept nothing less than the overthrow of the communist Chinese government. Her tactics centered on publicly shaming the communist Chinese government for its callous disregard for its people.

In an interview with American journalist Philip Cunningham done on May 28, 1989, she stated: "The students kept asking, 'What should we do next? What can we accomplish?' I feel so sad, because how can I tell them that what we are actually hoping for is bloodshed, for the moment when the government has no choice but to brazenly butcher us. Only when the Square is awash with blood will the people of China open their eyes. Only then will they really be united. But how can I explain this to my fellow students? And what is truly sad is that some students, and famous well-connected people, are working hard to help the government, to prevent it from taking such measures. For the sake of their selfish interests and their private dealings they are trying to cause our movement to collapse and get us out of the Square before the government becomes so desperate that it takes action."

She was on the wanted list by the Chinese government. She fled from China in April 1990, probably with the help of Western-funded, Hong Kong-based organizations. After 10 months of self-imposed exile, she settled in Paris, France. She later received an honorary Masters degree from Princeton University. After this, she served as a consultant at Bain & Co. during 1993-1996.

Then she moved to Boston where she studied Business Administration at Harvard University. She now runs a software company with her current husband, Robert A. Maginn Jr., who has been the vice president and partner of the prestigious consultancy, Bain & co.

They now co-run the software company Jenzabar, which means "the best of the class". Ironically, Ling and Maginn Jr. were sued by five former executives and Harvard Business Schoolfor "a number of illegal actions."

"Today, I am living the American dream," Chai told Parade magazine in June of 2003. Of course, that is after she still claims to be a 1989 heroine without doing any 'pro-democracy in China' action once she fled her homeland. She claimed in her interview with Philip Cunningham that she was ready to be the first student to die for her cause, but now she has changed that cause into succeeding in the corporate world.

She repeatedly declined an interview for the documentary film on the 1989 student demonstrations, "Gate of Heavenly Peace," released in 1995.


Articles concerning Chai Ling on the website of the documentary "Gate of Heavenly Peace" by Carma Hinton and

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chai_Ling&oldid=48022913"