The Struggle for Tibet

(Paperback)

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Description

China's decades-long repression of Tibetan independence continues on as its global economic power continues to grow. In response to the former and despite the latter, the independence movement persists, represented here through the voices of Wang Lixiong and Tsering Shakya. Born into the repressive one-party regime, both writers now seek for Tibetan cultural and political autonomy, and although each writer theorizes this goal differently, both are in agreement about what must now be done. The result is this milestone exchange.
While Wang suggests the complicity of a fear-stricken religion in perpetuating Chinese imperialist rule, Shakya interprets recent Tibetan history as a history of colonialism, against which the independence movement struggles for autonomous rule. These differing and sometimes opposing lines of thought finally climax in the present struggle for independence, ending upon a joint statement regarding Tibet's future: true autonomy is the only way.

Reviews

"A conversation between the Chinese scholar-activist Wang Lixiong and the leading Tibetan historian Tsering Shakya which launched a new debate. The dialogue, with subsequent analyses from both writers, now appears in The Struggle for Tibet, an excellent and informative book from Verso (the publishers founded by NLR)." John Gittings, Guardian "Superb collection of essays." Roger Pulvers, Japan Times "The Tibetan struggle is little understood in the West, and this short book is a very readable introduction to the subject." Claire Hore, Socialist Review

Author Bio

Wang Lixiong's books include Sky Burial; The Fate of Tibet and the political fantasy Yellow Peril, currently banned in China. Tsering Shakya was born in Tibet and is a research fellow in Tibetan Studies as SOAS, London. He is the author of The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947, and Fire Under the Snow: The Testimony of a Tibetan Prisoner.