TIANANMEN: REMEMBERING JIANG ZEMIN RESPONSE TO CAL POLY STUDENTS Blogged by Joyce Schwarz, JCOM, www.joycecom.com, email:[email protected]
TIANANMEN: Remembering Jiang Zemin Response To Cal Poly Students Letter Page One LA TIMES
6/90 LA TIMES
Page 1 Story:Jiang Zemin Response to Cal Poly students' letter.
Link to text of above story from June, 1990 LA TIMES archives: China's Jiang Answers Letter From Cal Poly
Eighteen years ago in June, 1990, I was asked by a U.S. colleague who was an international attorney to organize a press conference in Los Angeles that would publicly reveal Chinese Communist Party Chair Jiang Zemin's 10-page response to a letter from 9 Cal Poly students sent to him in March, 1990 over concern of use of force in Tiananmen Square. The press conference held in Midtown Los Angeles at the office of the Chinese Consul General, attracted more than 50 journalists.
TIANANMEN PRESS CONFAB MAKES LA TIMES PAGE ONE
The press conference I organized resulted in the above (see JPEG) page 1 article on the LA TIMES, June 16, 1990 (just shortly after the first anniversary of what is now generally referred by press as the "Tiananmen Square incident").
becomes only a footnote in a recap of the Cal Poly online history:
"In response to a letter from nine Cal Poly students sent to the Chinese Communist Party Chair Jiang Zemin in March 1990 over concern of use of force in Tian An Men Square, Ambassador Ma Yuzhen, Chinese Consul General in Los Angeles, will visit Cal Poly on Jan. 17 to field questions about Chinese-American relations. After a 10-page response to the students from Chairman Jiang, University President Hugh La Bounty extended an invitation to Ma."Cached
Finding 1990 on the web, needle in haystack?
Thank heavens for that small reference in Cyberspace regarding the Cal Poly students' letter and Jiang's response. As you can see from the LA TIMES jpeg I placed at the top of this post, there was also coverage by major journalists for that June, 1990 press conference. Yet, all that is found on a Google search is that short vague reference in the highlights of the 1990 Cal Poly student school year. As far as I know, no copies of the letters are cached in cyberspace.
LA TIMES ARCHIVES
Since I knew the LA TIMES story existed, I was able to turn to the LA TIMES archives and easily find the story and a related LA TIMES opinion piece China's Leader Answers Cal Poly Students: The 'Incident' Is Behind Us that ran a week after that article. Many web users complain about paying for content. But, for $3.95 each we can have a copy of the text of each of these articles from the LA TIMES archives. The search on the LA TIMES archives site was simple ("Cal Poly" Jiang) did the trick. But 876 words does not appear to be the full story -- which jumped from page 1 to A20. So because I happen to have kept a photocopy of it I may have one of the few full stories around-- unless you consider microfiche (see below)
And here's what I found -- The response, hand-delivered to them by Chinese Consul General Ma Yuzhen, amounted to a lengthy defense of the government's actions against what Jiang called "a handful of people . . . who whipped up the turmoil." Ma called Jiang's lengthy letter "a new beginning" in Sino-American relations at a time when the two countries "are undergoing a very difficult period." Chinese proverbs aside, Cal Poly Prof. Marshall H. Shen said that, although Jiang's letter was "still very much at the level of generalities, I believe it's a new beginning." China's Jiang Answers Letter From Cal Poly [Home Edition] 
Los Angeles Times (pre-1997 Fulltext) - Los Angeles, Calif. Author:
LOUIS SAHAGUN Date:1990
Jun 16, Start Page:
1 Section:
PART-A; Foreign Desk Text Word Count:
876 Abstract (Document Summary)
Linking newspaper archives to search engines?
Now the real question is how do we link that archive to master search engines? Because if I knew about the LA TIMES article since I organized the press conference but what if I was not there. I would not know to go to the LA TIMES archives. I believe the WASHINGTON POST was at the press conference too, but 15 years tends to cloud ones memory so maybe later I'll search for other archives. Note, the LA TIMES archives go back to 1985. What's happening with the other 100 years of LA TIMES archives? (t was founded in 1881 (as the LA Daily Times) and traces its origins back to the LA TIMES Weekly Mirror 1873Cached ).
CRINKLY YELLOWING PAGES Or MICROFICHE
Think of all of those crinkly,yellowing pages of our past. Yes, some are still available on microfiche or microfilm. (Wikipedia definition Microfiche Cached) Don't remember Microfiche? It's still around and surprisingly microfiche and microfilm are reportedly able to survive for up to 500 years. (When created and stored according to these standards, microfilm boasts a life expectancy of 500+ years.1 According to further guidelines provided by the Research Libraries Group (RLG)The Northeast Document Conservation Center. Note the Wikipedia link above shows a picture of a Microfiche reader if you have never seen one. It is an analog storage format.
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