Colleagues--

I don't much like to do this, since he may have changed his mind after 
he said this,  but here is Freire speaking (writing, with Donaldo 
Macedo, The Politics of Education, 1985, p. 106) about  China:

"One of the great merits of the Chinese Cultural Revolution was its 
rejection of static, antidialectical or overconservative concepts of 
China's history.  Here there seems to be a permanent mobilization of 
the people in the sense of consciously creating and  re-creating 
society.  In China, to be conscious is not a slogan or a ready-made 
idea.  To be conscious is a radical way of being, a way characteristic 
of humanity."

OK, now here is a quote from Jim Sterba, a WSJ reporter, about Tianamen 
Square, 1989, 4 years later:

"....The Chinese capital was in turmoil.  Students were camped out in 
Tiananmen.  Reporters and Television crews from around the world had 
beeni nvited to China to cover   the visit of Mikhail Gorbachav, the 
Soviet Unions Communist party general secretary.  But the reporters and 
cameras quickly focused on the unprecedented student demonstrations for 
democracy in the square that had erupted after the April 15 death of Hu 
Yaobang, the former secretary general of the Chinese Communist 
party...all hel broke loose in the days and weeks that followed.  
Several army divisions were called into Beijing. On the evening of June 
4,soldiers attacked the demonstrators with bullets, bayonets, and 
tanks, killing hundreds of them and driving the  rest from the 
square...From a balcony of the Beijng Hotel I watched a man walk in 
front of the column of tanks, stop, and raise his arms.  The column 
stopped.  The man refused to move.  He taunted the soldiers in the 
tanks, daring them to run him over or shoot him.  Tears rolled down my 
cheeks as I watched.  It was the bravest act I had ever seen.  Then 
another man came out and led him to the side of  the street.  He melted 
into the crowd."

--Frankie's Place, pp. 82-83, 2003

I think it is very important to face these problems in reading Freire 
head on.  Any takers?

Andrea