Beijing Coma

Ma Jian's Beijing is two cities held in one body: the Beijing of spring 1989, when students carried the democracy movement from the campuses of the north-west out to the occupied heart of the capital, and the demolition-and-construction Beijing of the following decade, glimpsed through a window by a man who was shot on Chang'an Avenue and left in a coma. The map runs from the universities of Haidian down the central axis to Tiananmen Square and west along the avenue where the army advanced.

Dai Wei

Peking University

The campuses

The student democracy movement of spring 1989 takes root on the campuses of Beijing's north-west, among them Peking University, where the narrator is a science student. Meetings, wall posters and marches from here feed the growing protest that will fill the centre of the capital.

The 1989 chapters

explicit The novel names the university in the Haidian district where the narrator studies; this marks the main campus.

Google Maps ↗ Street View ↗

Dai Wei

Beijing Normal University

The campuses

Beijing Normal University is one of the campuses that drove the 1989 protests, sending students and organisers into the square alongside those from Peking University. The narrator moves between these universities as the movement grows and splinters into rival committees.

The 1989 chapters

explicit The novel names Beijing Normal among the universities that supplied leaders and marchers to the movement; this marks the Haidian campus.

Google Maps ↗ Street View ↗