- published: 27 Apr 2015
- views: 92532
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese, were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China beginning on 15 April 1989.
In the late 1970s, the Chinese leadership of Deng Xiaoping implemented economic reforms, transitioning the nation from Maoist Communism into a "socialist market economy". By the late 1980s, grievances over inflation, limited career prospects for students, and corruption of the party elite were growing rapidly. Internationally, Communist governments were losing their grip on power in Eastern Europe. In April 1989, spurred by the death of deposed Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang, mass gatherings and protests took place in and around Tiananmen Square. By 13 May there were over half a million protesters. The largely student-run demonstrations aimed for continued economic reform and liberalization, and eventually evolved into a mass movement for political reform and freedom of the press. Peaceful protests also occurred in other cities, such as Shanghai and Wuhan, while looting and rioting broke out in Xi'an and Changsha.
Alley Oop is a syndicated comic strip, created in 1932 by American cartoonist V. T. Hamlin, who wrote and drew the popular and influential strip through four decades for Newspaper Enterprise Association. Hamlin introduced an engaging cast of characters, and his storylines entertained with a combination of adventure, fantasy and humor.
Alley Oop, the strip's title character, was a sturdy citizen in the prehistoric kingdom of Moo. He rode his pet dinosaur, Dinny, carried a stone war hammer and wore nothing but a fur loincloth. He would rather fight dinosaurs in the jungle than deal with his fellow countrymen in Moo's capital (and only) cave-town. In spite of these exotic settings, the stories were often satires of American suburban life.
The first stories took place in the Stone Age and centered on Alley Oop's dealings with his fellow cavemen in the kingdom of Moo. Oop and his pals had occasional skirmishes with the rival kingdom of Lem, ruled by King Tunk. The names Moo and Lem are references to the fabled lost continents of Mu and Lemuria.