In the spring of 1989, the world watched breathlessly as the pro-democracy movement swept across China, and it recoiled in horror as the Communist regime sent troops and tanks to crush the unarmed protesters in Tiananmen Square. In uniting China's students, workers, and intellectuals in nonviolent protest, the pro-democracy movement became the most vivid manifestation of the long-simmering ferment beneath the official surface of Chinese society. During the past decade, a generation of strong-willed writers and artists has arisen in China, determined to gain intellectual and political freedom despite the rigidities of traditional Chinese culture and the repression of the ruling gerontocracy. Seeds of Fire provides a critical selection of the original works of these controversial writers and artists whose ideas inspired the events of 1989. It is a powerful, and moving, glimpse into the politics and the conscience of a still-volatile Chinese society.

'This is the single volume that every English reader who is interested in China should read.' – Stephen Shwartz, San Francisco Chronicle

'An angry and impassioned anthology which covers, better than any earlier collections, the whole range of dissident Chinese voices. Here are poets and visual artists, essayists and cartoonists, rock lyricists and novelists, all fighting for room to express themselves. All those interested in modern China should reflect on these frustrated voices.' – Jonathan Spence

'Seeds of Fire fills a yawning gap; it thrusts a candle of illumination into the dark shadow of ignorance that has long cast itself over the world's most populous country.' – Richard Bernstein, The New York Times

'These selections from dissident works are not mere protests but artistic fiction, honest reporting, and efforts at original thinking – writing that is rewarding reading.' – The New Yorker