History's no open book

I've wanted to make this piece ever since a Chinese friend arrived at my Beijing apartment breathless, saying, “Did you hear? The government changed. It calls Tiananmen ‘turmoil’ now instead of ‘revolt.'"

Using a pretty piece of paper-backed cloth from one of the art shops on Liulichang, I bound a batch of pages and then, satisfyingly, stitched up both sides of the book. I like how the form so speaks to tradition, not only of the style of old Chinese books (xian zhuang, or thread-bound) but also the tradition of tightly controlling information.

The title is:

The Official Word on an Episode in Chinese History

or what I imagine political leaders must want to say about that fateful day of "six-four" in 1989.