Lake with No Name [Kindle Edition]

Diane Wei Liang (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

'[a] fascinating and important story' Literary Review

Product Description

Beijing University, 1986. The Communists were in power, but the Harvard of China was a hotbed of intellectual and cultural activity, with political debates and "English Corners" where students eagerly practiced the language among themselves. Nineteen-year-old Wei had known the oppressive days of the Cultural Revolution, having grown up with her parents in a work camp in a remote region of China. Now, as a student, she was allowed to immerse herself in study and spend her free hours writing poetry -- that bastion of bourgeois intellectualism -- beside the Lake with No Name at the center of campus. It was there that Wei met Dong Yi.

Although Wei's love was first subsumed by the deep friendship that developed between them, it smoldered into a passionate longing. Ties to other lovers from their pasts stood always between them as the years passed and Wei moved through her studies, from undergraduate to graduate. Yet her relationship with Dong Yi continued to deepen as each season gave way to the next.

Amid the would-be lovers' private drama, the winds in China were changing, and the specter of government repression loomed once again. By the spring of 1989, everything had changed: student demands for freedom and transparency met with ominous official warnings of the repercussions they would face. The tide of student action for democracy -- led by young men and women around the university, including Dong Yi -- inexorably pushed the rigid wall of opposition, culminating in the international trauma at Tiananmen Square.

On June 4, 1989, tanks rolled into the square and blood flowed on the ancient city streets. It was a day that would see the end of lives, dreams -- and a tortuous romance between two idealistic spirits. Lake with No Name is Diane Wei Liang's remembrance of this time, of her own role in the democratic movement and of the friends and lovers who stood beside her and made history on that terrible day.

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 719 KB
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Original edition (June 2, 2009)
• Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
• Language: English
• ASIN: B002AKPEK4
• Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Diane was born in Beijing in 1966 and spent part of her childhood with her parents in a labour camp in a remote region of China. A graduate of Peking University, Diane joined the Student Democracy Movement and took part in the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, which culminated in the massacre of hundreds of demonstrators by the People's Liberation Army. Diane has a PhD in Business Administration from Carnegie Mellon University, in the US, and was an award-winning business professor in the US and the UK for over 10 years.

Her first book, Lake With No Name, a memoir of Tiananmen and love, was published in 2003 and is reissued in 2009.
Diane is the author of two novels featuring Beijing private detective Mei Wang: The Eye of Jade (2007) and Paper Butterfly (2008). Her novels have been translated into over 20 languages.

Diane now writes full-time and lives in London.

www.dianeweiliang.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Spare me the love story, July 31, 2009

By 

S. Jacobus (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lake with No Name: A True Story of Love and Conflict in Modern China (Paperback)

What's most interesting about this book is the eye-witness account of student activism around the events at Tiananmen Square in the late 80s. Unfortunately, this is diluted by flowery gushes of the author's longing for an impossible love. For a far more incisive account of Tiananmen, albeit fictionalized, read Ma Jian's Beijing Coma.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I will never be the same, December 7, 2009

By 

Ruth A. Watts (Follansbee, WV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lake with No Name: A True Story of Love and Conflict in Modern China (Paperback)

An incredibly revealing story about a young woman growing up in modern China along with some history of China under the leadership of Chairman Mao. After reading this unbelievably poignant and gripping story of forbidden love, privation, political upheaval, and so much more, I have developed a new appreciation for being born in the free world with unlimited personal choices, freedoms which we take so for granted, plenty to eat, and the right to speak our minds no matter who is listening. This has sparked within me a powerful interest in the history of China. After reading this book, I will never be the same.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too self-involved by half, October 10, 2009

By 

Thoughtful reader (France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lake with No Name: A True Story of Love and Conflict in Modern China (Paperback)

I approached this book with great expectations having seen an interview with the author on TV.

What a disappointment!

Th writing style is very uneven and reveals periodic flights of self-conscious attempts at lyricism that jar with the more generally pedestrian narrative.

Of greater concern, the author has little to no insight into her own or others' thoughts or emotions, despite her bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology. Even worse, her tentative, sporadic and very modest involvement with political events is viewed in her mind as being of great moment, even though she was really never very involved nor put herself in any direct danger. In contrast, the constant emphasis is on pursuit of her very-important career.

It is a pity that this book is so shallow in its political analysis, and so self-involved as a supposed love story. The final meeting in New York City after many years with the object of her dreams is embarrassing in its tawdriness. I felt real pity for the poor guy who failed to measure up to her expectations. Perhaps her mystery nooks are more successful because less demanding of personal insight.