Customer Reviews

Lake with No Name

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4 star:		(1)
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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.

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.

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.

I went to PKU, so I can relate to lots of the scenes Wei described in her book. For the most part, it's beautifully written and reveals the life in China during those years.
I wouldn't call this a love story though - it felt more like a narrative that evolves around the development of China.
In general, worth reading if you are interested to know more about China in the 70s and 80s.

A window in the brutal totalitarian world of Communist China which continues to this day. It is both a autobiography of a sensitivities, intelligent women and her experiences growing up and being a student in Communist China.
Wei Liang grew up in a labour camp that her parents were sent to during the horrors of The Cultural Revolution. she became a student at the prestigious Beijing University-the elite equivalent of Harvard and Yale in the USA or Oxford and Cambridge in Britain. There she became a keen reader of classic literature and a writer of poetry. There she also formed a deep romance with Dong Yi, a star crossed love that could not be.
It was also at Beijing University where she joined many other students in the struggle for freedom, democracy, human rights and a better life, which have not improved in China, despite its move to a capitalist economic system.
The rights the student demanded where nothing more than the basic freedoms everyone in western democracies take for granted.
The narrative moves painstakingly and slowly towards the horrific Tienanmen square massacre of June, 1989, when three thousand students, workers and others were murdered in a bloody crackdown in response to a peaceful protest for basic freedoms-an even all but brushed aside today by the western left, media and academia.
The author describes the pain and terror of these events , in which the youngest victim was a nine year old girl and the oldest a grandmother in her 70s. After the massacre the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army for weeks patrolled the streets of Beijing gunning down in cold blood students and other citizens.
After the massacre, Wei would soon leave China but would return for a time seven years later, to seek out Dong Yi. The author finishes the account by telling us where the main players in the real life drama=her friends and associates are today.