The Lily Theater: A Novel of Modern China [Hardcover]

Lulu Wang (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2000

In the radical atmosphere of the Cultural Revolution, Lian's family has lost their prominence and is considered beneath contempt. Just as Lian forms a friendship with Kim, a reviled outcast of the third caste, ironically, the highest class by Mao's decree, Lian's father is transferred to a far-off province, and her mother, a historian, is forced into a reeducation camp.

When Lian becomes ill, her headstrong mother secures permission to take Lian with her to the prison camp. There, despite the grueling conditions, Lian has the educational opportunity of a lifetime: Several of the nation's leading scholars, all prisoners of the regime, teach her lessons she would never have learned at school. In the camp, with no contemporary to speak to, she finds a place to repeat her politically condemned lessons and thus discovers her own voice, a place she calls "the Lily Theater."

Returning from the camp to Kim, Lian struggles to reconnect with her friend. But their fierce closeness cannot alter the rigid caste system still reigning in Communist China, and their lives turn as chaotic as their turbulent country.
With unflinching honesty, Lulu Wang captures the coarse reality of Maoist China, startlingly offset by the deeply moving story of two girls who fight the odds to preserve their friendship.

Winner of the Nonino International Prize for Literature in 1999, THE LILY THEATER is being published abroad in fourteen countries (Australia, Brazil, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, UK).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Arduous enough in a free country, the path to adulthood in Maoist China is exceptionally rocky. Lian Yang, the narrator of Wang's richly detailed if uneven first novel, is 12 years old when her mother, Yunxiang, a lecturer at the Teacher's University of Beijing, is ordered to a "re-education camp." Lian, whose doctor father has earlier been exiled to the Gansu desert, develops a psychosomatic illness: vitiligo, or white blotches on her skin. Since Lian's illness doesn't exempt Yunxiang from her sentence, and she can't get permission to stay home to care for her daughter, the girl is allowed to accompany her mother to the camp. As the only child in those grim surroundings, Lian quickly becomes the prot?g? of exiled professors, who illegally tutor her. Inspired by the lessons of her history teachers, she works out her impressions of Communist and pre-Communist China by giving clandestine lectures to the plants and frogs in a pond that she dubs the Lily Theatre. Meanwhile, she learns to guard her inner lifeAnot only her political opinions but even such "capitalistic cravings" as hunger and thirstAfrom spies and interrogators who are constantly on the lookout for ideological deviation. This discipline stands her in good stead when, at the end of her mother's sentence, Lian resumes both her formal education and an unlikely friendship that ends in tragedy when Lian is 15. Originally written in Dutch when the author was still mastering the language, the novel is often strained and awkward in its use of colloquialisms, clich?s and conflicting prose styles. Although Wang revised this edition, her attempts to capture a teenage voice can be disconcerting. Nevertheless, she brings the coarse and brutal world of Maoist China to vivid life. In a land where a pet dog must be sacrificed when a meat dinner is required for Party functionaries, the ordinary is turned upside down, and even the smallest acts take on an uncanny significance. Rights sold in England, Austria, Germany, Finland, Norway, Brazil, Sweden, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, France, Greece and Spain. (Sept.) FYI: The Dutch version of this novel won the Nonino International Prize for Literature in 1999.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Wang's first novel is a powerful depiction of a girl growing up in Communist China in the '70s during the Cultural Revolution. Lian goes to a reeducation camp with her mother, a history professor. Despite the horrid living conditions in the camp, Lian is given a rare opportunity to study under some of the greatest scholars in China. Most important, Lian learns the truth behind the propaganda she has been taught in school. When she and her mother are finally allowed to leave the camp, Lian returns to school and is witness to the hypocrisy and horrors of the Cultural Revolution. At the heart of the novel is Lian's friendship with Kim, a member of the lowest caste who lives in utter poverty. Lian sees how horribly her upper-caste classmates treat Kim, and she determines to befriend her. At first, Kim resists Lian's efforts, but soon the girls strike up a genuine and deep friendship. As Lian tries to help Kim better herself, she sees just how deep the division between the classes runs, and this ultimately jeopardizes their friendship. An ambitious and involving debut. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Nan A. Talese; 1ST edition (August 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385489854
• ISBN-13: 978-0385489850
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,671,930 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Deep insight in the life of a Chinese intellectual prisoner, June 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Lily Theater: A Novel (Paperback)

This books describes in depth the way of life, seen by a child of an intellectual prisoner. This book reveals a lot about the social structure in China. I read the (original) Dutch version, and I can't wait for the English version to come out, so I can order it and give it to my friends.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving eye opener, April 18, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Lily Theater: A Novel of Modern China (Hardcover)

I'm still reeling after reading this book about a young girl's experience of the Cultural Revolution. Unlike the commonly held view that Mao's revolution was about turning the unfair class structure on its head, Wang reveals that it was more firmly in place than ever despite accusations of "class enemy" and its condemnation of "bourgeois culture".

On top of which, the book is fun to read, with Chinese flair and shockingly outspoken, arresting language. If this was indeed translated from Dutch and not Chinese, my hat goes off to the translator for putting it in such a form that you are constantly reminded that you are in China, not the Occident.

Even though I found the ending just a little over the top, it did not detract for me from a very good read, almost as informative,in my opinion, though from a slightly different perspective, as Wild Swans.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars highly recommended, October 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Lily Theater: A Novel of Modern China (Hardcover)

I read about this book in the NY Times Book Review section and it intrigued me because I loved Wild Swans by Jung Chang. This is a different view of growing up under the cultural revolution, emphasizing the class system that Mao was trying to dismantle but which seems to have survived despite his efforts to raise up the peasants and suppress the intellectuals. The book is very affecting, its young heroine (the only child in a reeducation camp for top intellectuals) does not seem to be able to adapt to the cruelty around her, and for this reason finds herself at odds with her country's culture. It's also funny in places. I found it highly worth reading.