Summer of Betrayal: A Novel [Paperback]

Hong Ying (Author), Martha Avery (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 7, 1998

First published in Taiwan in 1992 and banned in China--where it was widely distributed underground--a lyrical and sensuous novel follows the winding path of a young female poet whose life is changed by the uprising in Tiananmen Square."

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Originally published in Taiwan in 1992 and banned in China, this first novel is set just after the Tiananmen Square uprising and follows 27-year-old poet Lin Ying as she contends with repressive surroundings while searching for an identity. With the help of her literary friends, Lin undergoes a transformation over the course of the next several months, discovering her own power through the expression of her poetry and her sexuality. The dialog is uneven in spots, and the scattered use of profanity reads unnaturally and conflicts with the poetic narrative. It is hard to tell whether these inconsistencies are a reflection of Ying's writing or of the translation. These difficulties aside, Ying's work appears to be more about one young woman's desire to liberate her sexual spirit than it is about the political climate that attempts to repress it. Academic and public libraries with large Asian literature collections may be interested.?Shirley N. Quan, Orange Cty. P.L., Garden Grove, Cal.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Summer Of Betrayal ($21.00; Jun. 1997; 208 pp.; 0-374-27175-5): First published in Taiwan in 1992, this impassioned novel describes the emotional life of a young woman poet in the wake of the 1989 massacre of dissident students in Tiananmen Square. Lin Ying finds neither sexual satisfaction nor intellectual stimulation in relationships with variously disappointing men--only a cryptic kind of orgiastic fulfillment following an unconvincingly willful shedding of inhibitions. Hong Ying has interesting things to say about the submission of art to political considerations in contemporary China, and the poems attributed to her protagonist are often lovely. But the novel is clogged with highly charged melodramatic language (as translated), and the tedious amorality and apostrophizing of the bohemian culture Lin Ying moves through can make you feel as if you're reading Jack Kerouac's The Subterraneans in Chinese. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; 1st Grove Press ed edition (December 7, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802135943
• ISBN-13: 978-0802135940
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #426,747 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From political/social repression come self/sexual discovery., February 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Summer of Betrayal: A Novel (Hardcover)

Under the umbrella of political repression and the bloody crack down of Tianammen Square comes the sexual awakening of a young woman struggling against the misogynistic society and attitudes she despises. This is an extremely honest, open and sensual book, thankfully devoid of vulgarity or gratuitous sexual content. As Deng Xiao Ping's troops marched literally through the student demonstrators and subsequently imposed martial law in the insuing months, the heroine, poet Lin Ying flees along with her collegues, although her feeling of isolation persist. This is emphasised by Lin's discovery of her lover in the arms of his estranged wife whom he claims to be divorcing. Lin Ying then sets about her own life and choices made free of guilt or the binds of a jealous, possesive partner. At times her actions and thoughts come across as self indulgent to the point of being irritating. But to judge would be to miss the point entirely. The self discovery that occurs culminates with the assertion that whilst you can imprison the body, the mind and soul will always remain free.

A colleague urges Lin Ying to move abroad with her, stating; "You could write your poetry abroad. At least if you wanted to you could: freedom is a precious thing." To which she replies; "Here (in China) there are people listening, but one can't speak. There one can speak, but nobody listens," -a truly damning indictment of western values and apathy as much as it is against China's supression of its own people's thoughts and ideas.

The climactic ending is one not to be missed, where whilst not every reader will enojoy it, it is unlikely to be equalled in its open or unapologetic sensuality.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A well-written and insightful novel, November 8, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Summer of Betrayal (Hardcover)

This is a well-written and meaningful novel. It is primarily about the experience of a woman, much more than it is about the experience of being in 1989 Beijing. The poet Lin Ying's journey is a series of painful disillusionments that many readers will readily identify with. The manner in which she gains strength and ultimately transcends the bleak world around her may be incomprehensible to some men and objectionable to some women, but will be powerful to the sensitive reader. Admittedly, Lin Ying's view of her world is unfamiliar to me as a man - which is the primary reason I found this book to be so worthwhile.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Good Reflection of Chinese Student Dreams, But ...., May 25, 2001

By 

Robert Shepherd (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Summer of Betrayal: A Novel (Paperback)

Hong Ying's novel should be a must read for anyone interested not just in 'what happened' in Beijing in 1989 but more importantly why 'nothing much' has happened in the twelve years since then. Ying's book is, I think, an accurate account of how a certain class of students and intellectuals saw themselves: as both heroic dare-devils willing to put all on the line and as alienated individualists. In short, they were as much about playing out roles of the alienated 'artist' as they were about bringing change to China - a big reason why peasants never supported these urban rebels. As another reviewer mentioned, getting naked at a party, having sex with several men in unison, and then getting arrested does not a rebel make. Ying's characters make sense when we consider what urban China has become today: a place where money matters more than student rebels, and where yesterday's rebels have made their actions in the summer of 1989 the basis for careers in Western countries playing the role of Chinese student heroes while forever fighting amongst themselves about who was more heroic in May-June 1989 (sounds a lot like how Chinese Communist Party cadres used to act). I would recommend reading Ying's novel in tandem with David Kwan's *Broken Portraits*, an account of Kwan's students who took part in the Tiananmen Square demonstrations.The difference is that Kwan describes real heroes: simple kids who had longings they could not necessarily describe related to a desire to, in the words of one of his students, 'live'.