Tiananmen Square

This novel was published on June 4, 2024. However, I purchased a paperback copy at Barnes and Noble on May 24, 2024. Hmmm. The story is an epic coming-of-age novel about young love and lasting friendships forged in the years leading up to the Tiananmen Square student protests.

The publisher's summary: 

As a child in Beijing in the 1970s, Lai lives with her family in a lively, working-class neighborhood near the heart of the city. Thoughtful yet unassuming, she spends her days with her friends beyond the attention of her parents: Her father is a reclusive figure who lingers in the background, while her mother, an aging beauty and fervent patriot, is quick-tempered and preoccupied with neighborhood gossip. Only Lai’s grandmother, a formidable and colorful maverick, seems to really see Lai and believe that she can blossom beyond their circumstances.

But Lai is quickly awakened to the harsh realities of the Chinese state. A childish prank results in a terrifying altercation with police that haunts her for years; she also learns that her father, like many others, was broken during the Cultural Revolution. As she enters adolescence, Lai meets a mysterious and wise bookseller who introduces her to great works—Hemingway, Camus, and Orwell, among others—that open her heart to the emotional power of literature and her mind to thrillingly different perspectives. Along the way, she experiences the ebbs and flows of friendship, the agony of grief, and the first steps and missteps in love.

A gifted student, Lai wins a scholarship to study at the prestigious Peking University where she soon falls in with a theatrical band of individualists and misfits dedicated to becoming their authentic selves, despite the Communist Party’s insistence on conformity—and a new world opens before her. When student resistance hardens under the increasingly restrictive policies of the state, the group gets swept up in the fervor, determined to be heard, joining the masses of demonstrators and dreamers who display remarkable courage and loyalty in the face of danger. As 1989 unfolds, the spirit of change is in the air. . .

Drawn from her own life, Lai Wen’s novel is mesmerizing and haunting—a universal yet intimate story of youth and self-discovery that plays out against the backdrop of a watershed historic event. Tiananmen Square captures the hope and idealism of a new generation and the lasting price they were willing to pay in the name of freedom.

The book has been described by the publisher as autobiographical fiction. Yes, the author is also the main character. Her life story is given but she has added some fictional details. I cannot tell what part is fiction and what part is true. I wonder whether this was done to prevent her name from being disclosed and putting her and her family in danger today from Chinese leaders. All we know is that she is married with two children and lives in the UK.  The author's name is a pseudonym.

This is not a political book. We read toward the end why Lai joined the demonstrators. She was concerned about being censored. The book is mainly about her life beginning in primary school, then high school and then college. Lai spent most of her time reading in her bedroom when she was not at school so there isn't any information on what it was like to live in China during this time period, the 1970s. She did not have a lot of friends. There were five friends that she played with while they were in primary school. However, she only continued to see one of them while she was in high school. Of course, she falls in love with him. Gen is somewhat detached from her and she does not know why. They come from different backgrounds. Gen's parents hold government positions. Lai's father was a mapmaker and her mother was a housewife. Lai was close to her grandmother who was an odd character. You never knew what she was going to do or say. Grandma could be crude and lewd. 

The events at Tiananmen Square were described toward the end of the book. The reader hears about the political views of the student leaders of the protests. Lai does not follow all of their viewpoints but is concerned that she cannot speak freely. The protests began on May 4, 1989. May 4 is the anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. We read about some of those protests but when May 30 rolls around, we read in detail what happened each day, through June 4, as the protestors stood their ground in Tiananmen Square. Lai was there on each of those days and could describe what happened from the protestors' perspective. The events of June 3 are heart wrenching. Lai was part of the crowd that the Army fired upon, killing hundreds of students. On June 4 her best friend stood in front of a tank, preventing it from moving. It is interesting that this person, known to the world as Tank Man, was actually a woman. I would love to know if the gender of this person was fiction or not. There is a famous photo of Tank Man that was taken by a photographer who was standing on the balcony of his hotel room. Look it up if you haven't seen it.

I loved this book. After finishing it, I researched the protests and found the names of the student leaders on Wikipedia. I researched them also and found out that all of them were able to get away from the police and ended up in either Taiwan or the U. S. There were other student leaders whose names we do not know.  One of their mothers has founded a group to identify them and locate their bodies, if possible.

I am rating this book 10 out of 5 stars! It is that awesome. If you haven't read the book yet, you should get a copy. It is a must read.

Banyan Moon

Banyan Moon is a family saga about 3 generations of Vietnamese women. The story alternates between grandmother Minh in Vietnam, her daughter Huong in Florida and granddaughter Ann in Michigan. It begins with Ann Tran receiving a call from her mother informing her that her beloved grandmother, Minh, has passed away. In the years since she’s last seen Minh, Ann has built a seemingly perfect life in Michigan. She lives with her rich and white college professor boyfriend Noah Winthorpe in a lake house and is invited to many elegant parties due to her relationship with him. After she gets a positive result on a pregnancy test Ann feels her life coming apart. Her discomfort with her current life gives her a sense that it was not the life she would have chosen on her own. With both her relationship and carefully planned future now in question, Ann returns home to Florida to face her estranged mother Huơng.

Back in Florida Huơng is simultaneously mourning her mother and resenting her for having the relationship with Ann that she never had. When Minh's will is read Ann and Huơng learn that Minh has left them both the Banyan House, the crumbling old manor that was Ann’s childhood home, in all its strange, gothic glory. Under the same roof for the first time in years, mother and daughter address the simmering questions of their past and their uncertain futures, while trying to rebuild their relationship without the one person who’s always held them together. Running parallel to this is Minh’s story, as she goes from a lovestruck teenager living in the shadow of the "American War" to a determined young mother immigrating to America in search of a better life for her children. While Huong and Ann go through Minh's belongings in the Banyan House, Ann makes a shocking discovery that sheds light on Minh's long-buried secrets from her life in Vietnam. The secrets affected the upbringing of both Huong and Ann.

This beautiful story spans several decades, from 1960s Vietnam to the swamplands of Florida. It is tinged with sadness and this sadness felt overwhelming in the first couple of chapters. Around chapter three I understood how this story was being told and became fully engaged. While the story has some sadness it is also shows alot of love between these three women. All of them are single moms so there is a shared experience between them. Both Huong and Ann struggled with the family expectation to be something that they were not. This commonality ultimately brought them together.  The immigration process is also shown here. It's not just how Minh made it to the U. S. but how Huong handled being a first generation American and how her perceptions affected Ann's upbringing. 

Family sagas are one of my favorite type of books and this novel is a wonderful example of that. It is hard to believe that this well written story is a debut novel. Thao Thai gave us a poignant portrait of the Vietnamese experience both in Vietnam and in the U. S.  I am rating the book 5 out of 5 stars.

Lady Tan's Circle of Women

The latest historical novel from Lisa See is inspired by the true story of a woman physician from 15th-century China. The subject of See’s novel is Tan Yunxian, a real-life woman who lived in China during the Ming dynasty. She went on to become a “ming yi” — famous doctor — and published a compendium of 31 cases in the work “Miscellaneous Records of a Female Doctor.”  The story begins in the year 1469 when Tan Yunxian is 8 years old.

 The publisher's summary:  

According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient.

From a young age, Yunxian learns about women’s illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose—despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it—and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other’s joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom.

But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife—embroider bound-foot slippers, pluck instruments, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.

How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions, go on to treat women and girls from every level of society, and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts? 

 

The characters are what make this novel such a great story.  I loved reading about the ups and downs of Yunxian and Meiling's friendship. They were on different life paths due to their socioeconomic levels but managed to maintain a lifelong affection. There were plenty of misunderstandings between them but most were due to the interference from Yunxian's mother in law and they always made up quickly. As all young adults have done throughout history, both girls fell into the social constructs of their time. Yunxian did not believe that she was superior to Meiling but acted as though she was. Yunxian was quite selfish because she always had whatever she wanted. She never asked Meiling how she was doing or how her family was handling their problems. Yunxian thought her life was more important. Meiling, on the other hand, had to worry about surviving and helping her ostracized mother. Meiling felt that she could not complain to Yunxian about how she treated her because Yunxian was from a higher class.  It sounds funny today but in 1400s China, making a social mistake can get you killed.

Their mothers and grandmothers were also great characters. Yunxian's mother dies when she is 8 and she is sent to live with her grandparents. This is where she meets Meiling and Meiling's mother, a midwife.  Yunxian's grandmother is a woman's doctor who begins to train her to follow in her footsteps. Meiling is also being trained to become a midwife like her mother.  It was natural for this foursome to be closely tied.

The men were not very interesting but this is a women's story. It's not just about female relationships but female medicine too. I can honestly say I felt each and every pain of the women in labor that Meiling treated. In those days a woman crouched down near the floor and pulled on a rope hanging from above to birth the babies. Ouch! 

Lady Tan's Circle of Women is a lovely book.  I highly recommend it.  5 out of 5 stars.

Where Waters Meet

Where Waters Meet is Zhang Ling's second novel to be translated into English. It follows A Single Swallow. It is a heartwrenching story about a daughter and her journey to discovering the truth about her mother's life after her death.  

The publisher's summary:

There was rarely a time when Phoenix Yuan-Whyller’s mother, Rain, didn’t live with her. Even when Phoenix got married, Rain, who followed her from China to Toronto, came to share Phoenix’s life. Now at the age of eighty-three, Rain’s unexpected death ushers in a heartrending separation.

Struggling with the loss, Phoenix comes across her mother’s suitcase—a memory box Rain had brought from home. Inside, Phoenix finds two old photographs and a decorative bottle holding a crystallized powder. Her auntie Mei tells her these missing pieces of her mother’s early life can only be explained when they meet, and so, clutching her mother’s ashes, Phoenix boards a plane for China. What at first seems like a daughter’s quest to uncover a mother’s secrets becomes a startling journey of self-discovery.

Told across decades and continents, Zhang Ling’s exquisite novel is a tale of extraordinary courage and survival. It illuminates the resilience of humanity, the brutalities of life, the secrets we keep and those we share, and the driving forces it takes to survive.

I loved this story enough to immediately reread it after finishing it. There is alot of nuance to the story and I wasn't sure whether I picked them all up during the first read. It's such a lovely story which also made me want to read it again. It reminded me of last year's Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu.

Women are the main characters in the book. Phoenix Yuan-Whyller is the narrator. She took care of her mother Rain, born Chunyu, during her entire life including during her marriage to George Whyller. Rain’s sister Mei is another strong character. Rain and Mei's mother is also featured in a few chapters and the reader gets the sense that strength runs in the women of the family. They overcome everything. It was interesting that they chose weak men as husbands. For Rain and Phoenix it was a matter of wanting to take care of someone. Mei is still a mystery to me as she was to both her sister and her niece. 

The family originated in China. Rain and Mei lived through three wars there: WWII, the Japanese War and the Civil War between the nationalists and the communists. They suffered severe hunger and bombing raids, as did everyone else in China. Rain and Mei's parents died in a bombing of their village East End. The sisters were captured by Japanese soldiers and forced to be prostitutes. Rain handled it better than Mei who was unable to eat or even get up off her mattress. With her sister's help Mei escaped and joined the communists and fought alongside Mao's warriors. Rain eventually made her way to Hong Kong and then Toronto where she and her daughter lived with Phoenix’s husband George. I see George as weak compared to his wife. He was American and refused to fight in the Vietnam War. He fled to Canada. Rain’s husband was a war hero who was disabled from war wounds and needed a wife to provide for his needs.

While the book begins in Toronto most of the action takes place in China. This family saga is definitely the exquisite tale that it is advertised to be and it has captured my heart. I am rating it way, way over 5 out of 5 stars.

Beasts of a Little Land

Beasts of a Little Land begins in Korea in the early 20th century. During this time Korea was one nation. While there are a dozen characters, the story alternates between the lives of four main characters whose lives intersect. There is Luna, Lotus, Jade, and JungHo. Luna is the daughter of the famous courtesan Dani whose beauty she inherited. Lotus is her younger and plainer sister. Jade was not as pretty as Luna and Lotus but when her mother sends her to Dani's household for courtesan training, she becomes Lotus' best friend. JungHo is an orphan who had to beg to survive. The book was published in December 2021.

The publisher's summary:  

In 1917, deep in the snowy mountains of occupied Korea, an impoverished local hunter on the brink of starvation saves a young Japanese officer from an attacking tiger. In an instant, their fates are connected—and from this encounter unfolds a saga that spans half a century.

In the aftermath, a young girl named Jade is sold by her family to Miss Silver’s courtesan school, an act of desperation that will cement her place in the lowest social status. When she befriends an orphan boy named JungHo, who scrapes together a living begging on the streets of Seoul, they form a deep friendship. As they come of age, JungHo is swept up in the revolutionary fight for independence, and Jade becomes a sought-after performer with a new romantic prospect of noble birth. Soon Jade must decide whether she will risk everything for the one who would do the same for her.

From the perfumed chambers of a courtesan school in Pyongyang to the glamorous cafes of a modernizing Seoul and the boreal forests of Manchuria, where battles rage, Juhea Kim’s unforgettable characters forge their own destinies as they wager their nation’s. Immersive and elegant, Beasts of a Little Land unveils a world where friends become enemies, enemies become saviors, heroes are persecuted, and beasts take many shapes.

I enjoyed the Korean setting. There aren't too many historical fiction novels that take place there and the ones I am aware of all tell the WWII story of haenyoes (sea women) on Jeju Island. Beasts covers a period of time from 1917 through 1964, during which the nation was fighting for independence from Japan and separated into north and south. The author has left out the years of the Korean War from her story.

Many of the female characters are courtesans. Being a courtesan was quite different from being a prostitute. The only women in Korea who were intellectuals and artists were courtesans. This dates back to medieval times. The courtesans had several years of formal training, beginning with reading, music and dance. While they were on the lowest rung of the social ladder, they made alot of money that they could send home to their families. Note, though, that the novel does not have sex scenes.

Some of the remaining characters include the revolutionary MyungBo, aristocratic SungSoo, and upwardly mobile HanChol. MyungBo was born into a wealthy family but during college he abandoned that lifestyle in order to work toward Korea becoming a socialist country. Sungsoo was also born into wealth but after college he decided to continue his family's business legacy. HanChol started out as a rickshaw driver but advanced into being a mechanic and ultimately an auto builder. Two Japanese officers round out this amazing cast of characters.

The characters and the history are what make this novel a masterpiece. I cannot recommend it more highly.  5 out of 5 stars.

White Ivy

White Ivy is both a coming-of-age and coming to America story.  When I bought this book I knew it was about a Chinese family from the back cover blurb. The title is typical for a Chinese family saga.  However, I did not expect it to be about race and didn't figure that out until some point after the middle of the story. I was surprised to say the least. 

The story opens with some background information on the Ivy Lin character.  She was born in China and her parents  emigrated to America when she was two, leaving Ivy behind. Ivy was raised by her grandmother Meifeng who taught her to be clever by stealing. Stealing becomes second nature to her.  At the age of 5 her parents, Nan and Shen Lin, send for her and she moves to Boston. Ivy does not know them. They are strangers to her as is her newborn brother Austin. She does not get along with her parents and wishes to be with her grandmother in China.  Meifeng had been affectionate but her parents were distant. Ivy quickly learns English and becomes friends with Roux, a Romanian immigrant, and Gideon, a boy from a patrician New England family whose father is a senator.  However, she continues to steal. 

As Ivy grows she begins to receive party invitations from classmates. One weekend Gideon invites her to an overnight at his home. Ivy knows her mother would not approve and tells her parents she will be staying overnight at a girlfriend's house. The next morning when they find out she is at a boy's house, they go and pick her up, heavily embarrassing Ivy. In a few days her parents pack her up and send her back to China for the summer in order to learn to be Chinese.  Ivy spends the first 2 weeks with a cousin she never met but she loves being with. Sunrin Zhao is Western and loves to shop for expensive designer clothes. Ivy feels like she can be herself with Sunrin.  Ivy then is dropped off with her grandmother in a poor village where Ivy cannot stand to be. Ivy no longer likes living with her grandmother and is excited to travel home at the end of the summer. However, when her plane lands in Boston, her parents tell her that they moved to New Jersey. Ivy has to start over in a new city, losing all of her friends in Boston. 

When I figured out this novel was about race I was disappointed. We hear so much about race relations in the news. It's depressing. I want my reading material to be relaxing, nothing serious. I am looking for escape. While the story was well written this realization affected how I feel about it.  It seems the author is saying that stealing is a Chinese thing to do and winning at all costs is white. Ivy definitely wants to win and be successful in that white, patrician world.  She is what white Americans call a "model minority." I am sure there's much, much more the author intended but this is the main idea I got. 

4 out of 5 stars.

Everything Belongs to Us

I have struggled with categorizing this book as historical fiction.  It takes place in 1978.  I remember 1978.  I was 20.  My millennial co-workers tell me that this was a historical period of time, Korea after the Korean War.  However, it is not historical fiction.  It is a story about the relationships between friends who just happen to come of age during this time period.

The inside cover blurb summarizes the story as follows:  "Seoul, 1978. At South Korea's top university, the nation's best and brightest compete to join the professional elite of an authoritarian regime. Success could lead to life of a rarified privilege and wealth; failure means being left irrevocably behind. For childhood friends, Jisun and Namin, the stakes couldn't be more different. Jisun, the daughter of a powerful business mogul, grew up on a mountainside estate with lush gardens and a dedicated chauffeur. Namin's parents run a tented food cart from dawn to curfew. Her sister works in a shoe factory. Now Jisun wants as little to do with her father's world as possible, abandoning her schoolwork in favor of the underground activist movement, while Namin studies tirelessly in the service of one goal: to launch herself and her family out of poverty. But everything changes when Jisun and Namin meet an ambitious, charming student named Sunam whose need to please his family has led him to a prestigious club: the Circle. Under the influence of his mentor, Juno, a manipulative social climber, Sunam becomes entangled with both women, as they all make choices that will change their lives forever."

The four student characters in this story were loveable and how they handled their friendships as they grew up forms the basis for the plot.  The characters are the success of this novel.  While they faced the usual ambition, desires, anxiety and betrayal that all young people deal with, they also are coming of age at a time when their nation is trying to become an economic powerhouse in a short period of time.

5 out of 5 stars!

Free Food for Millionaires

The theme of Free Food for Millionaires is resentment.  The main character, Casey Han, resents her parents expectations for her success and whenever they find out about a mistake that she has made her father hits her. The parents, likewise, resent Casey for not following their native Korean customs while living in their new American homeland.  They also resent her for not having a job lined up yet especially after all they have saved from their dry cleaning business to help support her.

The story opens with Casey returning home with a degree from Princeton. After a fight with her father she is thrown out of the house and with no where to go other than her white, American boyfriend's house. Upon arrival she sees him in bed with 2 girls and walks out.  Eventually they get back together and she lives with him; a secret from her parents and their Korean friends.  All of Casey's friends have trust funds and have great opportunities after graduation but Casey doesn't.  Since she has no money she has to adjust her expensive habits to her pocketbook.  That proves to be difficult and she gets into alot of debt, another secret she must keep from her parents.

Casey takes a job as an assistant at an investment banking firm which is basically secretarial.  She is qualified to be a banker but failed to apply for jobs while she was still in school and was unable to get one of those jobs.  She lives in Manhattan with her boyfriend and socializes with her Korean girlfriend Ella and Ella's Korean husband.  In order to make a few extra bucks she continues to work weekends at her mother's friend Sabine's retail shop.

Sabine would like Casey to take over her shop when she retires but Casey cannot decide what she wants to do with her life.  She seems to be just going through the motions with her career and personal life and does just that for several years.

As I have said in earlier posts I like Asian fiction so I loved this book.  The fear of and the need to break cultural traditions by the first generations in America are always fascinating to me.  The native Korean culture is on full display with the thoughts and actions of her parents. Casey, her sister Tina and friend Ella all have different ideas on how to assimilate into the American society.

The younger characters were perfect examples of the dilemma facing Korean Americans.  The author did a great job creating them as well as how they related to each other.  The pace was perfect for this 500+ page book as was the writing. If you decide to read this book I don't think that you will be disappointed.  It is wonderful.

Dragon Springs Road

Dragon Springs Road is Janie Chang's second novel.  It takes place in early twentieth century China and follows the childhood of Jialing from age 7 when her mother abandons her through age 21.

Jialing and her mother reside in the Western Residence on Dragon Springs Road.  On the day her mother left Jialing, she burned incense and sat with the fox spirit who has lived in their courtyard for centuries.  She promised to return but after 3 days she had not returned yet.  Jialing does not leave the Western Residence because her mother told her never to do so.  She is Eurasian and is not accepted by society.  A new family soon moves in to the recently vacated Central Residence and Jialing meets a friend her age, Yang Anjuin. Anjuin becomes her best friend and introduces her to Anjuin's grandmother, Grandmother Yang, and Jialing is hired as a bondservant to do housework in the Yang home in exchange for food and the few coins Jialing's mother left her. Jialing continues to sleep in the Western Residence where she talks daily with the fox spirit and continues to wait for her mother to return.

When a new white family moves into the Eastern Residence Jialing befriends their daughter Anna Shea.  She soon learns Mrs. Shea is unhappy living in Shanghai and takes it out on her husband and daughter with abusive behavior.  After Anna mysteriously dies the Sheas move and a group of teachers from a local Christian school move in.  Jialing is offered an education and the Yangs agree to let her attend in exchange for money.

Jialing grows into adulthood, always relying on advice from the fox spirit and always looking for her long lost mother to return.

There is alot more to this story than what I summarized.  I found it to be engrossing and read it in one sitting.  I loved the characters.  Jialing and Anjuin are sympathetic characters as is Jialing's fox spirit friend.  The story moves along at a nice speed with Jialing having to deal with alot of obstacles including racism.  I have always been attracted to Asian fiction which is one reason why I loved this story.  However, I must say that this is one of the best books that I have read in awhile.

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

I am a fan of Lisa See and had to pick up her latest novel.  The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane follows the life of Li-Yan, called Girl by her family as she is the only daughter in her family.  She is a member of China's Akha ethnic minority. They are animistic in belief and Ms. See covers their traditions in great detail. They live in the countryside in a remote village without electricity and running water in stark contrast to the majority of people in 1980s China and they all pick tea leaves for their livelihood.

Girl walks for hours each day with her family in order to pick pu'er tea leaves all day that are then sold to a tea collective.  Her mother is also the area's midwife and Girl is expected to learn this skill too. She is one of her school's best students and hopes to advance to higher education if her family will let her.  Girl wants to grow up and leave her village for a better life.

One day a stranger arrives looking for the rare pu'er tea.  Girl is asked to translate for her village leaders. Also at this time Girl begins to question the traditions of her village and after having a child out of wedlock refuses to kill the infant which society requires her to do. She drops her infant off near an orphanage in a nearby town and subsequently leaves her village to pursue her education and career. After getting reacquainted with the father Girl tries to get her daughter back but she has already been adopted by a California couple.  Both mother and daughter search for a stable family life through those they meet through their study of pu'er tea.

I loved this story.  While I am attracted to Asian fiction it still has to be well written to capture my imagination.  The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane does just that with loveable characters and a compelling plot.  There is alot of information about the tea industry both locally and internationally which was enjoyable to read about.  The author also writes about her Chinese culture with its family traditions, government practices, religious superstitions, and ancestor worship practices.

A fabulous read!