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Diane Wei Liang
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ISBN | 0755311930 | ||
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Janice
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Synopsis
BINDING: As a student at Beijing University in the 1980s, Diane Wei Liang took part in and witnessed one of the truly momentous political events of the decade: the Tiananmen Square massacre. In the same year that saw the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, the world stood by in horror as the full might of the Chinese military state fell on thousands of defenceless students demonstrating for freedom and democracy. Part historical and political document; part love story; part remembrance of a loving family and childhood dreams shattered for ever, this moving memoir is a personal account of one of the most traumatic and shameful passages in China's recent history. All along, as a symbol of hope, stands 'the lake with no name' - Weiming Lake - which lies at the heart of Beijing University campus. Famous for its beauty, for centuries it has been an inspiration to poets, lovers and those seeking a better future.
Review
Lake with No Name is the true story of love and conflict in modern china. The Author Diane was born in Beijing in 1966, the year that marked the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. She spent part of her childhood in a labour camp with her parents in a remote region of China, and the other part with her mother when her parents were forced to live and work in different cities.
In 1984 Diane went to Beijing University. It was there that she met people who later made history and bought China to the brink of revolution. In the spring of 1989, together with fellow students at Beijing Campus , she participated in the Student Democracy Movement that swept through the capital and the rest of the country. The movement became a life-changing time for her and many of her friends.
Having read Lake with No Name about Diane's life I felt very much for her, especially as within the book of the time leading up to the Tinanmen Square Masacre of 4th June 1989 when Diane lost many friends and fellow students. We meet Diane again when she returns to China from America where she had continued her studies - first studing psychology gaining an M.Sc and then a Ph.D in business administration.
Diane has a very sensitive and yet intense way of writing which has opened up my eyes of what we in the west saw of the Massacre in Tinanmen Square, and the one picture which even to day that stands out is of the young student who stood in front of the rolling tanks as they headed in to that square.
Having met Diane when we interviewed her recently about her books we could see that she has been deeply wounded by what happened in her in Beijing all those years ago. I could feel the pain of her parents as they say goodbye at the airport not knowing when they would see their daughter again. Diane tells us of how it was to return to China some seven years later and visits the Lake with No Name to see if she could feel and remember what it was like in her student days. The Lake with no name, is a very apt title but for me I had thought it referred to the blood shed in the square but Diane in the interview tells us it is the lake in the centre of the Beijing University Campas and to this day it still has not been given a name.
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