Tiananmen Square, by lai wen

The Tiananmen Square protests are vividly evoked in this remarkable work of autobiographical fiction.

Lai lives with her parents, grandmother and brother in a rundown apartment in Beijing. The family is relatively poor. Lai’s father is withdrawn, while Lai’s mother is resentful at her lot. Lai’s closest relationship is with her down-to-earth grandmother. When Lai wins a scholarship to Peking University, it opens up a new world. She begins a painful romance with the idealistic Gen, which is offset by a demanding yet exhilarating friendship with the theatrical Anna. It’s a time of student unrest as protests are made for more freedom, and Lai finds herself inexorably caught in this maelstrom.

Lai Wen (a pseudonym) was born in Beijing in 1970 and left the country just after the Tiananmen protests in 1989. Tiananmen Square is an absorbing, carefully written coming-of-age novel that captures the emotional whirlpool of student life in late 1980s China, with a diverse cast of characters and some surprising events (including a gay marriage during the protests). Lai Wen is a compelling witness to history, someone who has brooded on her story for 35 years before finally deciding to tell it. A moving and profound story about power, resistance and its terrible consequences.

Tiananmen Square, by Lai Wen. Published by Swift Press. $34.99

Review by Chris Saliba

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