“Being human is about remembering. We are the sum of all our memories. And yet, everyone forgets.”

Memoir or fiction? I would say memoir, written under a pseudonym to protect the author, and any family members remaining in China. This story is about growing up in Beijing in the 1970s and 80s. There is something so deeply touching, tender yet powerful in the writing.

We follow Lai on her journey as she leads us through her childhood and teenage years. She tells us of her fears, anxieties and insecurities which are so painful yet exquisitely written. Her voice is soft and sensitive. Lai introduces us to her friends, playful and innocent until an incident with the controlling regime’s police brutality and forever changes her.

We get to know her family. The withdrawn father. The bitter angry mother. The rebellious, spirited grandmother whose strength grounds them all. Each character in their own way presents us with lingering aspects of the Cultural Revolution. Tiananmen Square viewed, for most of the book, from a distance, is the ever present reminder of this past. As the story develops we are witness to Lai’s awareness changing and her political activism developing while attending Peking University.

It is only there, near the end of the book, that the story brings us to the events of the student rebellion of 1989 in Tiananmen Square. Lai is our witness to the actions of the government, the military, and the consequences of her friend's involvement..

This coming of age story is compelling, haunting, emotive and written beautifully. By the end, it left me in tears. It is a book I will long remember.

Thank you to the publishers and to NetGalley for the ARC.

I have reviewed Tiananmen Square by Lai Wen for book recommendation and selling site LoveReading.co.uk.

I’ve chosen Tiananmen Square as a LoveReading Star Book and a Liz Pick of the Month. Please see the link to the site for the full review.

Personally I find first novels about family that start with the early memories of a much cherished and loved grandma have become such a trope, and usually are quite an unsatisfying read, that I tend to steer clear of them. I chose this book because I was in China at the time of 'Tiananmen Square' and looked forward to diving into an account of life in China at the time. Unfortunately I found this an unsatisfying read that really just skimmed the surface, and really didn't take me back at all. I'm sure that this book will do well, but I didn't finish it.

Tiananmen Square shows us what it was like growing up in the 70s and 80s in Beijing, through the eyes of Lai Wen, the author’s pseudonym. She’s a sympathetic character, not least in her love of reading; as a reader I too seek the ‘weightless flow of concentration’. We follow Lai over the years so we see how her views have been shaped: by her beloved grandmother, given to quiet kindnesses and from a generation that still knew foot binding; by her taciturn father, whose involvement in past protests is kept veiled; by her stern mother who so rarely lets her guard down.
It’s difficult for an outsider to comprehend the oppression in communist China. Even within that supposedly equal society there were gross inequalities: a rich person who transgresses might be able to start again somewhere else but without money, without influence, the future is bleak. The risks taken by those who dissented were huge; that journalists joined the protests was shocking.
It is two-thirds of the way through the book before Lai’s name is spelled out. I like what that reveals about her sense of identity; by this point she is a young woman and starting to learn about a world beyond her own. It takes a personal experience, though – knowledge that what she witnessed is not what is reported – that really opens her eyes. That worked the other way round too – the troops brought in from the provinces to crush the protests were indoctrinated, told the students were rioters who had killed soldiers.
This book is about the protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. It’s also one woman’s story of her childhood and adolescence in a China indelibly shaped by the Cultural Revolution and Deng’s dictatorship. The demarcation of novel, memoir and autofiction is not a clear one and that works to great effect here; I read Tiananmen Square believing every word.

"Tiananmen Square" is a poignant and evocative novel that vividly captures the experiences of a young girl coming of age in Beijing during the tumultuous 1970s and 80s. Through Lai's eyes, we witness the complexities of family dynamics, societal pressures, and the awakening of political consciousness. The author skillfully weaves together personal struggles with the larger backdrop of historical events, culminating in the poignant portrayal of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. With its richly drawn characters and insightful exploration of both personal and political upheaval, "Tiananmen Square" is a deeply moving and unforgettable read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Swift Press for the ARC!

Mao’s Legacy

In 1989 a series of pro-democracy uprisings across many parts of China culminated on the 3rd and 4th of June, in Beijing with the Army being sent in to shoot the peaceful protesters. Initially, the protests were student protests, but the demands for democracy and against the repressive regime of Deng Xiaoping On 5th June an iconic picture, taken by a Western journalist, and video pictures, flashed around the world showed the iconic image of ‘Tank Man’, a never identified young man attempting to stop the tanks.

‘Lai Wen’ is the pseudonym of the author of this book. She is a Chinese woman, now living in the UK, this is the story of ‘Lai Wen’ from her time as a primary schoolgirl in the 1970’s to her studies at Beijing University and the events of the growing protest movement. She left China in 1989

This novel is presented as a first person biography of those times, but is a novel. There are plenty of reasons why someone who has family or friends from that time still in China, to employ a pseudonym.

Lai Wen writes beautifully, and the account of a young girl going through all the challenges of growing up, family dynamics, family secrets and disappointments, falling in love, the angst and possibilities of being a teenager are universal, and will no doubt strike chords for anyone who is in that turbulent stage of their lives, or has been. What sets this book apart though, is that time and place, the cultural and political setting, China itself, the rapidity of its cataclysmic changes

The only thing I had some uneasiness about is the revelation – the fiction, I assume – of ‘Tank Man’ – though, I suppose, as the fate and identity of that extraordinary brave protester has never been verified, this fiction cannot take away from the bravery of whoever-it-was, and, again, given the long and brutal arm of the regime in dealing with dissenters and their associates, a fictional character is probably the only safe outing.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

The protagonist, Lai Wen, is first introduced to us as a young child living with her family - her parents, her younger brother, and her elderly grandmother - in Beijing. While playing with her friends one day they decide to take a risk that leads to a confrontation with Beijing’s police, and a change in her perspective of the state.

We get to know Lai Wen more as she grows up, through high school and starting in university, reuniting with some old friends from her childhood and eventually meeting a new group of friends at university. They begin to get involved with student protests, culminating in the protests at Tiananmen Square.

This novel tells the story of the student protests less through the lens of politics and more through the personal perspectives of the protagonist, her friends, and her family. In this sense, the style is more that of a coming-of-age story than historical fiction. The prose is well-written and gives insight into the characters, their motivations, and their differences throughout.

I sadly struggled with this book.

I was keen to read it after growing up in the 1980s and remembering Tiananmen Square on the news. Being a bit young then to understand it I was keen to learn more about it from the perspective of the locals.

I found at times it hard to know if I was reading a fiction or non-fiction title. The writing style gave the indication of the latter. I didn't warm to the family in the book nor really any of the main characters. I also found parts of the book repetitive.

I did perhaps learn some bits from the title but cannot say it was an enjoyable read or a read I would recommend to others.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers and author for the chance to read this Arc copy.

"Tiananmen Square" by Lai Wen is probably one of the most memorable, poignant, emotional books I've ever read. Despite knowing how it would end in such a tragic way, the tension towards the end was difficult to bear. More than a testimony of a very dark moment in history, it's a testimony on the rite of passage from childhood to adulthood, with all its depths, pains, fears, and doubts, aggravated by the oppression of an authoritarian regime. It's about a cultural reality that many of us know so little about. This will not be everyone's cup of tea; it's not a historical account nor a political essay. But it's powerful and emotionally raw. I felt the narrator's voice very engaging and approachable - I felt quickly deeply immersed in the narrative due to Lai's beautiful, natural, and uncomplicated speech. This will crawl for a while under my skin. Can I give a 6th star? Thank you Netgalley and Swift Press for such an amazing ARC!

Tiananmen Square by Lai Wen is told from the point of view of Lai. The book begins when she is around 12 years old and we follow her through to university.

I really enjoyed the first 3/4 of this book, it was interesting to read about the cultural differences as she grew up and the expectations. I felt a lot of empathy for Lai as she seems quite lost and unsure of herself for a lot of the book. The characters are very well written and whilst not the most eventful book it still managed to keep my interest.

I found the last quarter a bit of a chore and ended up skimming if I’m honest. I feel at this point the story got very repetitive and some of the characters were very annoying.

I would definitely read another book by this author.

A coming-of-age story set in Beijing in the early eighties, its title tipping the reader where it is going to end, Tiananmen Square is an oddly pitched book. The student uprising of 1989 is the endgame, so when we join the teenage schoolgirl Lai we can see how the increase in her political consciousness is always going to be foreshadowed. It is primarily a picture of growing up in a China shifting from hardline Maoism to the more relaxed economic socialism of the eighties. Lai's parents were touched by the Cultural Revolution: her Dad is described as beaten down by it, and her mother is disillusioned and clashes with her daughter. Her maternal Grandmother also lives with them and is mischievous and twinkling and - well the problem is that all the characters are very archetypal. Those are archetypes for a reason, but the book is written from the perspective of someone who is a literature teacher who left China in 1989, there seems to be little self-reflection from the character as to how ordinary the setup is. This is interesting as the book wants to be a peak behind this core historical moment, but how much of an insider's voice can we trust when everything else feels quite cliched?

This also stretches to her arrogant boyfriend who is rightly identified by her grandmother as a bit of an arrogant twat (and I think the audience were way ahead of her), and also the kindly old bookseller, giving her the magical escape of books from her daily routine. Even in that case she moves from a book or Norse Myths to Orwell's 1984, and the Moby Dick, Hemmingway. It is never stated if she is reading these in translation, and Chinese literature is rarely mentioned - it all seems more like she is trying to impress the reader than really delving into the tricky texts. When she gets to University we get a new bunch of stock characters, not least the anarcho-japester Madame Macaw who never convinced me and I worked out their role pretty instantly because this wasn't just going to be a story culminating with the Tiananmen Massacre, but we'd get an insight into the most famous moment of the protest. And since her political boyfriend had been set up from the beginning, the nominal twist here is easy to see.

Tiananmen Square is an easy read and Lai the character and Lai the writer are good company. But it never really gets below the surface of the political upheaval in China at the time, and because the coming-of-age story around our narrator is so predictable I didn't trust anything dressed up as revelation.

This isn't my usual type of book to read, but I wanted to delve into a time that I had only seen on the UK news as an 8 year old, not understanding really what had happened or why, other than it was something awful. Lai Wen starts her memoir by introducing us to her family and background, there is a lot of detail about her loving relationship with her grandmother and the fractured relationship with her mother and father. She introduces us to society in China at that time and the important role of politicians and how that was reflected in the daily lives of ordinary citizens, including the reticence of both her parents. As Lai grows up, we see her friendships develop and change, she comes across as shy, not a person who would 'rock the boat' in any way. A scholarship to university develops her perspective, as she meets other students and makes new friends. Political undercurrents in China unfold and Lai draws our attention to the students and their reactions and desire for change. We see the protests through her eyes; the comradery of the students, the citizens who join, feed and defend them and eventually those first days in June, which end in students and citizens being killed by soldiers as they 'defend' Tiananmen Square. These last images are the ones I remember from the news. This wasn't an easy book to read, but it wasn't as dry as I had expected. Lai is full of warmth and curiosity about life, trying to find herself amongst the expectations from family, teachers and friends. It has opened my eyes to a controversial and hidden past, where 'official' accounts differ wildly, a past that is still felt in Chinese society today.

A long but informative book that set the scene re China at that time really well
It gave the reader a good insight into how life was then and described the characters lives and feelings etc
It maybe needed to be a bit shorter to keep the readers full attention but I did enjoy it

A great insight into China in the early 80’s. Thought provoking read. I really enjoyed this, more than I thought I would. Thanks NetGalley and publishers for the arc of Tiananmen Square by Lai Wen.

For me the book started off really well and I found the details of life in China during the early 80’s really interesting. As the novel progresses however I started to become a little bored. The central characters like Gen and Macaw seemed a bit superficial. I couldn’t visualise them at all With regards to the events leading up to and including Tiananmen i felt they were a little drawn out. I think that the book was a bit too long and maybe that was why my interest started to wane.

Tiananmen Square is the story of Lai who grows up in Beijing under the control of the Communist party. The book explores her relationships with her grandmother, parents, brother, love interest and friends she makes through out her years. It is a coming of age tale and I did enjoy reading about different countries and cultures this is an area I haven't read about before so everything I read was definitely new to me. Lai seems to feel quite alone during her life. I think the book was quite long in my opinion and could have been shorter but the writing and pictures built of that life will leave an impression on me.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6421033925

This is a difficult one to review. As a coming-of-age story, it was great. I loved reading about the protagonist's childhood and her relationships with her family and friends, and those parts of the book really rang true. As a book about the Tiananamen Square incident and the politics surrounding it, I'm not so sure. Everything was dealt with at a very superficial level and I couldn't really work out what was fictionalised and what was drawn from the author's own experience (and to the event that things had been fictionalised, I also couldn't work out if I was ok with the terrible things that had happened to real people being appropriated in that way). Perhaps that superficial treatment was why the ending didn't pack the emotional punch for me that it really should have, whereas the death of a single individual earlier in the book made much more of an impact. So mixed feelings, but clearly a very talented author and I would be very happy to give another of her books a try.

Thanks to her, NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This is a thought-provoking novel that gives insight to quite a few important life-issues. Namely: Growing-up, Family relationships, friendship, decision-making, and Chinese Culture.

I loved the description of her family from a young girl growing up's perspective. Who could fail to admire "Po Po" - an amazing character!

The author's friends were all so different and interesting. It showed that important aspects like susceptibility to peer-group pressure varies over time.

I had little or no knowledge of Chinese culture but this book opened my eyes and showed that (politics apart) there is more similarities than differences.

I believe the ending was so so clever! I wonder if that is what really happened in Tiananmen Square!

I've recently read a few books on North Korea so thought this would be an interesting read into Chinese culture.
It took a while to get into, but that's probably more me than the book.
It was a really good read and I would recommend to anyone interested in the subject.

This reads like a memoir but I don't actually know if it is or not. Either way I very much enjoyed this book. It starts off when Lai as a young child living with her parents, her brother and her rather strong willed grandmother in 1970s China. At an early age Lai experiences a few hours in policy custody for breaking curfew and this has a long lasting effect on here. We watch her as she enters her teenage years, does extra classes for children who are considered suitable for university and developers a romantic relationship with her childhood friend. The latter had me wanting to sit Lai down and tell her to dump this guy. It's so hard for young people (and maybe older people too!) to see when they are being taken for granted and not being treated as equals in a relationship!

For me, the whole premise of the book is leading up to the events of the student protests (and subsequent deaths) at Tiananmen Square in 1989. How the protests arose and how students who weren't necessarily overtly political but who just wanted dialogue got involved. At university Lai is befriended by a unique group of students none of whom would fit in the mainstream.

This memoir is not overly political nor does it provide any sort of political analysis but I think what it does do is provide an explanation to the lead up to the protests and the more than reasonable ask of the students who just wanted a little bit more control over their own lives! I was 17 when these events occurred so I remember seeing it on the news. Reading this story reinforced the sadness I feel whenever I think of this event (or events like it); the complete over reaction of a dictatorial government, the complete shock and disbelief of those being fired on and sadness for those who died.

Thank you to Net Galley and Swift Press for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.