Bøger af Lai Wen

Lai vokser op i en lille lejlighed i Beijing i 1970’erne med sine forældre og sin mormor og lillebror i et af byens arbejderkvarterer. Efterhånden som hun bliver ældre, får hun øjnene op for, hvad det er for et land, hun bor i: et land, hvor myndighederne kontrollerer sine borgere med trusler og vold.Mødet med en gammel boghandler får afgørende betydning for Lai. Han introducerer hende nemlig forsigtigt til tanker, idéer og romaner, der giver hende nye perspektiver på verden. Da hun senere begynder at læse på Peking Universitet, bliver hun en del af det studenterpolitiske miljø og ender med at deltage i demonstrationerne for fred og demokrati på Den Himmelske Freds Plads i 1989.DEN HIMMELSKE FREDS PLADS er en bevægende selvbiografisk roman om de historiske begivenheder, der udspillede sig i Kina i 1989, hvor en generation af studerende måtte betale en høj pris i kampen for frihed. En gribende og tankevækkende historie om ungdom og håb og om at blive voksen.

"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"--