On Summer Of Betrayal Summary
On Summer of Betrayal by Hong Ying I was first attracted by this book for its brief introduction----“A graphic, sensuous and surprising novel about the aftermath of Tiananmen Square----by a young woman who was there.” It is also said that this book was published in Taiwan in 1992; though banned in the inland of China, it circulated there. And what I am reading is the first publication in the West. Man, more often than not, is inclined to be drawn by an unknown and mysterious world, and I’m not the exception. I’ve long been curious about what exactly happened in the bloody 1989, as up till now talking about or even mentioning this event remains something horrible and prohibited. Besides, Summer of Betrayal not only indicates the collapse
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The first chapter is about the Disturbance in Tiananmen Square----Lin Ying fled through a city alight with flames, came home only to find Chen Yu, her lover, sleep with his estranged wife, escaped like crazy to a street where she was taken shelter from Li Jiangjiang, co-habited with the latter and met with a group of “lost” intellectuals who’d escaped narrowly from that terrible night. The following chapter is an interlude about Lin Ying’s earlier ages. She was born in a destitute family in a mountain village. She was ordered by her father to carry heavy sands to earn money. She had always been longing for the outside world. “Perhaps there, at last, the sky was clear and blue, seagulls called, white sails danced on billows under the setting sun.” She met a thin, short boy sitting on a rocky point on the far bank, like her, just staring at the Yangtze water. Due to the similar circumstances they were in, she fell in love with the boy, and didn’t change her mind even after his imprisonment. A pure heart she had at that time. He was her first man, also the first one that hurt her to the core. Not willing to accept the futility of a barren, ignorant life, she wanted a chance to escape this generation-after-generation cycle of bitterness. Her talent in writing turned to be a link between Chen Yu and her, as well as the chance for her to study in Beijing, which altogether proved to be a disaster of her life----the betrayal of Chen Yu, together with that of the city of Beijing sent her down to the abyss of darkness. She slept with Li Jiangjiang, and was abandoned by Chen Yu with dirty and piercing words after the latter caught them in bed. To get things worse, she overheard the filthy bet in the Degraded Survivors’ Club: who could lay Lin Ying first. Insult after insult nearly pushed her out of
The first chapter is about the Disturbance in Tiananmen Square----Lin Ying fled through a city alight with flames, came home only to find Chen Yu, her lover, sleep with his estranged wife, escaped like crazy to a street where she was taken shelter from Li Jiangjiang, co-habited with the latter and met with a group of “lost” intellectuals who’d escaped narrowly from that terrible night. The following chapter is an interlude about Lin Ying’s earlier ages. She was born in a destitute family in a mountain village. She was ordered by her father to carry heavy sands to earn money. She had always been longing for the outside world. “Perhaps there, at last, the sky was clear and blue, seagulls called, white sails danced on billows under the setting sun.” She met a thin, short boy sitting on a rocky point on the far bank, like her, just staring at the Yangtze water. Due to the similar circumstances they were in, she fell in love with the boy, and didn’t change her mind even after his imprisonment. A pure heart she had at that time. He was her first man, also the first one that hurt her to the core. Not willing to accept the futility of a barren, ignorant life, she wanted a chance to escape this generation-after-generation cycle of bitterness. Her talent in writing turned to be a link between Chen Yu and her, as well as the chance for her to study in Beijing, which altogether proved to be a disaster of her life----the betrayal of Chen Yu, together with that of the city of Beijing sent her down to the abyss of darkness. She slept with Li Jiangjiang, and was abandoned by Chen Yu with dirty and piercing words after the latter caught them in bed. To get things worse, she overheard the filthy bet in the Degraded Survivors’ Club: who could lay Lin Ying first. Insult after insult nearly pushed her out of