This book is astounding. It absolutely took my breath away.

I bought it a couple of years ago, secondhand, and I thought that it was erotic literature, based on my reading of the back cover. I guess that's why it took me so long to get around to actually reading it. I'm so glad I did!

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A book that has so much promise, set against the backdrop of the uprising in Tiananmen Square in 1989, but which ultimately fails in its execution. Hong Ying makes her points about corruption in China, the yearning for democracy, and the need to treat women as equals, all of which are strong messages, so the book is not without merit. Unfortunately, her style is melodramatic, and far too focused on sex. I understand using sexual freedom to make a feminist statement, and even to make an anti-communist statement, but she comes back to it again and again, like a crutch. It doesn’t feel honest, as with authors like Anais Nin, or Erica Jong in her better moments, it just feels like it’s in there to sell books. The orgy scene at the end was especially ludicrous. Yes, that’s right, in a book where the Tiananmen uprising itself is in the background, referred to after the fact and mostly from its after-effects, there is an orgy scene. It’s an interesting book, but Hong Ying lacks discipline and maturity, and the story could have been so much better developed. ( )

Beautiful and poetic description of the aftermath of Tiananmen Square told from the perspective of a young poet. The language and the story itself are mesmerising with gripping descriptions of loss, betrayal and – eventually – liberation. ( )