SONS OF HEAVEN

A vivid and imaginative fictional recounting of the events of Tiananmen Square in June 1989.

Everyone who remembers the Chinese student uprisings of that year will recall the same image, broadcast across the world to international outrage: the solitary protester facing off against the tanks of the People’s Liberation Army. The young man’s audacity became one of the defining symbols of the late 20th century, but to this day his identity remains unknown. Cheng, who was born in Taiwan and grew up in the US, was inspired to write an account of the riots from the perspective of the man whose face he never saw: “What had pushed him to that point, so stupid and brave and able to transcend in such a miraculous yet mortal way?” He calls his narrator Xiao-Di. Raised in the shadow of the Cultural Revolution, Xiao-Di, like most Chinese of his generation, was naturally wary of politics and eager to find his satisfaction in private life. Engaged (through a matchmaker) to marry the daughter of a local official, Xiao-Di is allowed to study abroad—at Cornell University, where he falls in love with an American girl and breaks off his engagement. When his Cornell girlfriend eventually dumps him, Xiao-Di returns home and tries to make amends to his fiancée, but her father refuses to let him in and sees to it that Xiao-Di is blackballed by every employer in Beijing. Unemployed and at loose ends, Xiao-Di drifts through the city, hanging out with his old schoolmates, who have become newly politicized by the excitement of perestroika. Xiao-Di’s older brother Lu, meanwhile, is an officer in the People’s Liberation Army. A staunch Communist, Lu is disturbed by the unrest that is spreading across the country and is eager to defend the traditions of the Party. Inevitably, the brothers meet—in Tiananmen Square.

Formulaic, but a compelling read all the same, in a brisk style with plenty of local color.