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This evocative narrative draws us into the inner life of a young Chinese peasant girl, May-ping, and her first glimmerings of youthful love and idealism under the Maoist regime in China. As she grows into a mature woman, she becomes increasingly aware of the strife around her.
An intelligent girl born into a Poor-Class family in a small village in rural China, she is, because of the Maoist policy towards such families, able to pursue her dream of going to university. To her surprise, urban snobbery and “student thought-spying” at university make it essential for her to hide her real thoughts. Such self-protection becomes especially necessary once her idealistic boyfriend Dan — a secret boyfriend because young people were forbidden to be romantically involved — is sent to a labour camp for his outspoken ways.
In her village, she learns that everything has value except the lives of girls and women. One of her childhood friends, a landowner’s daughter who because of her family’s Landlord Class, is not allowed to go to university drowns herself when forced to face an arranged marriage. Hua-Hua, a shy and gentle neighbour, hangs herself after her husband beats her brutally for not bearing him a son.
May-ping manages to survive the Cultural Revolution as a member of the Communist party who feels outside the system and keeps her inner self intact. Her story reveals how political change during the Maoist regime left its mark on ordinary people.
Employing stories within stories, the narrator carries the reader to a mythological realm to images of the resilient water lilies and the nurturing lily pond.
— Allison Kydd, The Edmonton Journal, May 16, 2004, 2004 September
The author combines memoir, narrative, story and history, skilfully blurring genres in an innovative story....The Water Lily Pond is a searing portrait of Communist China well worth reading, and May-Ping, like the water lily, is an uncorrupted spirit whose story will haunt and inspire readers.
— Dee Horne, University of Northern British Columbia, The Fiddlehead, 2005 February
A jewel of a book, captivating, full of history, stories, love, wisdom, and the intriguing lure of possibility. A powerful narrative with vividly drawn characters and events from the everyday lives of ordinary people who are, remarkably, living these lives through one of the most turbulent periods in recent Chinese history: the Cultural Revolution.
— Jacqueline Baldwin, award-winning poet, author of Threadbare Like Lace
The engaging story blends elements of family history, contemporary sociology, the education of a village girl, the vicissitudes of politics, a search for romance, and a career that led to North America. Judicious use of folklore, fables, songs mottoes, proverbs, and fairy tales adds atmosphere to the tale.
— Joseph Jones, Canadian Book Review Annual, 2006, 2007 February
The Water Lily Pond is, like traditional Chinese painting, subtle and richly textured, and it introduces a non-Western perspective. It also provides us with a view of history through one particular womans story. Han Z. Lis literary tour-de-force is a gift to us all.
— Marianne G. Ainley, adjunct professor of history, University of Northern British Columbia