Liu Hong

“You should not honour men more than truth.” Plato

Overall I found this a somewhat frustrating book in that the early part I found beautifully written and quite compelling but as the central character Taotao ('Peaches') grows up it somehow loses that intensity.

At an early age Taotao, is sent, by her outwardly successful parents, to live with her paternal grandparents seemingly for no particular reason. Whilst living with her grandparents she becomes aware that her maternal grandfather, a man whom she loves dearly and teaches her poetry, was once considered an enemy of the state. Taotao is determined that this demise will not befall her yet as she grows older she realizes that sticking to the rules is not so easy as she once thought. Secrets, within families and between the people and the state become a dark shadow that is impossible to shake.

The initial portion of this book, dealing with Taotao's early childhood and in particularly her relationship with her maternal grandfather 'Smart Scholar' who recites T'ang poetry are beautifully written and seem to suggest an idyllic if unconventional childhood. However, her later denunciation of him is highly devastating.

The book provides a somewhat chilling depiction of what I would imagine life and in particular childhood in Communist China to be like. A life where everyone,young and old, are on the lookout for some ideological flaw in those around them and have a willingness to report their suspicions so that these perpetrators can be "re-educated".A country that is largely run on whispers and favours rather than truth and merit.

Taotao's early experiences are brought wonderfully to life. Likewise the university scenes are also good, giving a strong impression of how intelligent students can feel confined and limited by ideology and long for more freedom. However, IMHO the latter sections rather loses their way. The events in Tianamen Square lacks the impact that it deserved and the ending is unsatisfactory. Taotao appears to lose focus and only interested in herself.

Personally I didn't really like Taotao. I found her selfish, friends were simply dropped once they were out of sight and there seems a genuine ingratitude towards her parents even after she finds out the reasons why they did what they did. Whilst I can appreciate that the author is trying to make the point that brainwashed people lose some of their humanity I still found her overall attitude somewhat disquieting. Plus I couldn't quite work out why the author had decided that some Chinese characters should retain their Chinese names whilst other were given Anglicised versions. On top of which I was not totally convinced that her love interests were quite the catches that she imagined them to be. In the end I felt that it was worth a read, with some excellent portions but ultimately didn't quite live up to its early promise.

Then again maybe it was me and my own prejudices and expectations that were at fault. You decide.… (meer)

I liked this book a lot.
The thing the author tried to do "build up a portrait of these years" (from the author's note on page 403) is well succeeded in my eyes.
Throught the description of the lives of 4 main characters she gave me a taste of the famine, of the criticism, but also of prosperity.
How fate strikes, how and why decisions are made, that one's own life & family come before all other things.

It was too many pages (and I had too many other things to do) to read it in one sitting, but otherwise I would have.… (meer)

I had a yoga teacher tell a class I was in recently that a yogi should practice an inversion (headstand, shoulder stand, etc.) every day because it changes your perspective on things.

In a similar way, reading and thinking about the contents of Master Hong Liu with Paul Perry�Ûª‰Ûªs book on The Healing Art of Qi Gong: Ancient Wisdom from a Modern Master has been an enlightening change of perspective on health and wellness for me.

There is a lot to say about this book. It appeals to a reader in different ways. The first of these is through a compelling partial autobiography of how Master Hong Liu, a western-trained army medical doctor with a focus on cancer was driven to also become a Grand Master in Qi Gong. I read this first part of the book very quickly in one sitting as it was a fascinating story of mainly his awaking towards Qi Gong and his humbling apprenticeship with Grand Master Kwan, who lived high in a cave outside of Canton. For eight years of his life, almost all of Master Hong‰Ûªs free time was used to study under Master Kwan, who seemingly treated Master Hong Liu harshly at first, until he was conditioned to become a master himself. Master Hong Liu was also tested by outside pressures against his efforts to study Qi Gong as he was just turning to it after the Cultural Revolution ended. During the Cultural Revolution people could be jailed for practicing Qi Gong, and many of those prejudices against the ancient art still exist in China today.

The second part of the book is about studies in healing and uses several patient cases Master Hong Liu has had within his career to explore the Qi Gong healing approach for common health problems such as arthritis, cancer, stress, weight gain, hypertension, stroke and even AIDS. The format for these cases usually follows an interesting story about a patient, humanizing them for the reader, and then discusses the treatment they received, usually diagraming one or two exercises and offering a recipe for herbal or medicinal remedies they are given. I read this part of the book much more slowly than the first part because it is so full of practical advice and remedies with which one can experiment.

Additionally, the book diagrams all of the Basic Eight exercises for Qi Gong healing that Master Hong Liu has developed and used to help many people. These exercises open up healing meridians of Qi, or vital energy, in the patient and exercises along with diet modification seem always to be a part of his treatment. These parts of the book make it a true reference text for healing Qi Gong.

I also liked the book a lot for its addition of stories behind herbs ‰ÛÒ like how the honeysuckle got its name and its bits of Eastern philosophy‰ÛÒ like ‰ÛÏThe principle of Yin and Yang is the basic principle of the entire universe. It is the root and source of life and death,‰Û from The Yellow Emperor‰Ûªs Classic of Internal Medicine.

My big take away from this book, though, is the idea that I can learn a lot from Qi Gong, and as Master Hong Liu would be the first to say, it can only compliment and strengthen western medicine, if needed. What I like about the whole approach to Eastern medicine is it seems to focus more on the root or cause of the problem rather than the symptoms that are so often treated by Western ‰ÛÒ let‰Ûªs face it ‰ÛÒpharmaceuticals. I also like the Chinese approach to medicine in that the patient must be an active participant in their healing, rather than a passive recipient who simply receives treatment.

This is an excellent book that made me reconsider my health in a very proactive way. It is also one of the more interesting personal life stories I have read. I wholeheartedly recommend it to others seeking a new, or perhaps even age-old way of addressing their health concerns.
… (meer)

Reserved for one of the participants of the 2012 Birthday RABCK group. It is on her wishlist...

This book left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand I liked it a lot, especially the part when Taotao is with her grandparents. For me that part of the book gave a good description of life in China (as far as I can judge that, of course!).
The secretiveness: not being told what is going on and why. Not only parent to child, but also governement to its citizens.
The way that the gatherings for criticizing are more or less matter of factly written down: Taotao has no idea what they mean or why people are criticized (when she's little). As a result of that, she has written critics about a teacher, unaware of the consequences it has. Okay, she hesitates to write, but since she doesn't know the result of her actions, she finally does. And, like other children, is sad that the teacher eventually is sent away to a camp.
The split 'personalities' where the people (especially the older generation) still lives with its gods, their superstitions, where on the other end the governement says that is all rubbish and God in whatever form, does not exist.
I liked the story about the young girl that is growing toward puberty, till she's about 12 or 13.

What I also did like was the description, in the sidelines, of the ending of the (student) protests at Tien an Min Square. It was told in a way, that made it clear that for many Chinese (even in Beijing) the end of these protests must have been not more than what thestate television showed: the red army restoring order. And what others saw, participants, journalists, the world, was completely strange to them. They just didn't know.
That gave me a different pointof view on things.

When she gets back to her parent's house, the story gets less interesting for me. I'm not quite sure why. Maybe it is because she's a totally different student than the ones I have met here? Maybe it is because she's so totally unaware of falling in love, being in love, and, later when she's working in Mongolia and Beijing, how to act accordingly.
I got annoyed by her: the other students / roommates / coworkers described behaved differently. Felt the urge of shouting "grow up"! And when she finally did, I did not understand her actions: going back to Robert, staying in his room untill he gets back and wave at the camera? So the end was unsatisfactory to me.
Did she give in to love, stay with Robert and leave with him? Did she not care anymore about her reputation (it was ruined anyway) and stayed with him untill he had to leave? What about the rest of her life? In Beijing, abroad, husband, lover, children, no children?… (meer)