Excerpt from Lake with No Name by Diane Wei Liang, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

By the second month, all the women who had not yet contracted hepatitis were needed to nurse the sick. My mother volunteered, partly to be close to her family as, by then, my father had also come down with the disease. The sick camp lasted for almost three months. Eventually the medicine arrived and most of us recovered. When I was discharged from the sick camp, I actually felt sad. All play and no school ended. Life went back to normal, except that now kindergarten felt boring.

At the end of 1971, the news of Lin Biao's death reached the labor camp. Lin Biao was the defense minister and the vice president of China. He was also Mao's right-hand man and chosen successor. My earliest childhood memories included a vision of Vice President Lin waving the little red book. I was told that no one loved Chairman Mao more than Vice President Lin.

The official version was that Lin Biao had been plotting to assassinate Mao. When this attempt failed, he tried to flee to the USSR and died when his plane, also carrying his son, crashed in Mongolia. The death of Lin Biao came as a surprise to many, including my parents. I remember neighbors and friends coming to our home after receiving the news.

"Who would have thought that Lin Biao would plot to overthrow Chairman Mao?" said our loud and large neighbor. "I actually believed that he was Mao's most loyal follower."

"See, this is why his deception was very good and why Chairman Mao was wise to be alert. Chairman Mao always said that 'we need to be aware of those who have honey in their mouths and a knife in their hands,' " said another. "Lin Biao was the most dangerous kind. He managed to deceive the entire country with his 'never let the [Mao's] little red book leave hands,' nor 'long live Chairman Mao' leave lips.' "

As we learned after Mao's death many years later, the Lin Biao crisis created a vacuum in Mao's power system. In those years he had come to rely a great deal on Lin and his friends. With Lin's death, and almost all the marshals denounced for speaking out against the Cultural Revolution, Mao was faced with the prospect of losing control of the most powerful force in Chinese politics: the military. Mao had to compromise by bringing back those disgraced officials who still had a lot of influence in the army. Deng Xiaoping would "come out of the mountains" not long after.

When the spring came to Nanchuan, our lives changed again. The secret military facility was finally complete -- only to find that there was no use for it. By then, the effect of the Cultural Revolution had taken a huge toll on the country's economy. Living standards for the Chinese people had dropped even further. Mao also realized that unless people saw improvements in their lives, resentment and even rebellion might flare up. In a complete reversal of his previous policy, Mao ordered intellectuals to go back to cities and perform their normal duties. The labor camp was closed down.

Mother had hoped that by having spent almost three years at the labor camp, she would have earned the right to move to Shanghai with my father. However, despite previous promises she did not get permission.

"Labor movement is completely controlled by the central government, unfortunately," they told her coldly. Mother was very upset and angry. Now she had to go back to her old work unit in Beijing. So it was decided that my sister and I would go to Beijing with my mother, and attend school there. My father would report back to his work unit in Shanghai and try somehow to move to Beijing later.

Spring went by quickly as all the families prepared for long journeys home. A few people who decided to give up their city Hukou to stay in Nanchuan were invited to good-bye dinners by those who were leaving. One of them was a handsome young army soldier, Xiao Li, who had married a Miao woman; he'd been a good friend to my father in the past two years. In our home, we had mostly basic furniture that was distributed to us by the work unit. This furniture was not of good quality and considered not worth taking with us to Beijing. My parents gave our furniture to this young man to set up his home. He was very grateful.

Copyright © 2003 by Wei Liang