Heaven Lake is a very heavy story. It leaves a great weight in your chest after reading it. A story about a widowed Chinese man and his life doesn't sound very grim, but in fact the story is very tense throughout.
Liu is a comparative philosophy professor lives in Hong Kong with his two daughters, Mei-ling and Mei-po. Mei-ling is sixteen, and has plans to travel to Paris in the spring.
After they eat a quick breakfast, Mei-ling and Mei-po head to school and there father is left alone in the house. He uses the time alone to listen to music and to reflect on when he was younger.
In 1982, Liu got a government scholarship to study abroad at Columbia University in New York City. New York was very different then. He laments that "muggings were so common that no one went outside unless they had to, even during the day." He was poor, even though his tuition and room were paid for, and he had to wear the same ragged suit to class every day. However, his luck changed when he was hired as a delivery boy for a Chinese restaurant. Being a fast bicycle rider helped him get orders through a lot of the more dangerous parts of New York.
One night, Liu had to deliver an unusually large order to an address on Tenth Avenue, an area that was basically falling apart; most of the street lamps were either broken or shot out and most of the buildings were either warehouses or garages. Liu finds the address to deliver the food to, but when he knocks on the door, he is pulled inside and thrown to the wall by a man who is holding a gun who then demands that Liu hand over all of his money. However, Liu is poor, and only has ten dollars in change for deliveries. This enrages the man, who then begs Liu to help him. The man needs to get seventy dollars to pay off his debt or his debtors will kill him. Liu calms the man down, and says that the restaurant owner would help him escape and flee the city. Liu pretends to call the owner, but instead he calls his own office, saying that he is about to do something terrible.
They leave the store and walk down the street to where Liu says that the owner will meet them. As they walk down the street, Liu begins to tell the man a story about Heaven Lake, a place where the Immortals live. But before he can finish his story, a car pulls up alongside them and a dark-dressed man gets out. He bangs the old man's head into the car, and before being tossed into the backseat, the old man screams to Liu to call the police. But instead of helping him, Liu backs away and just crosses his arms.
Liu's actions that night continue to torment him, even in the present day. Even when teaching class, his guilt punishes him. I think it is that guilt that drives Liu to become a comparative philosophy professor. It is almost a way for him to stand trial over whether what he did was right or wrong, in the hopes of eventually he will come to the conclusion that he did the right thing. Even though he has a great life in Hong Kong, Liu is a man that is very tortured by his past.
Liu is a comparative philosophy professor lives in Hong Kong with his two daughters, Mei-ling and Mei-po. Mei-ling is sixteen, and has plans to travel to Paris in the spring.
After they eat a quick breakfast, Mei-ling and Mei-po head to school and there father is left alone in the house. He uses the time alone to listen to music and to reflect on when he was younger.
In 1982, Liu got a government scholarship to study abroad at Columbia University in New York City. New York was very different then. He laments that "muggings were so common that no one went outside unless they had to, even during the day." He was poor, even though his tuition and room were paid for, and he had to wear the same ragged suit to class every day. However, his luck changed when he was hired as a delivery boy for a Chinese restaurant. Being a fast bicycle rider helped him get orders through a lot of the more dangerous parts of New York.
One night, Liu had to deliver an unusually large order to an address on Tenth Avenue, an area that was basically falling apart; most of the street lamps were either broken or shot out and most of the buildings were either warehouses or garages. Liu finds the address to deliver the food to, but when he knocks on the door, he is pulled inside and thrown to the wall by a man who is holding a gun who then demands that Liu hand over all of his money. However, Liu is poor, and only has ten dollars in change for deliveries. This enrages the man, who then begs Liu to help him. The man needs to get seventy dollars to pay off his debt or his debtors will kill him. Liu calms the man down, and says that the restaurant owner would help him escape and flee the city. Liu pretends to call the owner, but instead he calls his own office, saying that he is about to do something terrible.
They leave the store and walk down the street to where Liu says that the owner will meet them. As they walk down the street, Liu begins to tell the man a story about Heaven Lake, a place where the Immortals live. But before he can finish his story, a car pulls up alongside them and a dark-dressed man gets out. He bangs the old man's head into the car, and before being tossed into the backseat, the old man screams to Liu to call the police. But instead of helping him, Liu backs away and just crosses his arms.
Liu's actions that night continue to torment him, even in the present day. Even when teaching class, his guilt punishes him. I think it is that guilt that drives Liu to become a comparative philosophy professor. It is almost a way for him to stand trial over whether what he did was right or wrong, in the hopes of eventually he will come to the conclusion that he did the right thing. Even though he has a great life in Hong Kong, Liu is a man that is very tortured by his past.