Waiting for Li Ming by Alan Cumyn

 While Teachers' College officials argue over him, Rudy Seaborn waits nervously in an antiquated limousine. As he stares through the windows at the strange sights surrounding him, a curious crowd stares back at the foreigner who has come to Laozhou to teach English.

 Home in Canada a year later, Rudy is still caged by cross- cultural differences as he waits for Li Ming, his banished translator and lover, to arrive. The unrest that explodes in Tiananmen Square grips Rudy in Canada as he waits for Li Ming's visa, waits for a friend's baby to be born, waits and still waits for Li Ming.

"What makes this book such good reading? For one thing, Cumyn has a lot of interesting things to say about contemporary China... He also has a very keen eye and ear for the meetings--and misses--of the two cultures. When he writes about China, Cumyn has the advantage of a somewhat unusual subject. When he writes about love, and thus lacks the benefit of novelty, he still manages to do a fine job: Rudy's transports of joy, his apologies of misunderstanding, and finally his obsession with his lovely translator, Li Ming, are all very convincing. Cumyn handles dialogue with a sure hand, and the disagreements between Rudy and Li Ming--and, back in Canada, between Rudy and his friend Lou--not only ring true, they say more about the war between the sexes than pages of reflection or theory." Books in Canada

"The author manages the swings between Rudy's past in China and his present in Canada with skill and ease. His characters are living people whether they are likeable or not. The poverty, the beauty, the fear, and the cultural traditions of a small city in China are graphically portrayed. Cumyn has written a delightful book, which is also funny, insightful, and sad." Canadian Book Review Annual

"Beyond the obvious travelling, Waiting for Li Ming is also about other journeys; of going, being away, arriving and, above all, of understanding the changes travel has brought. Journeys necessarily involve change, and all change is a journey of sorts... What makes Cumyn's account of these journeys such a pleasure to read is that he doesn't try to hurry them. The intertwined stories stretch and turn like hands and arms, chest and legs, first one way and then the other, separate yet coordinated, like the disciplined movements of Tai Chi." The Fiddlehead