Waiting for Li Ming

Alan Cumyn

Goose Lane Editions, 1993 - Fiction - 273 pages

While Laozhou Teacher's College officials argue over him in Chinese, Rudy Seaborn waits nervously in an antiquated limousine. Curious crowds stare through windows at the foreign English teacher. Home in Canada a year later, Rudy is still caged by cross-cultural misunderstanding. He arranges for Li Ming, his banished translator and lover, to come to his university without knowing whether she will be allowed to leave China. In the meantime, in growing to love a new friend, he begins to understand the terrible havoc his ignorance has caused. In this novel by Alan Cumyn, Rudy's almost wilful naivete and Li Ming's rebelliousness make the love story as rivetting as Rudy's Chinese adventures. The unrest that explodes in Tiananmen Square grips Rudy in Canada as he waits for a visa, waits for his friend's baby to be born, waits and still waits for Li Ming.

About the author

Alan Cumyn was born in Ottawa, and studied at Royal Roads Military College and Queen's University before earning an M.A. in Creative Writing and English Literature at the University of Windsor. He is a former English teacher and freelance writer. He has won the Ottawa-Carleton Book Award in 1999 and was a Torgi Award Finalist, as well as a Trillium Award Finalist in 1999.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Waiting for Li Ming
• Author: Alan Cumyn
• Publisher: Goose Lane Editions, 1993
• ISBN: 0864921462, 9780864921468
• Length: 273 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Literary