Liang Sicheng, Huiyin, and I

Author: Lin Zhu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-06-01
Features: June 10, 2004, marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Lin Huiyin. Liang Sicheng, Lin Huiyin, and Me, a book written by Lin Zhu, the wife of the renowned architect Liang Sicheng, offers a unique perspective and approach from a female author. It reflects on the personal and family experiences of Liang Sicheng over the past 40 years, as witnessed by the author. It faithfully records the process of Liang Sicheng and Lin Zhu meeting, knowing each other, falling in love, and enduring the hardships they faced together. Through the transformation of roles—from student, colleague, assistant to partner—the author also undergoes a leap from wife to a steadfast defender of Liang Sicheng's architectural philosophy.
Because of the author's long-term close interaction with both Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin, the portrayals of the two in the book are authentic and vivid, giving readers an opportunity to understand Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin beyond the screen and novels, making the book highly readable. The writing is smooth and emotionally rich. The author begins by discussing her interactions with Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng, interweaving her understanding of their research on Chinese ancient architecture. While narrating her own experiences, she also records snippets of history from special periods such as the Anti-Rightist Campaign and the Cultural Revolution. By stepping beyond the confines of her family, she witnesses the grand historical changes through her personal experiences. Thus, the book is not a collection of celebrity anecdotes or a work of morbid curiosity about famous people. Instead, like The Past Was Not Like the Smoky Air, it is a serious work that uses the experiences of one family to witness history.
The book spans from the 1940s to the 1970s, the decade of Liang Sicheng's passing, and is illustrated with over 200 images, many of which are newly published and hold high documentary value, including photographs of Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin, as well as structural diagrams of ancient buildings.