A Daughter's Memoir of Burma

by Wendy Law-Yone

Wendy Law-Yone was just fifteen when Burma's military staged a coup and overthrew the civilian government in 1962. The daughter of Ed Law-Yone, the daredevil founder and chief editor of The Nation, Burma's leading postwar English-language newspaper, she experienced firsthand the perils and promises of a newly independent Burma.On the eve of Wendy's studies abroad, Ed Law-Yone was arrested and The Nation shut down. Wendy herself was briefly imprisoned. After his release, Ed fled to Thailand with his family, where he formed a government-in-exile and tried, unsuccessfully, to foment a revolution. Exiled to America with his wife and children, Ed never gave up hope that Burma would one day adopt a new democratic government. Though he died disappointed, he left in his daughter's care an illuminating trove of papers documenting the experiences of an eccentric, ambitious, humorous, and determined patriot, vividly recounting the realities of colonial rule, Japanese occupation, postwar reconstruction, and military dictatorship. This memoir tells the twin histories of Law-Yone's kin and his country, a nation whose vicissitudes continue to intrigue the world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir, History, Asia

202 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 6, 2013

About the author

Wendy Law-Yone (born 1947) is a critically acclaimed Burmese American author of novels and short stories.

The daughter of notable Burmese newspaper publisher, editor and politician Edward Michael Law-Yone, Law-Yone was born in Mandalay but grew up in Rangoon. Law-Yone has indicated that her father's imprisonment under the military regime limited her options in the country. She was barred from university, but not allowed to leave the country. In 1967, an attempt to escape to Thailand failed and she was imprisoned, but managed to leave Burma as a stateless person. She relocated to the United States in 1973, settling in Washington D.C. after attending college in Florida. In 1987, she was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Award for Creative Writing.[8] In 2002, she received a David T.K. Wong Creative Writing Fellowship from the University of East Anglia.

Her novels, The Coffin Tree (1983) and Irrawaddy Tango (1993), were critically well received, with the latter nominated in 1995 for the Irish Times Literary Prize. Her third novel, "The Road to Wanting," (2010) is set in Burma, China and Thailand and was long-listed for the Orange Prize 2011.

Reviews

[Ethan Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting and telling memoir of family and political history in Burma, by a notable novelist of Burmese origin. A significant contribution to our understanding of Burma's recent history, and a very telling and unflinching examination of how public events impinge on family life and personal decisions and commitments. Very, very good.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ed Law-Yone was the proprietor of The National In Burma 1962 while there was a military coup. His daughter Wendy Law-Yone was left with the manuscript of his father’s auto-biography and asked to tell his story. Golden Parasol is the memoir of the daughter of a Burmese journalist, political prisoner and revolutionary and follows her memories of her father, imprisonment and escape from the country.

I’m not much of a non-fiction reader, as much as I try, and while this isn’t a topic that interests me, I’m still glad to have read it. Wendy Law-Yone is a novelist and her memoir of her father’s life reads like a novel which really helped me to get through this book I don’t know much about Burma (now known as Myanmar) but now I know a little about the coup in 1962 (also suspect a CIA conspiracy).

Ed Law-Yone seemed to be a complex and colourful character, and if his daughter makes you question his character a little bit, chances are there was something off about him. What he did in the effort to bring democracy to Burma was extraordinary but that doesn’t mean he was a good man. I got the sense that Wendy was a little angry towards him. I’m not saying that he was a bad man but reading between the lines maybe there was a little bit of bitterness between the two; maybe a little neglect or annoyance towards all the time she spent at the newspaper.

When I read a memoir or biography (what’s the difference?) I tend to take what is written with a little grain of salt. I try to work out what might have been left out; I just wonder what secrets lay behind the writing. I really like how chapter 2 started, with some text from Ed’s manuscript and Wendy’s comments in-between (almost a little playful or sarcastic) and was a little disappointed that this tactic was abandoned but I think that would have made for a more difficult read.

Golden Parasol may not be the type of book I normally pick up and I didn’t think I would enjoy this one. I was interested in the narrative and how easy the author made this to read. I’m glad to have read this one, it wasn’t fantastic but it was an interesting insight. My struggle with non-fiction continues, I think I would be better off reading topics I’m interested in instead of something like Golden Parasol.

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2013/...

[Craig Kissho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading a little like `wild swans' this is a book that is warm, unpretentious n easily read. I particularly like 'mom' and miss her once the book is over.

[Mona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Golden Parasol is a memoir of a newspaperman's daughter who deftly weaves her present life with her early upbringing and then manages to capture her father's exciting story in a unique way as she edits his manuscript begun during five years in the infamous Insein Prison. His is a fresh perspective of Burma's turbulent history as seen by an insider who wanted it to turn out differently. Part family detective, the author didn't give up in her search for unearthing her roots. Lucky for us that both father and daughter are excellent observers and writers.

[Baljit · Rating 3 out of 5]

A memoir of the first independent newspaper editor in post war Burma, written by his daughter to show a gregarious man committed to the ideals of freedom and democracy. Wendy also writes candidly about his quirks and family life, and his days in exile.

" You cannot know the pain of exile. To be forbidden the sight and warmth of native places that are so much a part of one's self and nature. Literally, I grieve daily for my Burma."

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author pulled together a book from the notes left her by her deceased father. It was an eventful period in Burma's history during which her father lived. I imagine it is hard to take some else's notes and weave a tale. I think the story would have been more engaging if it was written by Law-Yone himself as an autobiography.

[Yamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a telling memoir of an interesting family tangled with major political events Myanmar went through. Although a non-fictional read, it was novelized fantastically. Not only had I enjoyed the colorful characters, can't help but admired Wendy's way with words, witticism and poignant writing. It is a glance into Myanmar's political past and fantastic easy read.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

nice to see wendy back at it with this very exhaustively researched hybrid memoir biography historical narrative

[Dana Schmidt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating and personal perspective on Burma's history. The book started out stronger than it finished but was interesting and engaging throughout.

[Howard Cincotta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wendy Law-Yone skillfully mixes elements of biography, memoir, political history, and even genealogical investigation into her remarkable account of growing up in post-colonial Burma, followed by exile and life in America. Golden Parasol is often wry, understated, and funny; it is also a lyric remembrance of a lost childhood and a country that lost its freedom when the promise of independence collapsed into decades of xenophobic military dictatorship.

The figure who dominates much of the book is her father, Edward Law-Yone, a larger-than-life character who knew virtually everyone — Burmese, Asian, and Westerner — as editor of the newspaper The Nation. Still, he ignored all the normal political red lines in his stalwart, passionate, and uncompromising advocacy of democracy and denunciation of corruption. Needless to say, neither stance endeared him to the ruling elites, political and military, notably the insecure and ultimately paranoid Ne Win, who finally imprisoned and then exiled Edward and his family.

Even Wendy, a newlywed trying to escape the country, was arrested and subjected to interrogation. As she later learns, Ne Win’s motives for targeting Ed Law-Yone may have been personal as well as political: Law-Yone was a confident and close friend to Ne Win’s unhappy and unfaithful wife.

After his release, Edward Law-Yone struggled to organize a bewildering array of political dissidents and ethnic minorities into a rebel alliance that ultimately failed to develop a political-military strategy that could unseat the Ne Win dictatorship.

Wendy Law-Yone carefully, and necessarily, untangles the web of Burmese political connections and rivalries in deliberately neutral prose, then shifts to more evocation language as, for example, she remembers the magic of being taken to her father’s newspaper office at night:

… hurricane lamps flaring weakly under a darkening sky. The night-market vendors would be setting up their cart and stall under swinging kerosene lanterns. Drink hawkers would be cranking out sugar-cane juice through hand-turned presses and shaving off blocks of ice for the tall frappes of red and green syrups with thick condensed milk…. But once I crossed the threshold of the front entrance, the smells of ink and lead and newsprint were rich and soothing.

Law-Yone traces her family’s life in America, as well as her own role as a daughter, sister, mother — and writer. But the highlight of the last quarter of the book is the exploration of her family origins, namely of her two grandfathers. One was Chinese, who emigrated to Burma; the other English, who served in the British Army and Burma police.

On an exhausting journalism assignment along the track of the storied Burma Road In Yunan Province, Law-Yone describes a moving reunion with members of her long-departed grandfather Tong Chi-fan’s family. And exhaustive newspaper and library research reveals the colorful but checkered career of Eric Percy-Smith, who eventually left Burma to found an animal preserve in Kenya.

Golden Parasol tells the story of two remarkable lives, father and daughter, coupled with the portrayal of a country still struggling for a future worthy of its people and heritage.

[Alia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good memoir. I think being told the story from the daughter's perspective instead of her father's was great because we saw the father's character through the light that others in his time saw him too. His life story is really interesting and this book invigorates me with a sense of nostalgia for a time I never knew of, a time where politics and nationalism and freedom were noble ideals worth dying for. The spirit of post-colonial politics, even in the face of disaster, is something weirdly romanticized (not that that was the intention of the author, that's just how I think of it). Burma is also a country I never read about before so this was a good first read for venturing into Burmese historiography. The reason I wouldn't give it 5 stars is because at some points the language seemed a bit too pretentious for me - flowery words sometimes obscured what could have been a simpler message. Also, while the book flowed well up until the middle of part 2, the end seemed a bit rushed and disoriented with the introduction of lots of new characters and random stories that I couldn't really keep up with. Other than that, definitely a good read.

[Ei Thant · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in Burmese translation according to my dad's recommendation. As I was growing up, I rarely read in Burmese although it is my mother tongue. Reading "Golden Parasol" gives me a sense of familiarity and relativity to Wendy Law-Yone, as a semi-outsider looking in. Perhaps it is the fact that she has been living outside of Myanmar for so long or the fact that she is so familiar with the press culture or the fact that she has an amazing dad with his life worth writing a biography about, I am drawn to her and her work as if she was an old friend.

[Sandeep · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wendy Law Yone's book is both a personal and historical look at Myanmar and it's chaotic politics. The book starts in 1948 ,the year Myanmar got it's independence from it's colonial masters and tells the story of her family and the newspaper her father owned to their eventual departure from their country.
This is a lovely book for someone who has a bit of understanding about the politics of the region.
The writing is not top notch and even feels like a drag at times but the content is heartfelt and honest which it what makes it a decent read.

[Chiro Pipashito T H · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly well-written book. The author has certainly researched a lot and also gave a lot of thought for each word and sentence unless it comes very naturally to her. I liked the family memories more than her father’s political stories and Burmese history. I did not quite like her dad’s personality but that also proves the author’s remarkable honesty.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

My starting point primer on the history of Burma from the 1920s to the relatively modern day, through the daughter of newspaper editor of The Nation in Rangoon.

[Lynsi Latham-Saunders]

interesting family story and history of Burma through their lenses.

[Eain Moe Oo · Rating 4 out of 5]

To all who have the bittersweet memories with homeland. 🩷