The General of Tiananmen Square: The Triad Years


 
 
 
 To my first readers — John, Catherine, Robin, Carol, Lam and CC — a huge thanks for the contributions you have made over the course of many books.
 
 
 ( 1 )Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat
 May
 
 It was Ava Lee’s first visit to the French Riviera, and as she sat on the terrace of her hotel suite looking out onto the Mediterranean Sea, she knew it wasn’t going to be her last. What she couldn’t understand was why she hadn’t discovered it until now.
 It was an early morning in the third week of May. The weather was perfect, with clear skies and temperatures that were warm but not humid, and every morning when Ava sat on the terrace to have coffee she was greeted by a gentle breeze infused with an aroma that was a combination of flowers and the sea.
 The hotel — the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Farrat — was as magnificent as the weather. It had been chosen by Ava’s business partner May Ling Wong. Ava had initially had doubts about staying there because it was more than forty kilo­metres from Cannes, and Cannes — specifically the Cannes Film Festival — was the reason they were in the south of France. But May had been told about the hotel by a friend whose taste she trusted and who thought its tranquil atmos­phere would be more to their liking than the craziness that was Cannes during festival time.
 Eighteen months previously, Ava could never have imagin­ed being at the film festival for any reason, let alone having a film in it. But a series of events involving Ava’s lover, the actor Pang Fai, had led Ava to a chance meeting with Fai’s former husband, Lau Lau. There was a time Lau Lau had been regarded as China’s leading film director, but when Ava met him, he was a drug-addicted, unemployable wreck of a human being. But as she spoke to him at that first meeting, memories of the great films he’d made flooded over her and she found herself wondering what if? 
 What if — at her expense — she could convince him to go into rehabilitation? What if she offered to pay him to write a script? What if he created one that was good enough to be filmed? What if she provided the money to make that happen? What if Lau Lau could be trusted to direct it? What if he could stay clean throughout the filming — and beyond, into editing and promotion? The result of all those “ifs” was a film named Tiananmen, and an invitation to submit the film for consideration at Cannes.
 “What are you thinking about? You look like you’re completely lost in thought,” a voice asked from the terrace doorway.
 She turned towards Fai. They had been lovers and constant companions for more than two years. It was the most intense and happiest relationship of Ava’s life. Tall, willowy, and elegant, Fai was stunningly beautiful, but when it came to the roles she chose, she never cared about how she looked. Lau Lau had discovered her at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, and she had starred in all of his most successful films. Those films were hard-hitting and emotionally challenging, as they dealt with ordinary people trying to cope with the brutal realities of events like the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. There was nothing glamorous about many of the characters she had played, but she had always been willing to mute her personality and appearance to fit the role. 
 “I was remembering meeting Lau Lau for the first time at that artists’ commune in Beijing,” said Ava, smiling as Fai stepped behind her and wrapped her arms around Ava’s shoulders.
 “What a mess he was. The world had decided he wasn’t fit to be part of it, and he had accepted the world was right until you came along,” said Fai. “Chen and I were speaking about that last night. We still don’t know what you saw in Lau Lau that made you think he was salvageable.”
 Chen Jie had been Fai and Lau Lau’s agent, but had been recruited by Ava to produce Tiananmen. He was sharing another suite at the hotel with Silvana Foo, who along with Fai was starring in the film. “I wasn’t sure he was. I just thought he was worth the effort,” Ava said. “Even if he was half the director he had been, I thought he’d still turn out better work than the schlock that dominates Chinese cinema these days.”
 “It turns out he’s a lot more than half of what he was. In fact, Chen, Silvana, and I think this could be the best film he’s ever made,” Fai said, moving alongside. She looked at her watch. “But in half an hour we’ll have the first indication of what the international film community thinks of it. I don’t imagine either Lau Lau or Chen slept much last night, thinking about this morning.”
 “Amanda also didn’t sleep well. She called me fifteen minutes ago from Hong Kong to ask me if we’d heard anything yet,” said Ava, referring to Amanda Yee, the third partner in Three Sisters. She was also Ava’s sister-in-law through her marriage to Michael, Ava’s half-brother. “She thought it was crazy that they would schedule Tiananmen’s first viewing at seven thirty in the morning. I repeated what you told me about the tradition of morning screenings for critics and other industry people, but Amanda still can’t help thinking they’re slighting us somehow.”
 “I thought it was strange the first time I came here, but it’s the way things have always been done — the morning screening for critics, and the evening premiere for the public. The premiere is the main event, and the critics are expected to hold back their reviews and opinions until it’s over, but word always leaks out. And in this case, we have Harris Jones on the