Cinema Love - Jiaming Tang Audiobook

Written by Jiaming Tang
Read by Samantha Tan
Format: M4B
Bitrate: 128 Kbps
Unabridged

“Gentle and fierce, heartbreaking without sacrificing its sense of humor, Jiaming Tang’s Cinema Love perfectly mines the difficult-to-reach space between agony and pleasure. I have never read anything like it, but my most secret parts have always longed to know the hidden truths it reveals. Guided through these shadowy and sorrowful places by Tang’s plush and vivid prose, I found myself breathless until the very end—and even then barely able to exhale. This is the unforgettable work of a patient master.” —Robert Jones, Jr., author of The New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist The Prophets

A staggering, tender epic about gay men in rural China and the women who marry them.

For over thirty years, Old Second and Bao Mei have cobbled together a meager existence in New York City’s Chinatown. But unlike other couples, these two share an unusual past. In rural Fuzhou, before they emigrated, they frequented the Workers’ Cinema: a theater where gay men cruised for love.

While classic war films played, Old Second and his countrymen found intimacy in the screening rooms. In the box office, Bao Mei sold movie tickets to closeted men, guarding their secrets and finding her own happiness with the projectionist. But when Old Second’s passion for his male lover is revealed, a series of haunting events unfold, propelling these characters toward an uncertain future in America.

Spanning three timelines—post-socialist China, 1980s Chinatown, and contemporary New York—Cinema Love is an “exceptional” and “moving” (Alice Hoffman) epic about men and women who find themselves in forbidden relationships; the weight of secrets; and the way memory forever haunts the present.

Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
Release date: 05-07-24