Biking Out

Résumé du livre

Born in 1970 in China, the author, Wei Liu, semi-autobiographically chronicles the bicycle adventure stories of a Chinese man in search of his freedom. For it was in 1999 that the author left China for America in order to study English, to seek both his intellectual and personal freedom. He spent two years at Bemidji State University in northern Minnesota, received his M.A. in English, and published numerous articles on various subjects. During the summer of 2001, before heading to Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana to study for his Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Wei bikes around northern Minnesota. He sees new scenery, finds a home, gets caught in a storm, ponders the ever-escalating contrasts between China and America, and builds up his physical strength and emotional character. He bikes "into a new self," and he finds what he is searching for--his personal Freedom. Written entirely in English tinged with a Chinese dialect, Wei experiences an enlightenment of the self, and, throughout the course of his biking adventures, he repeatedly touches upon the basic pulse of humanity, the desire to live and be free in the great wide-open expanses, to be free to strengthen oneself mind, body, and soul.