Red China Blues: My Long March from Mao to Now - Hardcover

Wong, Jan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385476795 ISBN 13: 9780385476799

Publisher: Anchor Books, 1996

Synopsis

A spirited memoir of a Chinese-Canadian's six-year romance with Maoism follows her education at Beijing University, describing how she turned in a fellow student who sought to defect and her marriage to the only American draft-dodger to seek asylum in China. Tour.

About this title

Review:

"A marvellous book by one of Canada's best-ever foreign correspondents at the top of her form." - The Gazette (Montreal)
"Totally captivating. A wonderful memoir." - The Globe and Mail
"A lovely read. One can only hope this book is the first of many." - The Financial Post
"A must-read for all China watchers." - The Edmonton Journal
"A splendid memoir: funny, self-mocking, biting and perceptive." - The Washington Post

"A marvellous book by one of Canada s best-ever foreign correspondents at the top of her form." - The Gazette (Montreal)
"Totally captivating. A wonderful memoir." - The Globe and Mail
"A lovely read. One can only hope this book is the first of many." - The Financial Post
"A must-read for all China watchers." - The Edmonton Journal
"A splendid memoir: funny, self-mocking, biting and perceptive." - The Washington Post"

From the Back Cover:

Jan Wong, a Canadian of Chinese descent, went to China as a starry-eyed Maoist in 1972 at the height of the Cultural Revolution. A true believer - and one of only two Westerners permitted to enrol at Beijing University - her education included wielding a pneumatic drill at the Number One Machine Tool Factory. In the name of the Revolution, she renounced rock and roll, hauled pig manure in the paddy fields, and turned in a fellow student who sought her help in getting to the United States. She also met and marred the only American draft dodger from the Vietnam War to seek asylum in China.

Red China Blues is Wong's startling - and ironic - memoir of her rocky six-year romance with Maoism that began to sour as she became aware of the harsh realities of Chinese communism and led to her eventual repatriation to the West. Returning to China in the late eighties as a journalist, she covered both the brutal Tiananmen Square crackdown and the tumultuous era of capitalist reforms under Deng Xiaoping. In a frank, captivating and deeply personal narrative, she relates the horrors that led to her disillusionment with the 'worker's paradise'. And through the stories of the people - an unhappy young woman who was sold into marriage, China's most famous dissident, a doctor who lengthens penises - Wong creates an extraordinary portrait of the world's most populous nation.

About this edition

• Publisher: Anchor Books
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0385476795
• ISBN 13: 9780385476799
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 405