5 comments about The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun.

1. After reading this book and its sequel, and KP Yohanana from Gospel for asia, you will either be convicted of your sin of silence and insincerity of lost souls or you will not be. If you are the latter, you most likely are not a true follower of Christ. Besides the Bible, this is the most inspiration with motivation book I've ever read. Wake up american christians and stop working for the american dream, its nots Gods dream. I pray for revival in our churches!



2. Wow... I am almost at a loss for words. My first impression is shame. I am ashamed of myself for my comfortable life here in America. I pray that God will move me and use me as He has moved and used Brother Yun. Something tells me Jesus' return is NOT far away.
   
   The book is a absolute page turner. Best of all it is NON-Fiction. It is so encouraging to me as a Christian in California, USA. So far removed from any real struggle, any real persecution. It is as if I am part of the Church of Laodicea, though I am rich, I am poor.



3. I had read a brief summary of the book before reading it, but I was not prepared for the impact it had on me. The punishment that Brother Yun had received in prision was beyond imagination, and yet he was able to praise the Lord for it. Many million were brought to Christ by the house churches which were established through his leadership. These groups are people who take the Gospel very seriously, and with their limited funds send out missionaries to other countries. His dedication is an example for the church at large today.



4. I recommend this book as an excellent example of the Lord's work all over the world. It will wake up a sleepy Western believer to see God's work in all the nations. The story is of Brother Yun and the various trials, persecutions, and signs and wonders that the Lord performed in his life as a leader of the house church movement in China from the early 1980s. It truly is hard to put down.



5. THIS book is SOOOO Good.. its one of the Best Books EVER. I Was in YWAM and they made me read it.. And I Did NOT want to FINISH IT.. i wanted this book to last Forever.. its That Good. His True to life Stories are Inspring and Amazing!. Will Motivate you to Seek after God all the More.

5 comments about Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China.

1. I found it interesting for the first half of the book but then it became redundant and tedious.



2. Wild Swans is an amazing, eye-opening look at China's past and reveals much about why China is the country it is today. I spend about 6 weeks in China (in manufacturing) per year, yet never began to understand what some of the people I work with with have been thru until I read this book. People my parents age being tortured, being starved, seeing arbitrary violence and murder of their children, their families, entire villages. Compared to Mao, Hitler was a nice guy. So few people seem to know or care about the needless starvation, violence & sadistic political game-playing that was inflicted on China by it's own government resulting in deaths of millions of people. I couldn't put this book down. Jung interweaves her family's history with the history of the country in a matter of fact way, documenting China as I have never seen it before. This is a must read.



3. I've had this book on my shelf since published in 1991 and decided this week to read it. I am sorry I waited so long. Beautifully written and an invaluable insight into the Chinese mind. In my opinion it goes a very long way toward explaining the historical distrust between Chinese and Western peoples. Chinese people could not/were trained not to express their thoughts (and in many instances were encouraged to not even have thoughts) and this lack of ability to communicate directly is perceived as untrustworthy by Westerners. I did have to laugh when I read that Chinese told their children to be grateful for their food as children in the capitalist West were starving! (Being of an age where when I said "yuck" I was told children in China were starving and I should be glad I wasn't.) But many did starve and many more were starved of spirit and individual thought. An outstanding and extremely readable history of a period of relatively recent political events and the results therefrom. Alas, the philosophy and practices of Mao have permeated many other parts of the world.



4. This is the gripping story of three generations of women. It is not only an autobiography; it is the story of China's past. This book, told in story form, is a first- hand account of the many changes and horrors endured by the Chinese people. The Author's beautiful grandmother, whose feet were bound at age two, became a concubine to a famous general in the warlord government. Her parents were high officials in the People's Republic. But their positions did not prevent them from torment. The Cultural Revolution and other historical movements impacted every member of Jung Chang's family in life altering ways. They suffered intolerably. The author describes the life of her mother who raised her children without emotional support from her husband or from the Communist Party, to which both parents at the time belonged. Jung Chang is the third generation daughter of China in this personal story. The reader will learn about the Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek, the Japanese invasion, the famines, land reforms, denunciations, Red Guards, Chairman Mao (who made such declarations as the burning of books and art, pulling out grass, destruction of temples, etc.) and Mme. Mao who made cruel commands of her own. There are lessons to be learned in reading about masses believing whatever their leaders tell them and following their dictates unquestioningly. It is frightening and compelling at the same time.
   
   Although many of the author's accounts of atrocities perpetrated on the populace are difficult to comprehend and uncomfortable to read, it is a valuable book for those who want to know more about the history of a country where a fifth of humanity lives in our shrinking globe and now has one of the fastest growing economies; China currently holds a trillion dollars in U.S. securities. Reading Wild Swans is a good way to understand the Chinese culture in the 20th century and the generations who endured great hardships at the hands of those described in this book. It is uplifting to see the influence of Chang's parents in her decision making and read of her own acts of bravery and compassion. I won't divulge the ending, but Chang does find happiness.
   
   It was inspiring to read about the personal integrity, ethical standards, courage and moral values in the face of incalculable brutality, degradation and mindless destruction of real people, not fictional characters. Jung Chang spared no detail in describing these virtues and vices in telling her story. If you want better insight and understanding of China, for a firsthand account -Read Wild Swans! This is a very significant book and I highly recommend it.



5. Spanning three generations of Chinese women, this 508 page tour de force is breathtaking in its scope. Each of the characters in this book is fully developed. The reader learns about life in communist China. It is almost too much to bear reading about the severe hardships endured by these brave women. My only criticism, and a minor one at that, is that as the Cultural Revolution squeezed out all of the old, beautiful and the traditional from society, it also made it difficult, if not impossible, for the author to convey the truly raw emotion that must have been experienced by members of her family and their friends as they suffered through the years of Mao. Nevertheless, as China continues to evolve and play a larger role on the world stage, this book helps us to understand how far the Chinese have come.
   
   Stephen Ira Tamber

5 comments about The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts.

1. 
   The women ancestors of a geeky Chinese-American girl pile up impressive resumes, no worries ! They are kungfu heroines, joining peasant armies that overthrow the very Imperial throne. They are doctors who brave ghosts and come to America. They are mothers and grandmothers who remain staunchly Chinese in the face of the full press of American culture. They are sisters or aunts in Chinatown apartments or unknown relatives killed for following their hearts instead of the rules back in village China. Slowly, slowly, the background of the author (maybe) is depicted. You need some patience to realize what the author is doing. She doesn't give quarter. Readers who like everything spelled out will be disappointed. Ghosts play a big role in every section of the book. Ghosts train the warriors, ghosts oppose the student and the laundryworker. All Americans even appear as ghosts of a vast variety. Yes, it's one way of looking at the experience of immigration. You leave home, where everything is known, and come to a very foreign land where nothing is comprehensible. You understand nothing of the language or customs, but you have to make your way, earn a living, survive. Daring to sit and struggle with ghosts in a haunted Chinese classroom is similar to fighting with aliens in an alien land. So, you might interpret everyone around you as a `ghost'--scary, but propitiated or turned aside each in its own way. Women in China are treated like chattel, she says, but here women take control, control ghosts, control lives, control themselves. Is it a dream ? Is it another way of looking at Chinese women ? You will decide this for yourself after reading this highly original, lyrical book of tales of immigration, tales of women in a strange land, tales of "how I got to be me". It's got to be one of the most creative immigrant novels yet written.



2. Woman Warrior is among the most gripping lyrical-memoirs I've read. It is author Maxine Kingston's Chinese ancestry that teaches her that girls are half-ghosts that walk a tight wire: one wrong step and they transcend into full-pledged ghosts, with all memory of their existence erased from time. Girls in the history of her Chinese culture are regarded much the way Middle Eastern women are regarded today: burdensome and dangerous. The Chinese saying "When fishing for treasures in the flood, be careful not to pull in girls," conveys a message repeated to Kingston throughout her girlhood.
   
   Kingston is eternally haunted by one particular "no-name" ghost: her dead aunt, a woman shamed by her village, a woman forgotten, a woman whose name and memory are not uttered. Haunted by her nameless, faceless aunt, Kingston also finds herself displaced and alienated as she attempts to put together two worlds: her Chinese ancestry, and her new American life.
   
   Resentment builds in Kingston as she struggles to put together the secrets and hushed words of her ancestry. The only stories her elders will elucidate to her are ones meant to haunt her, but even these are not fully in truth. How is she to form an identity when she is refused knowledge of her past? When she can't define her self as being a solid part of any given culture? Without proper definition of place, one merely floats along, trying to make sense of it.
   
   Kingston also faces the difficult challenge of becoming an American female, which is much different than a Chinese female. Caught between what she's been taught gives a female value in Chinese culture, and what she is learning gives a female value in American culture. Her feeling of alienation deepens as she realizes that she no longer holds an authentic, cultural identity. No longer native Chinese, not quite American either. Even amongst her fellow Chinese-American Immigrants, she finds herself displaced as they all melt into the pot at different consistencies. "No other Chinese, neither the ones in Sacramento, nor the ones in San Francisco, nor Hawaii speak like us."
   
   The only refuge Maxine Kingston finds is in the archetype of the Woman Warrior, Fa Mu Lan. Fa Mu Lan is used as a metaphor for female choice, female purpose, female strength and power. Fa Mu Lan assumes both the traditional Chinese female role, and the American, career-minded female role. Fa Mu Lan returns homes to assume traditional domestic roles, only after she has been out in the world fighting, first! She fights, she is warrior woman, and then at the end of it all, she returns to her duties at home. Fa Mu Lan is a survivor of both worlds, and because she faces such danger outside of her home, the inside of her home may seem relatively less dangerous--the home of Kingston's past being a symbolically dangerous place, as it was for her no-name aunt.



3. Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior is a powerful
   gem about the relationship between the author and her
   mother and other women in her family. It is a memoir
   but reads like fiction. I loved this book and especially
   how she utilizes symbols, particularly ghosts to represent
   people from different backgrounds, whom the author draws
   upon for wisdom, strength and remembrance.
   
   I usually have a tough time with "literary" fiction but
   the author writes in an almost conversational tone. I felt
   like I was there as the author told her story. This is
   an excellent book to read to learn about Chinese culture.



4. An excellent book, funny, insightful, poignant. Ms. Kingston brilliantly conveys how cultures can clash within the minds of those who straddle them. After reading this book I bought half a dozen copies to give to close friends.



5. This is a tremendous novel. The author threads the stories her mother told her when she was a child, through the retelling of her own life, using them to draw you into her own imagination. As she grows up, living half immersed in traditional myth and half in gritty reality, where mothers and daughters are only human, the reader grows up with her. The first person telling of her childhhood stories puts the reader directly in the shoes of a child/young adult working through the stories she has been told, using them to form her hopes and dreams and her understanding of the world.
   
   (N.B. You may not think that your childhood stories influenced the way you live, but if you think for a minute, I am certain some will come back to you and you'll realize that just the other day you did something based on or combatting that belief. Maybe you even still wish on stars?)

5 comments about Silent Tears: A Journey of Hope in a Chinese Orphanage.

1. I enjoyed the content. This story is fascinating, but the writing is very average.



2. As the mother of a child adopted from China, I picked up Silent Tears wanting to know more of the experiences of the author in China and in particular in the orphanages. It was heart breaking to learn how many of the children were treated, but this is reality. As much as we may want to sugar coat the lives that many of our children had before they were adopted, the reality is that their lives weren't so rosy. To ignore and try to pretend that it's not so is doing a disservice to our children.
   Thank you for such an honest portrayal of life in a Chinese SWI.



3. If you are even a little bit curious about what it would be like to spend time in a Chinese orphanage, this is a MUST read. Kay's journey and her work with the children are fascinating, and I was glued to the page. As a soon-to-be adoptive parent, I appreciate her honesty and her willingness to fight for the children of this orphanage. I also appreciate her openness about culture shock and what it is like to live as an ex-pat in China.



4. I read this book in one night on the day I got it. I loved it and I couldn't put it down. It brought me to tears on more than one occasion as I imagined that our daughter may be living this life at this very moment. I commend Kay for telling it like it is - not an easy thing to do where Chinese adoption is concerned. Thanks Kay!



5. As a mother this was the hardest thing I have ever read. As a mother of a daughter adopted from China it is the most important thing I have ever read.
   
   Kay Bratt takes us places most of us have only dreamt of. Even those of us lucky enough to travel to our children's SWI's know that we are given the cleaned up "approved" tour. Reading Ms. Bratt's experiences shed so much light onto the way my daughter reacts to her world.
   
   This book is a must read for anyone who has or is currently waiting for a child from China.
   
   Thank you Ms Bratt for letting us take a peek into our children's lives before they come home.

5 comments about Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter.

1. This book was amazing! It was so heartbreaking, but it is a great read. I had to read this book for my Sociology class and it definitely gives me a new perspective on family life.
   
   Thanks Adeline Yen Mah!!!!



2. Although there are hundreds of reviews, I had to review this book because it had such an impact on me. I think this book is wonderful. It is a captivating story. I read it complete in one night, I just could not put it down!
   
   Adeline is a beautiful story teller, with an exceptional eye for detail. Although I loved the book, there was a strange voice that would creep into the story. Almost as if there was a repressed part of herself that could not hide from this book: it is a young Adeline still hoping to be the apple of her father's eye; and for her family to appreciate, love and respect her.
   
   It is a sad story that shocks readers with the inhumanity that families can inflict on one of their own. It is still beautiful and hopeful, even in its most miserable moments.
   
   Highly recommend



3. This book was beautifully written and gripping from the start. The reviewer who complained of Adeline's "whining" tone, is being unfair. I don't see her as whiny, but rather somewhat detached as she recounts the emptiness of her childhood. In fact, I want her to scream and kick and rebell, maybe even whine, yet she does none of that. Whining is even more emotion than I think she allows herself to feel. She endured a childhood with certain material wealth but vastly lacking in emotional wealth.
   Adeline takes the emotional abuse because she knows nothing else. Her father is the true villain for caring more about his trophy wife than his own family's happiness. He is oblivious to his children's emotional needs. He disappoints more than the stepmom for choosing to abandon children that he chose to bring into the world. He manipulates and plays them one against the other for his own selfish desires.
   After long periods of thinking about this book, I've come to my own understanding of why she managed to salvage a happy life out of such a miserable upbringing. It is the very belief, albeit blatently false, that her family would one day accept her, that makes her continue to push for their love and not give up. Children are frequently unable to find fault with their loved ones. It is that very "innocence" that protected her from worse harm, the knowledge that acceptance would never, ever, be forthcoming.



4. The heartbreaking story of an unwanted, abused, neglected child who never ceases to try and earn her family's affections. If you have ever experienced these feelings,no matter what your race, you will LOVE this book. It moved me to tears and I could not put it down once I started reading it.



5. ...with that whine? Self serving, whiney, horrible. I just don't get it. No comparison to anything by Frank McCort, Amy Tan or anyone like them.

5 comments about Living Water: Powerful Teachings from the International Bestselling Author of The Heavenly Man.

1. Read his books, if you live in America we don't know what it means to follow Jesus as the Chinese Christians do. We may think we have died to ourself for Him but we need to see others who have suffered for Christ and we can forget our own struggles. The Heavenly Man changed my life and his new book, Living Water is awesome. I am following God and on fire for Him and live for Him completely and would give my life for Jesus and this still put new insight in what God does when we trust Him completely. We don't know what suffering and giving our lives to Jesus is in America. These books will make you stop and think next time you think you are hurting or suffer in life. He shows in, The Heavenly Man, the miracles God does when you put your whole self out there for Him. And the, Living Water, will help you have a closer walk with God.



2. Brother Yun is an intriguing religious voice in this new millennium. His roots are deep in 20th-century evangelical missionary work in China and for most of his life he had preached a gospel aimed at traditional 20th-century evangelical goals of winning souls in all lands.
   
   For more than a decade, though, he has lived in exile in Europe (his home base is in Germany now) and his message to Westerners really is an intriguing call to grassroots spiritual action. That part of his message is perfectly in tune with emerging voices like Phyllis Tickle, Brian McLaren, Tony Campolo, Rob Bell and others. In that particular theme he preaches, it's as though his own ministry is leaping forward from a fairly traditional message to become a new prophetic voice in this era of turbulent change in Western Christianity.
   
   It's fascinating to encounter a fully mature Asian Christian returning to evangelize -- and in some cases to criticize -- some of the movements that, a century ago, helped to seed his own church in China.
   
   His earlier book "The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun" was a best seller with dramatic tales of life under persecution in China. "Living Water" is a fresh inspirational look at the road ahead.



3. A lot of the time when I read inspirational books I am unsure if the author is truly sincere, or if they are just writing what sells. With this book I had no doubts! Brother Yun is a true follower of Jesus. Because of his faith he has faced persecution, and yet he has stayed strong. Who better to tell us how to grow?
   
   Shares pieces of brother Yun's life and the trials he has faced serving as a pastor in China.
   
   I love how he believes in becoming a "new wineskin", turning from traditional religious rituals, and truly following Jesus.
   
   Though brother Yun and I come from very different places and very different circumstances, we have a lot in common. Some of this book felt as if I had written it, I shared so many of brother Yun's views.
   
   One of my two current favorite books.
   
   This book can change your life, if you will only let it.



4. To bad that someone from as rich a spiritual culture as China would succumb to the westernized version of the christian mythology.
   Hope he discovers the truth before he spends his life in vain.



5. I have absolutely loved this book. I know this is a completely overused statement, but I really felt like this book was written just for me, to me. I could feel the Lord speaking through the author, and snapping me out of my complacency. I can't wait to go back and read the first book. This book put a mirror to my face and showed me how much I take for granted my faith and my Savior.

5 comments about Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter.

1. As an Asian American whose father remarried I can relate to the Author. A wicked step-mother and two wicked step-sisters and a father who hated me because my mother left him. I am an unwanted child. I will never forget these words as long as I live and I quote my step-mother "You may have not been an accident; but you are certainly a mistake".
   
   This story is truly inspiring and conveys so much more than I could have possible have retold about my own life. As a 33 year old woman with two daughters, I will continuously give them the encouragement that I lacked, inspiration I craved, and all the dreams they can reach-every single one of those dreams. The Author has true conviction and fortitude far beyond her age.
   
   "...and to all unwanted children, in the hope that will persist to do their best in the face of hopelessness, to believe in the end their spirit will prevail, and to nurture their childhood traumas into the source of courage, creativity, and compassion".--Adeline Yen Mah



2. bought this book for my daughter for summer reading assignment. the retail chain near me said it would take a few weeks but i bought the book for a great price and received it within a few days with no hitches thanks amazon!



3. I couldn't put this book down, being 1/2 chinese myself I loved the historical comments found in this book and could relate to some of the coldness shown to her by her family. Favortism runs deep in this book as it does in alot of chinese families as well as american families. I felt sad while reading this book yet her strength and determination was inspiring and so powerful throughout this whole story. A great story for all to read.



4. Chinese Cinderella is a memoir, also known as a story of bravery endurance and a strong little girl who goes by the name of Adeline. Adeline ,also known as the Chinese Cinderella, needs to be brave to survive life. she has great endurance when it comes to school. Adeline is a strong character when it comes to her family because they tease and beat her. The setting of Chinese Cinderella was obviously in china. In the middle of the book the Chinese were having a war against the French. Adeline's mother died because of her birth. As a result she was considered "bad luck". Another conflict is she has an evil step mother whom has two kids and treats them like they are the only kids in the house. Her relationship between her and her father sucks one reason is because he does not even know her own birthday.



5. My 6th grade class just finished reading this novel. The majority of us absolutely loved it. We had great discussions about how Adeline's parents never appreciated what wonderful gifts she had to offer in life. Also- we were all amazed how tragic her life was and her ability to overcome the continual abuse. The major reason why some of my classmates did not enjoy the book was because it was simply too sad. Every teacher in middle school should give their students the opportunity to read this work.

5 comments about Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China.

1. Lin-Liu's style of writing is so easy and inviting. I hope she writes more about travel in China and does a cookbook from her school.



2. This book will be enjoyed by anyone who likes to eat. It's a must for anyone who likes to cook, and an absolute must for anyone who wants to enhance the insight gained by reading travel guides before (or after) traveling to China.
   The author's writing style places her sitting in your living room, telling you about her adventures!
   Gotta run, I've got more Chinese food cooking to try!



3. Wow. I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I'm absolutely blown away and agree with a previous reviewer that it was hard to put this book down; there were several times when people on the train looked at me while I cackled or exclaimed aloud at what I was reading. Jen Lin-Liu is amazingly straightforward and puts it all out there - some shockers in here! She makes no excuses about her experiences or her own thoughts/actions and poses some interesting, thought-provoking questions.
   
   Her journey is clearly beyond geographic - it's a mix of culinary, cultural, and personal growth. Her description of the different cuisine and her relentless pursuit of their origins translates into her quest for her own identity. The food she discovers and describes had my mouth watering! As a Chinese-American, I find she's hit the nail on the head on many of the personal issues I've worked through as well. It was refreshing (and comforting) to see her journey and they way she went through self-discovery.
   
   I totally want to go enroll in her cooking school myself! And who is this mysterious Craig who has stolen away her heart?! Congratulations to you both and I hope to see more from Jen Lin-Liu!



4. Once I starting reading this book, I couldn't put it down. It is the story about a Chinese-American who goes to China on a Fulbright scholarship as part of her journalism career and ends up riding her bike down a narrow street to take cooking classes. The story (both humorous and touching) is told through her quest to learn about authentic Chinese cuisine both past and present, home cooking and high end restaurants. One of the many compelling things about the book are the Chinese people we are privileged to meet. It is a very personal portrait of Chinese people of all ages and classes. One memorable moment is when Chairman Wang finally tells about the Cultural Revolution and how it affected her and the people around her. It is heartbreaking to hear about it, but amazing to see how the Chinese people survived and continued their lives. And of course there are the mouth watering recipes peppered through out the book -- favorite recipes from people the author meets along the way -- Beijing-Style Noodles, "The Best" Mapo Tofu, Tea-Infused Eggs, Smashed Cucumbers, Drunken Chicken, Lamb-and-Pumpkin Dumpling Filling -- the list goes on and on. The recipes are why I bought the book, but got so much more. This is a book that I will keep, cherish and use as a cookbook forever.



5. Satisfying book that is as much about Beijing as cooking; it captures a sort of mix of optimism and sadness that is contemporary Beijing, through Lin-Liu's writing you really see the city as it is today; especially vibrant if you've lived here for any time.
   
   Jen runs a small cooking school in Beijing where you can learn to cook some of these recipes.
   
   The characters, especially Chairman Wang, grow on you; I also liked the brief appearance of Allison Moore.

5 comments about On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family.

1. This is a history of the family of Authoress Lisa See. It reads like a good novel. Her grandfather came to the United States in the early 1900s and met and married a white woman and had several children with her. The story goes back and forth between California and China. It is a must read.



2. It is difficult for me to say whether or not I liked this book. While I am drawn to its narrative, which covers several generations of Asian Americans, I had a hard time stomaching the author's style at certain points. For example:
   
   "'This is a terrible idea!' Eddy yelled, whacking his hand through the air like a karate master trying to split a pile of bricks."
   
   "Why did one child, one husband, and no job create such a crushing burden for Stella? Because she had already been crushed by her childhood... [B]ecause her hopes, her expectations, her dreams had been crushed."
   
   Overall, I'd recommend this for anyone interested in Asian American history, but I personally would not purchase it for my library.



3. I enjoyed this book very much. Amazing to read about one man's dreams and hard work from 4 generations ago still leaves a legacy and a still-running store to this day. I was broken-hearted reading about the treatment of the Chinese during the railroad building era of the West. Bigotry and racism are not new to America, and not limited to just Africans. I got confused sometimes with all the names, and had to refer to the family tree in the beginning of the book, but it was a wonderful story.



4. There's not much magic realism or mystic exoticism about this blunt, detailed, multi-generational history of an immigrant family. If you're looking for a novel, you'll find that Lisa See has written several. I repeat, this is a history, and it will be of interest chiefly to historians and other social scientists, professional or arm-chair.
   
   Ms. See's great-great-grandfather arrived in America in 1867. The shabby treatment that he and other Chinese immigrants received is part of American history, but here in this book it becomes more vivid because See includes the reader in her "family album." Suffice it to say that the Fong/See family shrugged off indignities, worked hard, brought kinfolk to share the work despite arbitrary and unfair hurdles, took root in America, and succeeded more or less to the measure of their immigrant dreams. So it was with my mother's immigrant family from North Europe, and so it has been with every immigrant complement to America's cultural universality. Quite a few of the Fong/See second-comers spent time at the detention center of Angel Island, as described in the book "Island" which I reviewed a few days ago.
   
   The drama in this history of the branching See family - what makes this book memorable - is a love story, the secret and perilous marriage of Fong See, the son of the 1867 immigrant, to a woman of European heritage, Letticie Pruett. Interracial marriage was illegal for decades in California, as in many states, and the penalties were a lot more severe than mere annulment. The Fong See clan ran the risk of deportation, and the couple had reason to fear ostracism and personal violence.
   
   There's a sheaf of family photos in the center of the book. There's a snapshot of Richard See - fourth generation, I believe - with his buddies in Levis and Pendletons, getting ready for a fishing trip. Then there's Lisa herself as a girl in Chinese silks, but gasp! Lisa has wide European eyes, long blonde hair, and freckles!
   
   My mother's sister and her Norwegian-American husband Jim, the last of my Minnesota kin to live on a homestead farm, came to visit me in San Francisco in the 1970s. One evening I took them, with other relatives and friends, to a Chinese restaurant. Jim is not what you'd call loquacious; he was sitting with his back to the room and paying more heed to the talk at other tables than to us. Just behind him, a family was talking about visits to colleges, arguing the merits of Cal Tech versus MIT. Jim got curious and turned around - discretely? oh yeah! - to see what the family looked like. Then he gaped at me and whispered "them folks are Chinese!" "Well," said I, "what do you expect in a Chinese restaurant?" "But they're speakin' English!" quoth he.
   
   The heart and soul of Lisa See's history of her extended family is exactly what my uncle didn't understand. The Chinese who came to America were not insidious strangers and inscrutable menaces to European American culture. They were just plain folk.



5. I had read "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" and just loved it. This book is just as absorbing. The reader is transported to another time and place. I enjoy historical fiction. This is a good story based on the history of Lisa See's family. It was obviously a labor of love for her. I would recommend it especially to those who are interested in West Coast history, from the late 19th century to WWII-era.

5 comments about Becoming Madame Mao.

1. Nothing I say hasn't been said before. Min makes history come alive in her stories that are based on real people and the real record. Fascinating, descriptive, enjoyable. I will continue to buy every book she writes.



2. Reading Becoming Madame Mao has been a terrific experience for me. Pure art, for which I thank you, Anchee Min! The story simply moved me and my new goal is going to be researching modern Chinese history.



3. I would have not purchased this book, except it was selected for my book club to read for fall 2006. It is hard to follow and just a very boring read. Some interesting information about Mao is in it, yet hard to know what is true and what is imagined because the main character is insane. I would not loan it to a friend or buy it unless I had to! Most of the book club only gave it a 1 on a scale of one to ten!



4. Anita, my young friend from Hangzhou, tells me that Mao "is like an uncle," a paternal figure of wisdom and kindliness. His last wife, Jiang Qing? She is "like the devil. All Chinese think so." Mao's spirit must be pleased. It is, after all, what he wanted. Thirty years after his death, his fat, bald, lunar visage still looms benignly over Tiananmen Square. He is still the First Citizen, still beloved, still a fatherly figure, revered if not adored, at least for now.
   
   Jiang Qing was evil, unquestionably so. Yet, for all the evil she did or that was attributed to her, for all the chaos, disruption and destruction that can be traced to her wasteful, mean, insane policies, for all her vindictiveness, jealousy and anger, for every loathsome attribute she had, for every death she caused directly and indirectly, for every family ruined and every person tortured and persecuted, she was, and is, a useful evil. While Mao still breathed, she was useful to him. In death, she continues to be useful to the Communist Party and the Chinese people, at least the ones who still love Mao. Whatever she was in life, her dark ghost looms large and menacing, out-Herods Herod and draws the blackness from the shade of Mao. He sparkles while she rots.
   
   Anchee Min's "Becoming Madam Mao" is an outrageous fiction. Min, who is bold enough to attempt literature in an adopted language (and audacious enough to do it well), redoubled her boldness and took on the task of creating a novel about Mao's most despicable consort. In prose that alternates from third person to first, she attempts to take us into the mind of this strange and devious woman, illuminate her times, and provide a human dimension to the "white boned demon," this woman who shared Mao's bed, mothered one of his children and became the instigator of one of the most disastrous experiments in societal manipulation, the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Min, by alternating persons from third to first, balances her fictional portrait, narrating events from the outside, then changing to the first person to view situations from the perspective of Madam Mao.
   
   The story unfolds in a series of fascinating vignettes, each one bringing us through the phases of Jiang Qing's life from her brutal and impoverished infancy to her final confrontation with her daughter, and her suicide. The Jiang Qing of Min's novel is a woman who creates and re-creates herself, insinuates the lives of people - men - to advance, first, her acting career, then her career in the Communist Party and in Politics. Born into poverty, the unwanted child of a concubine who has been expelled from her man's home, Jiang's early life is filled with uncertainty and misery. Even as a small child, she can't be cowed, however. Much to her mother's consternation, she refuses to have her feet bound, pulls the bindings from them, and won't be bound again. She finally finds some comfort in the home of her grandparents, where she's taught the basics of Chinese opera and learns to dream of a life on the stage. Eventually, she runs away and pursues her dream, only to find herself constrained by her choice of men and by the machinations of the KuoMinTang government. She becomes a Communist, less out of ideological conviction than out of a desire to resist the KMT and to follow her friends.
   
   Her career on the stage faltering, she leaves Shanghai, sets her sites on Mao, follows him to his mountain lair, joins his forces, meets him, and, Mao being fond of actresses, she seduces him. She's learned much from her affairs in Shanghai. Studied and deliberate in what she does, every move and word is calculated. She manipulates well, forms her alliances, cajoles Mao into abandoning his mad third wife, and wheedles him into a dubious marriage. She is at his side as he pushes on to victory, but Mao is fickle and in time his ardor cools. A manipulator herself, she reads his moods and senses the danger that estrangement from Mao can bring.
   
   Jiang strives for security, for power, for acknowledgment of her place at Mao's side, as his wife, partner and advisor with power of her own and a mission to fill. Her chance finally comes when Mao turns against his own Party apparatus and she joins him in the mayhem by reinventing herself as the mistress of culture. Vindictive and jealous by nature, loathing the apparatchiks in the cadre who have ignored and insulted her throughout the years, she unleashes chaos and strife with her Red Guards, tramples the educational system, and annihilates the lively arts, literature, and the stage. Resistance shattered, all culture is ultimately reduced to her eight exemplary Maoist operas, education becomes nothing more than indoctrination in the Cult of Mao. She turns her talons on everyone, motivated by jealousy and vindictiveness, indifferent to suffering (except her own), and consumed by her pathological obsession with Mao, less love than a fixation that overwhelms and obscures every villainy, every vice, every treachery, and every atrocity, no matter how monstrous.
   
   Min's Jiang Qing is not a creature who cackles with evil. She slips into it gradually, fixed on her obsessions with power and with Mao, hardly noticing as she does. We like her as a teenager, and as a young actress. We even like her as she joins Mao and seduces him. Gradually, however, as she ages and her life becomes fixed on her obsessions and her vindictiveness, our intimacy with this appalling woman is almost too much to bear. Min brings her almost too close.
   
   Historical fiction is difficult enough when dealing with the ancient past. Critics, forgetting that it's fiction, will carp about minor deviations from factual events. When writing about characters who are still in living memory, however, the writer cannot avoid controversy. She may trample on the emotions of some who have an investment in the character, and may be accused of obscuring or excusing the acts of a monster, glorifying a mediocrity, or in other ways exaggerating or misleading. Every omission or error will be treated as a major imperfection. Historical fiction, however, is fiction based on history, not history. The fiction writer is looking for a kind of emotional truth which may not be conveyed by a linear relation of facts. If Min is to be criticized for imagining Jiang's thoughts, then Shakespeare was equally guilty and should be criticized for virtually all his histories, as was Marlowe, Tolstoy and Solzhenitsyn. Art imagines life. History tries to record it.
   
   Whatever can be said for Jiang Qing, in history or fiction she is a character whose self-creation as the very incarnation of chaos and evil is both fightening and fascinating. Min's portrait of her is skillfully drawn, an intimate and cathartic journey through Jiang's life that in the end leaves us appalled not only at her but at the evil we humans can do, shaken by the stark realization that only a thin wall separates us from them, that people like Jiang are less exotic and extraordinary than common, banal and ordinary. This is no elegant evil, profound or even clever in its machinations. Jiang is the bitter and angry neighborhood shrew, adorned with Mao's blessing, given a country to vandalize, a culture to destroy.
   
   "Becoming Madam Mao" was one book I could not put down. Read it, then read a history. Anchee Min provides a list of her sources, and invites us to go further. For now, however, I'll settle for acquiring more of Ms. Min's books and reading more of her remarkable stories.



5. Another wonderful book by Anchee Min. She has such a style of writing that I felt as though I was in China living this story with her. I have found all her books fascinating and very readable. She makes history more life-like.