Product Description

A unique modern memoir of growing up in rural China, Colours of the Mountain is a powerful and moving story of supreme determination and extraordinary faith against the most impossible odds. Da Chen was born in 1962 in a town over 50 hours' train journey from Beijing. Persecuted because of his family's landlord status, Da was an easy target for the farmer-teachers and bullying peasant boys. Whilst his older brother and sisters were forced to work in the fields, Da tired of the chaotic schooling of the Cultural Revolution and found solace with a band of good-time thugs. Following the death of Mao, an academic meritocracy was reintroduced. Da determined to escape Ch'ing Mountain, where he ran around barefoot and there was no electricity and no future. Together with his brother Jin, who had been working the land since boyhood, he began to study day and night. His determination is staggering and inspiring. In 1978, at the age of sixteen, Da Chen took a bus and a train for the first time in his life and travelled to Beijing, to the best English language institute in China. A book about friendships, prejudice, familial love and academic striving, and of one man's escape from hunger, poverty and ignorance, Colours of the Mountain is an inspiring and eloquently recounted memoir.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #223422 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Chinese-born Da Chen is a graduate from Columbia University's School of Law and now lives in New York. This unremarkable fact conceals an indictment of contemporary Chinese society and its repressive censorship of free speech. China is haemorrhaging talented young people, and the recent spate of memoirs by thirtysomething Chinese emigrants describing their childhood years testifies to this sad state of affairs. But this memoir is different in that it is profoundly uplifting, and Da's joyful sense of optimism provides its impetus. Da was born into a neglected farming community in southern China where his family were seen as pariahs. According to the crippling dicates of "political mumbojumbo" Da's siblings were denied a secondary education because his parents were deemed to have had too many children. But despite bullying teachers Da achieved his modest goal. The reader, entranced by his warm personality, cheers him through his arduous revision as he studies by oil-lamp and the gut- wrenching tension of his final exams. It must be remembered that while Western youths were cavorting in discos Da's barefoot older brother was ploughing the family's fields. This is a simple and moving tale for dedicated Sinophiles keen for a vivid portrayal of recent history as lived in a rural community. --Lilian Pizzichini

From the Back Cover
A unique modern memoir of growing up in rural China in the '60s and '70s, Colours of the Mountain is a powerful and moving story of supreme determination and extraordinary faith against the most impossible odds.
A book about friendships, prejudice, familial love and academic striving, and of one man's escape from hunger, poverty and ignorance, Colours of the Mountain is an inspiring and eloquently recounted memoir.
'A remarkable coming-of-age memoir filled with humiliation, revenge, vindication and, ultimately, pride, Colours of the Mountain is a book of great dignity' -Lisa See
'Compelling. Da Chen's lively account of his young life is unforced and his emotions are so well communicated as to become quite infectious. Da Chen seems to be an inherently likeable character...it is difficult not to warm to him. Really worth reading' -Literary Review

'Earthy and literate, picaresque and humanist, Chen spins a winning story from bold, golden strands'
-Gus Lee, author of China Boy

About the Author
Da Chen is the author of Colours of the Mountain and China's Son. An accomplished flautist and brush calligrapher, he lives with his wife and two children in New York's Hudson Valley.

Customer Reviews

One of the best books I have ever read!
For me, this book is at the top of my exclusive all time favourite books list, which includes literary masterpieces such as The Iliad and The Odyssey, simply because Colours of the Mountain is written with such eloquence, spirit and humility.

It has been such an enormous pleasure to read this biographical account of a young Da Chen struggling against hunger, poverty and oppression in revolutionary China.

Against all the obstacles that life placed in front of him, his determination to better himself has been an inspiring force for me. This book has predominate positioning on my bookcase, as every time I see it, it reminds me of what I can achieve, if only I set my mind to it.

Colours of the Mountain
This is a delightfully refreshing well written book about the triumph of human determination in the face of difficuties brought about by politics. Many chinese memoirs are tragic and depressing, this book whilst it has its fair share of hardship, succeeds in keeping a positive, at times humourous angle on life. The story follows Da Chen's adolescence through to his dream being fulfilled. Although brought up in rural China, an westerner can recognise the human emotions, both good and bad that he experiences.

A Chinese childhood, humorously retold
As a childhood story set in Mao's rural China, you could be forgiven for expecting this to be a bitter, downbeat account. Instead, the positivity and determination of the protagonist leap off every page.

Da Chen's story is a delightful, life-affirming read. Here is a writer who can talk about subsisting on dried yams for months on end, without ever resorting to accepting self-pity, no matter how dire his family's situation becomes. One minute you are despairing at the unfair treatment meted out to him at school, the next you want to cheer, as he gives his detractors and their Communist ideology the proverbial and literal two fingers! Though obviously blessed by many supportive friends and his strong, loving family, Da Chen has crafted a book that doesn't read like some twee, rose-tinted nostalgia trip. It could so easily have been so, but thank Buddha it didn't.

Chen writes with a mixture of honesty, unremitting humour and healthy disdain that proves infectious and compelling. I could not put this book down, and on the occasions I did, it was to wipe away tears of mirth and of utter joy.