Product Description

The critically acclaimed memoir of a forbidden love affair in communist China

"An important work."–San Francisco Chronicle

"Riveting."–Kirkus Reviews

"This memoir is a must–read."–San Jose Mercury News

Now in paperback, here is the stunning true tale of a remarkable woman trained as an elite soldier in the Chinese army, her forbidden love for an American, and her seemingly impossible escape–with his help–from the nation to which she had pledged her life. An astonishing testament to the enduring resilience of love and the human spirit in the face of even the most oppressive, hopeless conditions, Daughter of China offers a compelling look at life inside the rigid walls of Communist China, revealing in fascinating detail Meihong Xu′s inculcation into the system–a process so effective that she would willingly betray a friend or family member to prove her loyalty. Written with clear–eyed candor and stark eloquence, Daughter of China is at once a timeless, deeply moving story of a prohibited love affair and a dramatic depiction of life under Chinese Communism.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #144844 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 360 pages

The Times
'If Meihong Xu's story weren't true, a Hollywood scriptwriter would have invented it.'

Synopsis
This is the acclaimed memoir of an extraordinary woman trained as an elite soldier in the Chinese Army, her forbidden love for an American, and her seemingly impossible escape-with his help-from the nation to which she had pledged her life. An astonishing testament to the enduring resilience of love and the human spirit in the face of even the most oppressive, hopeless conditions, Daughter of China offers a stunning look at life inside the rigid walls of Communist China, revealing in fascinating detail Xu's inculcation into the system-a process so effective that she would willingly betray a friend or family member to prove her loyalty. Written with clear-eyed candor and stark eloquence, Daughter of China is at once a timeless, deeply moving story of a prohibited love affair and a dramatic depiction of life under Chinese Communism. As finely wrought as the best espionage fiction and containing all the emotional force of a novel, Daughter of China is all the more riveting because it is true.Meihong Xu (San Jose, CA) joined the People's Liberation Army when she was seventeen and received her BA from the Institute of International Relations in Nanjing.

Larry Engelmann (San Jose, CA) is a professor of history at San Jose State University and a journalist.

From the Back Cover
The critically acclaimed memoir of a forbidden love affair in communist China

"An important work."–San Francisco Chronicle

"Riveting."–Kirkus Reviews

"This memoir is a must–read."–San Jose Mercury News

Now in paperback, here is the stunning true tale of a remarkable woman trained as an elite soldier in the Chinese army, her forbidden love for an American, and her seemingly impossible escape–with his help–from the nation to which she had pledged her life. An astonishing testament to the enduring resilience of love and the human spirit in the face of even the most oppressive, hopeless conditions, Daughter of China offers a compelling look at life inside the rigid walls of Communist China, revealing in fascinating detail Meihong Xu’s inculcation into the system–a process so effective that she would willingly betray a friend or family member to prove her loyalty. Written with clear–eyed candor and stark eloquence, Daughter of China is at once a timeless, deeply moving story of a prohibited love affair and a dramatic depiction of life under Chinese Communism.

Customer Reviews

Confused, Betrayal and nothing new
I bought the book five years ago and did not have the chance to read until recently. I can only rate the author a confused and betrayal person. What she described in her book is nothing new and did not provide another perspective of life in China. What surprised me is what she called 'love' is only her 'self-delusional'.

Beats Red China Blues
There are so many more famous books on China by more famous authors with more famous scar stories from the Cultural Revolution or Tiananmen or the Chinese gulags that inevitably, this little book about a rather ordinary girl and her rather extraordinary life gets overlooked in the bookshelves.
Which seems a real pity for those who seek to learn something a bit deeper from an anti-Communist diatribe than "I believed in them and aw, shucks, they lied to me".
Perhaps the reason books as bitter as Wild Swans or as pedestrian as Red China Blues continue their print runs while this little book is now probably out of print has something to do with the massive messages that appeal to the western readers' simple prejudices and stereotypes about an exotic 'Red China'.
Much as I enjoyed Red China Blues, this was the book that actually taught me something new, that changed my ideas of China into something more complex and confusing than I had previously been served. The persistent, poetic anecdotes got inside my head and threw up deeper, more universal ideas than East Meets West. Let me offer two examples: the old man who cried wolf about the Communists at the very height of the Cultural Revolution and survived because nobody took him seriously. His neighbours all assumed he had senile dementia. And yet the reality was a society gone completely insane. Only the fool on the hill could see the world spinning round.
Or take the story of the water buffalo and the little village girl who rides his back on a warm summer day, shares secrets with him, chats, sings to him. One day, the buffalo gets too old and so, like so many other facts of countryside life, the terrified old animal is brutally slaughtered. Meihong sings to calm and comfort her old childhood friend even as he is cut to pieces, like a Chinese "Boxer" from Animal Farm.
Of course it's true this book is an incomplete, imperfect story. Perhaps it could be better edited like its more famous alternatives. For example, the central romance of the book we discover actually ended in a divorce. No happy ever-afters for the protagonists. It's a disappointing ending, with a complicated and contradictory subtext, and throws up all kinds of unanswered questions about the Chinese people and their government. In other words, it's real life and it's hard to understand. Go figure it out for yourself and stop looking for simple answers.

A fascinating, thought provoking insight into modern China
This book held my attention all the way through. It certainly helped to increase my understanding of modern China, the China that the authorities don't want us to see. Yet at the same time an almost fairy tale like love story was weaved into the thrilling recount of real life. I tend to feel that there are now so many books written by people who have lived through hard times in China and have decided to write their autobiography which can all sometimes seem quite similar, yet this book was quite different. A must read for anyone interested in China!