Product Description

Aiping Mu was born to parents prominent in the Communist hierarchy - her father was Political Commissar for the Beijing region and her mother ran one of the city's universities - and in her early years lived the pampered life of the Party elite: luxury housing, guards, servants and private schooling. Both parents were considered intellectuals within the Party and from the start experienced the factional infighting and periodic purges which culminated decades later in the Cultural Revolution and the break-up of the family. Aiping herself was one of the first Red Guards before being denounced as a bourgeois intellectual and exiled to a remote province. In the guise of following one family's rising and falling fortunes VERMILION GATE tells the story of modern China itself, written from the perspective of one who grew up close to the seat of power in history. With rare insights into the life of the political elite and the mechanics of power and patronage in Beijing, the focus is also upon more domestic issues such as the family and the role of women in this unique and powerfully moving book.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56800 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 819 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Through the clear eyes and rather dispassionate voice of Aiping Mu is revealed her family's story and the idiosyncrasies, privations, optimism and horrors of life in 20th-century China. Now in England, where she has gained a PhD, Aiping has land-owning forebears--a fact which would haunt her family after the rise of Communism. Her parents were early converts to Communism who were given senior status by the Party only to be later persecuted, imprisoned and tortured during the Cultural Revolution when even combed hair was considered a sign of a hated bourgeois intellectual. Aipings childhood was privileged, but her teenage years, when she joined the Red Guard, a struggle. By the time she was recruited to the army and achieved a university place to study medicine, she had endured years of political persecution, humiliation, family separations and rural starvation. Her adult life was made miserable by a disastrous marriage and the painful disintegration of her family.

Vermilion Gate seems unsparingly honest about Chinese society, the traumatic breakdown of a family and Aipings ultimate loss of faith in Communism. It describes a world which, to Western eyes, at times seems almost that of a folk tale it is so unfamiliar. A work of biblical proportions, reading this saga requires a degree of stamina, but the committed will be enriched by a far greater understanding of the culture and history of this totally different world. --Karen Tiley

Review
'Mu's life story is so remarkable that even the barest outline is difficult to absorb . . . comparisons to Jung Chang's Wild Swans are inevitable, but Mu's book is similar only in that it is long and gripping . . . it provides a rare glimpse of life in the highest revolutionary circles' THE TIMES '[A] highly readable memoir...' TLS 'A gripping tale.' IRELAND ON SUNDAY

About the Author
Aiping Mu left China, her family and 6-year-old son in 1988. The crashing of the Democracy movement in Tiananmen Square a year later means she has only recently been able to return.

Customer Reviews

Educational and moving. A very readable book.
Not one for historical books, especially one on Chinese politics, I probably would never have bought this book. However, my husband read it and I picked it up - and I am so glad I did! I learnt so much about communist China through the life of Aiping Mu. How easily people in power can completely ruin the lives of others. What a life they endured - grandparents on the run; teenagers living in caves, and the destruction of whole families by using physical and mental torture. This book made me realise how lucky I am. Everyone (especially schoolchildren) should read it. Its long, but its worth it.

A must for all those interested in personal history of China
I have read quite a few of the flurry of biographies written by Chinese women publised in the last 10 years or so. While recognising that all the stories are their own it is easy to pick the common thread amongst them. They have all left me wanting to know more about China through the 20th Century from different perspectives. Vermilion Gate certainly goes a long way to satisfying my thirst for the background to the China from the begining of the 20th century. It is a remarkable historical book. The personal history of Aping Mu and her family leaves one full of emotion and feeling so humble. Humanity in all it's forms) never seizes to amaze.

Savour It!
If you loved wild swans then you will also love vermilion gate.
It is one of those can't put it down books! I can't do justice to aiping mu here, but trust me you will savour the time you spend reading it and be disappointed when it is over.