Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1311872 in Books
• Published on: 1996-12-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 405 pages

Synopsis
The author's memoir of her six-year romance with Maoism follows her education at Beijing University, her marriage to an American draft-dodger, and disillusionment in the face of Chinese communist rule.

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 the Author
Jan Wong
Jan Wong was born in 1952 to second generation Canadians. In 1972 she arrived in China to study at Beijing University, and stayed for twelve years. She moved back to the North America in the early 1980s and now lives in Toronto with her husband and sons.

Customer Reviews

A 'must read' for anyone interested in China.
This book gives an insight into the mentality of an idealistic and enthusiasic Red Guard who later can see the mistakes made by communism. A fantasic read and really brought alive my journey through China's not-so-distant past. It helped me gain an understanding of their culture better than any book on China, I had read before. Jan is an author who writes vividly and passionately about her time as a Red guard and her life afterwards living in the 'new' China.

A Discovery
This is a truely fascinating book. It charts one womens disillusionment with the Chinese socialist regime. The account of Tian'an'men is superb and the author writes with such clarity and from a such a real standpoint. Excellent in all aspects - a must read.

A fascinating tale of growing awareness of one woman's China
Jan Wong starts her tale as a gauche, naive young woman, cleverly writing through the eyes of the young. Through her many experiences of life as an outsider living under a repressive Chinese regime she slowly grows up and the scales seem to fall from her eyes. Her writing matures as she details such historic events as the 1989 uprising in Tianamen Square. I found her slow growth to maturity and awareness of some of the faults with the Chinese system completely compelling.