Daughter of Shanghai - Softcover

Tsai Chin; Chin, Tsai

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312112580 ISBN 13: 9780312112585

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1994

Synopsis

The author recalls her early life in Shanghai, her memories of the Japanese occupation, civil war and the communist takeover, her stage success in London, and her parents' brutal deaths during the Cultural Revolution

About this title

From Library Journal:

Daughter of China's leading classical actor, Tsai Chin was raised in a liberal, westernized home in Shanghai, which she left in 1949 to study acting in London. Though she assimilated easily into England, Chin never lost her sense of being Chinese, nor her worry for her parents still in China during the decades following the Communist takeover. Her successful career included the title role in The World of Suzie Wong as well as films and cabaret. In later years, she returned to graduate study and teaching drama. Chin skims over her two marriages and several romantic liaisons (most notably with critic Kenneth Tynan), as well as a nervous breakdown. These somewhat rambling reminiscences cover all the dramatic events of recent Chinese history, but fail to grip the reader. One senses an emotional distance despite the author's assertion that writing the book was cathartic.
- Marcia L. Perry, Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield, Mass.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

How it was to live in the shadow of a changing China and later in England amidst the vagaries of the British theater are described by the actress whose career peaked in 1960 with her eponymous role in the stage production of The World of Suzie Wong. Raised in Shanghai--her father a classical actor, her mother of Westernized background--Tsai Chin enjoyed the perquisites of her family's caste. The charming glimpses she offers of her childhood in a close-knit family provide also an informal history of Chinese theater. With this as prelude, the author's re-creation of her transformation as a sex symbol of the '60s, involved in a highly public affair with critic Kenneth Tynan, is especially jarring alongside her description of the fate of her family who were jailed and died during the cultural revolution in China. Her affecting memoir bridges two disparate worlds and eras. Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0312112580
• ISBN 13: 9780312112585
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 245