Vermilion Gate: An Extraordinary Story of Growing Up in Communist China - Softcover

Mu, Aiping

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9780349112855: Vermilion Gate: An Extraordinary Story of Growing Up in Communist China

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0349112851 ISBN 13: 9780349112855

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group, 2003

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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.

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From the Publisher:

Aiping Mu was born in Beijing in 1951 to parents close to the top of the Communist hierarchy. Her early life was one of luxury, servants, and exclusive schooling. But politics was soon to pull the family apart, and as the Cultural Revolution took hold, Aiping’s mother and father were classed as counter–revolutionaries and imprisoned. Rehabilitation followed, but the years of political infighting had taken their toll on her parents; their subsequent divorce became the stuff of national headlines, with government figures lining up to influence the outcome. And while Aiping’s career flourished, her own marriage was not to last. Part autobiography, part epic historical drama, Vermilion Gate is a stunning insight into the events that shaped Communist China, and how Communist China shaped the family, marriage, and the role of women.

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.

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