Dao and Rafter: The Chronicle of Those Who Fled to Hong Kong for Freedom

The authors of this book were the Chinese educated youths of Guangdong Province driven out of the city to the countryside to accept so called peasants' reeducation in the 1960s and 1970s. They wrote their own real-life experiences, recounting their dangerous journey of escape. They endured unthinkable hardships, risking their lives as they fled to Hong Kong in search for freedom, escaping from the social turmoil and dangers they faced in their homeland. The stories in this book not only recount their survival but also reflect the collective efforts of those individuals in overcoming difficulties. All these can be summarized in the following words: escaping at the risk of life, being brave with no fear, being alone but not lone!

Forty some years later to this day, the Berlin Wall has fallen, and the Iron Curtain that once cut off mainland China no longer exists; the governing hierarchy that has now taken the stage has spurned the extreme ways of the old days and adopted a relatively relaxed policy and relaced the economy of the Great Leap Forward; these sudden reversals, alike of the overnight collapse of the Eastern European Socialist Alliance, the causes to which had no doubt been played in part by the feats of these hot-blooded youths who risked their lives to fled to freedom.

China's history is not long enough to let the events of these pages fall ignored.