Published by Marlowe & Company (c.1998), New York, 1998
Seller: ReadInk, ABAA/IOBA, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
First Edition
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine dj. Illustrated by (dj design) Paul Gordon (illustrator). First Edition. [brand-new copy, with no discernible wear to either book or jacket]. In this "memoir of upheaval and revolution in China," the author writes movingly of her family's travails over the course of Chinese history from the 1930s to the 1990s. "Having fled persecution in Chunking during the Sino-Japanese war (1937-1945), the Chens settled briefly in Peking, then escaped to the U.S. during the intensifying civil war," living for a time in Berkeley, California. They were repatriated in the early 1950s to a very different China, following the Communist victory, and eventually endured great suffering under Mao's cultural revolution; the author herself served a prison sentence (along with her infant son) and then experienced the rigors of a "re-education" farm. She survived all that to eventually assume an important position in the China Film Association, which in turn led to several trips back to the U.S. for academic pursuits in the field; she was on one of these educational sojourns when the Tiananmen Square massacre occurred. She gave a TV interview to a local station in Wisconsin, which was subsequently picked up and broadcast worldwide on CNN -- making it too dangerous for her to return to China, even though her two (then-adult) children were still there. She eventually found safe haven in California -- "here again in the Golden State I had dreamed about in the dungeon, here where I yearned to find refuge from all horrors and persecution.".
Published by Marlowe & Company (c.1998), New York, 1998
Seller: ReadInk, ABAA/IOBA, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
First Edition Signed
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine dj. Illustrated by (dj design) Paul Gordon (illustrator). First Edition. [brand-new copy, no discernible wear to book; the jacket has the tiniest touch of wear along the top edge, still presents "as new" in fresh mylar protector]. SIGNED by the author (no inscription) on the half-title page, additionally dated "Los Angeles 2000" in her hand. In her "memoir of upheaval and revolution in China," the author writes movingly of her family's travails over the course of Chinese history from the 1930s to the 1990s. "Having fled persecution in Chunking during the Sino-Japanese war (1937-1945), the Chens settled briefly in Peking, then escaped to the U.S. during the intensifying civil war," living for a time in Berkeley, California. They were repatriated in the early 1950s to a very different China, following the Communist victory, and eventually endured great suffering under Mao's cultural revolution; the author herself served a prison sentence (along with her infant son) and then experienced the rigors of a "re-education" farm. She survived all that to eventually assume an important position in the China Film Association, which in turn led to several trips back to the U.S. for academic pursuits in the field; she was on one of these educational sojourns when the Tiananmen Square massacre occurred. She gave a TV interview to a local station in Wisconsin, which was subsequently picked up and broadcast worldwide on CNN -- making it too dangerous for her to return to China, even though her two (then-adult) children were still there. She eventually found safe haven in California -- "here again in the Golden State I had dreamed about in the dungeon, here where I yearned to find refuge from all horrors and persecution" -- where she lives in retirement today. Signed by Author.
Beijing; New World Press, 1990. 20x14 cm. 489, (1, 2 blank) pp. Original printed wrappers. A light vertical crease on spine. A fine copy.