Mulberry Child: A Memoir of China

Mulberry Child: A Memoir of China

Mulberry Child is the true story of a childhood before, during, and after the Cultural Revolution in China. Jian Pingâ€™s father, a high-ranking government official, was falsely accused of treason during the Cultural Revolutionâ€”he was detained, beaten, and publicly shamed. Her mother Gu Wenxiu, a top administrator of a middle school, was paraded in public and imprisoned by the Revolution Committee and the Red Guardsâ€”both driving forces of the Cultural Revolution. Facing abuse and deprivation, Jian Pingâ€™s family stands steadfastly together, from her aging grandmother, a frail woman with bound feet, to her parents and siblings. The traumatic impacts of their experiences shape the course of their lives forever.

Based on her own memories, as well as interviews and exhaustive research, Mulberry Child is a family saga and a tale of resilience, a coming of age story told through the eyes of an innocent child. Mulberry Child allows us an insiderâ€™s look into a closed-off world and is written with compassion in honest and intimate language.

In Mulberry Child, Jian Ping has written a moving, important account of an extraordinary time. And she has done so with grace, acuity and a generosity of spirit. Mulberry Child is one compelling read.

Alex Kotlowitz, author of
There Were No Children Here

Jian Pingâ€™s poignant and compelling tale of growing up in China during the difficult times of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution is an important addition to â€œscar literatureâ€ published in the West about events and people and victims forgotten, buried or silenced by the mainland Chinese and their government over the past four decades. The author shows convincingly how the fortunes and misfortunes of the past shape, inform, educate and haunt each of us. Jian Ping pays tribute to her parents who struggled against tremendous odds in order to realize their own small dreams; that she herself survived to write this memoir, and to tell it with such maturity and wisdom and forgiveness, is a tribute to her family, her generation and her nation. In an unforgettable parting from her parents she recalls she could not find the right words to express her deep feelings of sorrow. Now, at long last, is this memoir, she has found them and blessed not only her parents but each of her readers, too.

Larry Engelmann, author of
Feather in a Storm and Daughter of China

Jian Ping is neither a journalist nor an historian, yet in her book Mulberry Child, she has managed to combine the skills of both of those professions. She combines the journalistâ€™s gift of observation and skillful writing with the historianâ€™s eye for detail. The result is a riveting book that ushers the reader to the front row of history as it tells the story of one of Chinaâ€™s most turbulent eras through the often tragic, sometimes uplifting but always true experiences of one familyâ€”or more accurately, through the perceptive eyes of a girl growing up in 1960s China. Jian Ping is a terrific story teller who writes with both power and precision.

Ronald E. Yates,
Dean of the College of Media at the University of Illinois and former foreign correspondent and author based in Asia

I found this a fascinating and moving story about a child surviving in turbulent times. It is also a touching portrayal of the love that binds a close-knit family whatever the political ideology. Jian Pingâ€™s family is a compelling glimpse of the resilience inside a closed and mysterious society about which Americans know little and only now are beginning to learn.

Sharon Stangenes,
Former Chicago Tribune Columnist

Country	USA
Author	Jian Ping
Binding	Kindle Edition
EISBN	9780984277902
Format	Kindle eBook
Label	MoraQuest
Manufacturer	MoraQuest
NumberOfPages	321
PublicationDate	2009-11-18
Publisher	MoraQuest
ReleaseDate	2009-11-18
Studio	MoraQuest

Mulberry Child: A Memoir of China

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