Amy Chan Zhou’s searing memoir about growing up in rural Communist China features descriptions of pastoral beauty and tales of the simple joys of raising farm animals or catching fish in a local river. However, her childhood is scarred by the primitive conditions, her family’s everyday struggle to obtain food, and the horror of witnessing relatives being tortured on a stage during “public denouncing” meetings. As the Communists take control of China in 1949, we follow the harrowing experiences of Chan Zhou’s great-grandparents, grandparents, father, and mother during the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s when landlords, business owners, artists, and scholars were branded as “bad elements” and “class enemies.” As a teenager in the 1970s, while selling vegetables on the black market, Chan Zhou is accused of being a “little capitalist trader.” The death of Mao ultimately saves Chan Zhou from being sent to a detention center, and her family’s destiny is forever altered by Deng Xiaoping’s reform that allows her family to reunite in Hong Kong, and subsequently emigrate to the United States. A blend of Wild Swans and The Red Scarf Girl, Flowing with the Pearl River is a vividly accurate portrayal of one family’s painful experiences during Communism and the Cultural Revolution in China, and their eventual escape to freedom.

Flowing with the Pearl River: Autobiography of a Red China Girl is a young adult memoir about Amy Chan Zhou and her family's struggles to survive in China from the time the Communists took power in 1949 through the end of the Mao era in 1976. Narrated through the eyes and voice of Chan Zhou, Flowing with the Pearl River is an insightful, accurate, and in-depth look at the devastating impact the many political campaigns and revolutions had on multiple generations of her family. As the Communists take control of the country in 1949, we follow the harrowing experiences of Chan Zhou's great-grandparents, grandparents, father, and mother during the branding of landlords, business owners, and scholars as "bad elements" and "class enemies." The author and her family members were among those whose lives were shattered and who suffered from the political campaigns and revolutions. The struggles continue as the Communist political leaders pit people against people and breed fear and distrust by coercing informants to turn on innocent citizens, forcing re-education in labor camps and instigating the Cultural Revolution. Chan Zhou's personal observations and emotional experiences are at the heart of the story from her childhood and middle school years in China to her father's escape to Hong Kong and Chan Zhou's eventual immigration to the United States at age 14. Chan Zhou's childhood stories as a wild child growing up in the countryside with primitive conditions are marked by the family's everyday struggle to obtain food, the hardship that resulted when Chan Zhou's school became a child labor camp, and the horror of attending "public denouncing" meetings and witnessing relatives being tortured on a stage. However, Chan Zhou's childhood also featured rural beauty and the simple joys of raising farm animals or catching fish in a local river. When Chan Zhou sells vegetables in the black market, she is accused of being a "little capitalist trader"; the death of Mao ultimately saves her from being sent to a detention center, and her family's destiny is forever altered by Deng Xiaoping's reform that allowed Chan Zhou's family to reunite in Hong Kong and their subsequent immigration to the USA. A blend of Wild Swans and The Red Scarf Girl, Flowing with the Pearl River presents rich and detailed depictions of one family's painful experiences during Communism and the Cultural Revolution in China. It is a comprehensive and vividly accurate portrayal of the impact of those events on Chinese culture and society that remains largely unknown to modern readers and risks being forgotten. Flowing with the Pearl River aims to ensure that this history and the memories of millions of families similar to Chan Zhou's remain alive and remembered for eternity.

Publishers Weekly Best Book * ALA Best Book for Young Adults * ALA Notable Children's Book * ALA Booklist Editors' Choice Moving, honest, and deeply personal, Red Scarf Girl is the incredible true story of one girl’s courage and determination during one of the most terrifying eras of the twentieth century. It's 1966, and twelve-year-old Ji-li Jiang has everything a girl could want: brains, popularity, and a bright future in Communist China. But it's also the year that China's leader, Mao Ze-dong, launches the Cultural Revolution—and Ji-li's world begins to fall apart. Over the next few years, people who were once her friends and neighbors turn on her and her family, forcing them to live in constant terror of arrest. And when Ji-li's father is finally imprisoned, she faces the most difficult dilemma of her life. Written in an accessible and engaging style, this page-turning autobiography will appeal to readers of all ages, and it includes a detailed glossary and a pronunciation guide.

From her upbringing in the slums of Chongqing to her sexual and intellectual awakening to her search to unravel the mystery of her birth, a coming-of-age portrait by a renowned poet and novelist details her turbulent life against the backdrop of Communist China.

At the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, 13-year-old Nanchu watched Red Guards destroy her home and torture her parents, whom they jailed. She was left to fend for herself and her younger brother. When she grew older, she herself became a Red Guard and was sent to the largest work camp in China. There she faced primitive conditions, sexual harassment, and the pressure to conform. Eventually, she was admitted to Madam Mao's university, where politics were more important than learning. Her testimony is essential reading for anyone interested in China or human rights.

The emotionally wrenching yet ultimately uplifting memoir of a Chinese woman struggling to win the love and acceptance of her family. Born in 1937 in a port city a thousand miles north of Shanghai, Adeline Yen Mah was the youngest child of an affluent Chinese family who enjoyed rare privileges during a time of political and cultural upheaval. But wealth and position could not shield Adeline from a childhood of appalling emotional abuse at the hands of a cruel and manipulative stepmother. Determined to survive through her enduring faith in family unity, Adeline struggled for independence as she moved from Hong Kong to England and eventually to the United States to become a physician and writer. A compelling, painful, and ultimately triumphant story of a girl's journey into adulthood, Adeline's story is a testament to the most basic of human needs: acceptance, love, and understanding. With a powerful voice that speaks of the harsh realities of growing up female in a family and society that kept girls in emotional chains, Falling Leaves is a work of heartfelt intimacy and a rare authentic portrait of twentieth-century China. "Riveting. A marvel of memory. Poignant proof of the human will to endure." —Amy Tan