Customer Reviews

Daughter of the River: An Autobiography

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Hong Ying presents a raw, unpolished notation of her life in the slums of China. It is a look at the other side of Chinese society, as compared with Falling Leaves, Adeline Yen Mah. Hong's style is strong and captivating in it's own, almost amateurish way. Daughter of the river, is highly recommended for anyone interested in Chinese society and life, without a strongly political slant, which seems to pervade so many other Chinese autobiographies, Three Swans, for instance. All in all, a good read.

It is true that this autobiography is bleak. It is dark, but it is a reflection of the poverty and oppression experienced by the peasant class in China, now and all during the rule of the Communist regime. How Hong Ying is able to evoke absolute beauty from this seemingly unending ugliness is beyond me. But she expertly does just that. Without thought or pretense, Hong Ying's writing sings immaculately from the page. Amazing prose. This book's importance lies in that it is the story of someone from the peasant class, and since it is always good to hear all different perspectives of the same or similar events in order to get a good all around picture of the times, Hong Ying's book is a must read. In commenting on the book to a friend, I said that perhaps Hong Ying and her family's saving grace was that they were already at the bottom of the totem pole. Because of this they didn't have to experience the worst of what the Cultural Revolution had to offer eventhough it touched their lives daily. The peasant class of China is what Mao Zedong strived to make all the people of China in the name of proletarianism. The fact that Hong Ying and her family were already of this class meant that many of the dynamics of the time that were sweeping through all classes above them settled into their class as normalcy somewhat. It's like a line from Joan Chen's movie "Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl;" at one point when Xiu Xiu is questioning where she is being sent, she is told that it doesn't matter because it's the same everywhere; a simple statement but poignant in just how dead on right it is. Therefore, you must appreciate even moreso when we are allowed to read of these events by all those who were a part of them be it peasant or merchant. If it's done well, it is the most captivating of things to read because it means they made it out and are able to share it with us now. Before, any scraps of paper containing this type of writing would have been confiscated and burned, a black mark put in your file, or perhaps you'd be arrested. Hong Ying has done a brilliant job telling of her coming into womanhood in those times and of the exuberant curiosity she had about her family and herself, always having been treated as the outsider.

Dear Hong Ying

Thank you so much for sending me your book. I was totally gripped by your narrative and when I finished it I found myself weeping uncontrollably. There is so much in your story which strikes my raw emotion and which touches my heart deeply.This is not just because I feel instinctively tuned into the underworld you depicted so vividly due to similar experiences in my life in Chongqing. More importantly, it embodies almost exactly the literary project which has long been fermenting in my mind. I have always longed to read something or even write something which could show that big words such as freedom, democracy and human rights are not just some high-sounding principles; that they affect millions of ordinary people's lives in many concrete ways.

In my discipline of political science, the rise of East Asia in the 1980s spawned a huge industry of academic research on the relathionship between political system and economic development. For quite a while, Western scholars who were critical of their own democratic system joined the chorus of East Asian dictators such as Suharto, Lee Kuan Yew and Dr Mahathir (of Malaysia) to defend the "necessity" of authoritarianism for the sake of economic development and political stability. I think your book would be an ideal antidote to this typical "arm-chair" scholarship devoid of any sense of reality. To me, your book serves as a powerful warning that development without democracy simply

creates another privileged class standing above the law and everyone else. I am often angered and depressed by the world I live in. It seems to me so many human injustices stem ultimately from the fact that too many human beings are greedy and cruel.

I read this book to see if I could use it in a college class I teach on young women and coming of age. After reading the split reviews on amazon.com, I decided to read the book for myself.

In short: I loved this book! It has a variety of issues that pertain to coming of age including the intersections between and among gender, race, culture, class, family, education, and politics.

The book is categorized as "Autobiography" but it could easily be categorized as "Autobiography/Women's Studies" for the range of women's issues it covers.

I will teach this book in the future. I would just advise my students, or any reader really, to pay attention to the dates as the book jumps around a lot and it helps to have a frame of reference (e.g. Hong Ying was born in 1962 so if she's talking about 1968 she is obviously 6 years old, but usually doesn't mention that fact) in which to view each segment of the story.

Highly recommended. The end of the book made my heart soar.

I have read many accounts of life in China, and I found that Hong Ying's autobiography is outstanding. Most autobiographies have been written by Chinese intellectuals, but Hong Ying grew up in abject poverty. Her very survival is a testament to incredible perseverence. That she not only survived, but became a talented writer, is nothing short of miraculous. This book has been termed a "Chinese Angela's Ashes," and I believe that that is an apt comparison.

I rated this as a very challenging classroom text -- and with good reason. Hong Ying's plain, forthright language, and un-embellished, brutally honest description make this book an invaluable study in the politics of oppression. For readers who have never experienced life behind the walls of communism this book affords a unique and personal look at the everyday life of ordinary -- non-politically motivated -- people trying to survive with the daily struggles of life amid shortages, rationings, poor employment conditions, and sub-standard living conditions: people whose struggles cry out to be heard, but who are condemned to silence...

The Western bookmarket has been inundated with 'memoirs books' by the Chinese, everyone of whom, it has been said, has a highly interesting book in their mind. This is possibly true, as the Chinese people have gone through extraordinarily hardship. The problem now is that how those books are written. If there is not much unique in his or her experience, it is by no means easy not to repeat what have already been said.

That is where this book has made its unique contribution: this is the only book written by a girl who grew up from a working class family in a city slum. All the rest of the 'memoir books' are by authors from cadres' or intellectuals' family.

It's by no means easy, since China has an elitist tradition.

What is more, this book stands out in its attitude towards the ordeal that every Chinese had to suffer: the author shows us that poverty corrupts too. No one could hope to be perefect, even the victims, not even the author herself.

Which is very different from the attitude shown in books like Wild Swans etc, where the author and her family members are almost like saints who suffered all the wrongs without making mistakes themselves.

This attitude of self-inspection and self-criticism certainly marks the book out of the multitude. Anyone who wants to see the hitherto unseen side of China definitely should read the book.

Hong Ying's autobiographical novel gives an in depth picture of `normal' life in China after World War II with its `hypocrite socialism' and its terrible famines.
It is a story of a harsh struggle for survival: unabated hunger, nerve-racking promiscuity, lack of privacy, bitter loneliness, lies and denunciations.
It is also a tale about growing up in a `strange' family, becoming an adult, discovering sexuality and about the search for one's own roots.

This book shows poignantly the real and direct impact of governmental political and social decisions on people's daily life. It is not less than a `personal' historical sketch with a genuine human touch.

This magisterial novel is bathed in a magical subdued atmosphere. It is written like most `Schubertian' music in a minor key-note.
A must read, not only for Chinese scholars.

A page-turner that left me feeling hollow with the numbing emotional emptiness that gripped the tender young life that was exposed in the book.

The only solace during the read is the knowledge that the author had somehow transcended her apparent fate to be able to create the well-written biography.

In the end, satisfied that the author has found her own place of peace (she has become a successful author, after all), I was left wondering the fate of her impossibly burdened family.

Hong Ying, wherever you are, I hope you have found all of the emotional fulfillment you deserve. You have demonstrated a remarkable capacity not only for surviving, but for understanding and sharing feelings that are more painful and profound than most of us will ever have to experience.

In a way, I feel reading this allowed me to grow emotionally.

I found this book to be somewhat interesting for its time and place; the slums of Chongqing at the end of the Cultural Revoloution. The authors family situation is also somewhat interesting, but a bit too predictable. I also read one of the author's novels, that I picked up off the sale table in Hong Kong and found it also just okay.