Customer Reviews

Gang of One: Memoirs of a Red Guard (American Lives)

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Here is more enlightenment on the Cultural Revolution in China. This personal story highlights how impossible that time was for Chinese in China. Even devoutly following party guidelines did not keep one safe from the chance of being a target of the political crazy making. This book is an enjoyable read from start to finish; a short book without a dull momment. I will remember this book out of the many I have read as contributing to my own personal development. A friend of mine has the book now, and I expect to continue to loan this book often. Thanks to Fan Shen for sharing his memoirs. My dream is that this book would benefit many more individuals in comparison to the number that have been hurt by the Cultural Revolution (impossible).

This is a can't-put-down coming of age story. Fan Shen writes hypnotically, telling one nearly unbelievable episode after another about his life growing up during China's shameful Cultural Revolution. I can't recommend this book more highly.

I'm Chinese-American. I have an Indian-American coworker with whom I often discuss whether China or India will be the next economic superpower. His argument is that China will far outstrip India as an economic powerhouse because its centralized, authoritarian government can guide the country more effectively towards economic growth. Compared to India, he argues, China has much more effective political machinery for implementing policies from on high: a strong central bank, a single language, a willingeness to try out revolutionary policies, etc.

I think the jury is still out on the China vs. India as the next economic superpower. But what's clear to me -- and what Mr. Shen's book illustrates perfectly -- is that there is also a big downside to effective political machinery. Namely, when you have misguided leadership controlling that political machinery, the result is dramatic suffering at truly staggering scale.

In episode after episode, Mr. Shen relates the pettiness, the brutality, the completely arbitrary nature of life during the Cultural Revolution. Neighbors could denounce you an enemy of the state and have you tortured and killed without a trial. Entire cities could be forced to drink water so polluted that everyone's teeth first blackened and then started falling out one by one. Having the wrong book could get you sent into the countryside for a lifetime of hard labor ("reeducation") -- which might look like terracing a hill in the dead of winter, even though the locals knew that the spring rains would completely undo your back-breaking work.

Despite the grim subject matter, Mr. Shen's prose is captivating. His characters are real, engaging, and three-dimensional. The techniques he used to survive -- and ultimately escape -- were ingenious, hilarious, and dramatic. There's even a love story woven through the narrative. This is a must read, but be warned: once you pick it up, you'll keep coming back to it until you're finished.

I was lucky enough to be enrolled in one of Fan Shen's English courses within the past year. Being that he was my professor and it is RCTC's Common Book, I knew that I should take the time to read it, but as most college students do, I procrastinated, telling myself that I didn't have time to read a 279 page book. But, as fate has it, I bought my books for my Summer Session Humanities course and there it was on the required reading list. I headed to Boston shortly after, bringing "Gang of One" with me. If I don't fall asleep on the plane, I'll give it a shot, I thought. Well, I didn't get a chance to read it on my way there, but I did on the way home. From the time I checked in until we boarded, from boarding to a layover in Chicago, and Chicago's bumpy flight home, I could not put his book down. I had to keep reminding myself that this was my professor... He wasn't just a guy in a fictional book that made me want to cry, that made me laugh, that made me want to jump up and down with happiness. Professor Shen is an amazing writer with a heartbreaking, comical, and real story to tell. I only hope that you don't procrastinate as I did.

The 1966-76 Cultural Revolution is a blot on Chinese history, a time when youth ran amok humiliating or killing the remaining middle class businessmen, doctors, lowyers and academics. to grip the country in chaos and fear. As a Chinese emigre, I was initially reluctant to recall this disastrous period. But, as I read Dr. Shen's harrowing experiences, I was thrilled by the triumph of his spirit and intellect. His fast moving narrative shows us the inner dynamics of the painful emergence of the nation that will dominate Asia, and seriously effect us all. I highly recommend his book to every throughtful reader.

This memoir is simply great story telling, a Chinese Horatio Alger tale where pluck and luck win out in the end. (Shen admits his admiration for Stendal's The Red and the Black and Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, but it would be ungracious to push the analogies too closely.) For some reason Chinese culture permits a more casual, even humorous, treatment of the inhumanity and stupidity of the man-centered ideological system profiled here. If Shen's memoir doesn't have the moral weight of say, something by Solzhenitsyn, it's at least more enjoyable reading. Hats off to Shen, who (like Jacob Riis at the beginning of the twentieth century) can write so vigorously in a second language!

A friend in my bookclub recommended "Gang of One" and we all read the book with great interest. The story, though disturbing at times, is deeply moving and we had a heated discussion of the book after reading it. I hope more people will read this story. Sharon from Miami, Florida

I enjoyed the personal account of the cultural revolution. The authors first hand description of the trials endured in his quest to freedom was very interesting. A well written book and an excellent read.

This is the story of a boy who, from a revolutionary family, eagerly joins the Red Guards at the outset of the Cultural Revolution. As Fan Shen comes of age, he realizes that the Cultural Revolution is a disaster and this book is the story of his attempt to find a way to achieve an acceptable life.

It is readily apparent that Fan is a very clever fellow as well as an intellectually gifted individual. The tales that he recounts are alternatively horrifying, sad, depressing and humorous. As he tells of his experiences, the reader can only imagine the horrors of the Cultural Revolution when you multiply his experiences by the 800 million or so others who lived through the same era.

Fan is a wonderful author and can tell a story exceedingly well. At times, however, the reader is left wondering whether we are actually getting an accurate recounting of Fan's earlier years. The stories he tells are truly beyond belief and, at times, seem to be a bit self-serving. Whether or not this is the case, the book deserves a read by anyone interested in China today or in recent Chinese history.

Dr. Shen is a teacher at the college in MN I attended. It was amazing to read about the life of one of the smartest, kindest people you will ever meet. He isn't an easy teacher, but when you finish your master's degree in a year and a half and your PHD in five years what else would you expect. If you want to read a true story that will leave you in amazed this is book that you will want to pick up. But don't just take my word for it, read it for yourself.

This is a compelling story, one of the best memoirs that I have read in years. It is such a page turner that I read it in just two days. I just could not put it down until I finished it. Allen