Customer Reviews

My Name Is Number 4: A True Story from the Cultural Revolution

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I suppose that if I had never read any other personal or other histories about the Cultural Revolution I might have been a bit more stimulated by this particular story. The author's experiences are certainly shocking and horrible but she failed to express this with any power. She describes the emotional effect of various hardships clearly and coherently but I, as the reader, don't feel she has communicated them to me in any meaningful way. Still, that being said I did essentially enjoy the story as a whole and I read it in only a few sittings without my mind wandering to other topics at all. I see the author has some other books published and I will give her another chance.

When Ting-xing Ye was born her aunt stated: "Ah Si shi ge lao lu ming" meaning that "Number Four will have a difficult life because the signs were unlucky".

It wasn't long before Ting-xing would find out how true those prophetic words would be. Her life was soon turned upside down due to China's Cultural Revolution. Ting-xing and her four siblings lost both their parents and it was shortly after that their lives changed forever. Her family's home was attacked by the Red Guard's as well as their schools. Already drowning in hunger and poverty, Ting-xing, at the age of sixteen, was sent to a prison farm far from her home. There she suffered more brutality, long hours of labour and unending meetings with Guards.

At one point Ting-xing is forced for hours upon hours to write down her sins against the Revolutionists but she hadn't made any and her captors would hear none of it. They slapped her, punched her and yelled at her for hours and hours to write something down on the paper they provided.

Ting-xing is spirited and audacious and keeps fighting to save herself in the midst of events that she had no control over.

An engaging, edge-of-your-seat read. At times you can't believe your eyes and what you're reading. To think that human beings had to endure the hardships that Ting-xing did. This is a story of bravery and survival.

I wasn't able to put this book down. The events are well-depicted and at times, simply horrifying. While this was definitely written to a young adult audience, it is a book that anyone with an interest in history and the struggle to live in a hostile environment would enjoy. At times I thought the narration was choppy and the way in which time goes by somewhat vague, but it wasn't enough to lose my attention.

I was eager to read this book because of a new interest in China in the mid twentieth century, especially in what life was like for ordinary people. My Name is Number 4 definitely did not disappoint on that front! It is a fascinating story about Ting-Xing Ye's adolescence during the Cultural Revolution, and is just one example of how someone with a "capitalist" family background fared during that time. It is a nice counterpoint to Adeline Yen Mah's story Falling Leaves and its abridged YA version Chinese Cinderella, where Yen Mah is in Hong Kong during the Cultural Revolution and thus escapes the worst of it.

As interested as I was in the details of Ye's story, I found the narrative itself to be somewhat lacking. It felt rushed and confused at times, as though it were trying to encompass too much in too little space, thus leaving many of the anecdotes without any real depth. But perhaps this is by design: there is no doubt that as I read the book, I was able to imagine the fear and confusion that Ye must have felt during the Cultural Revolution herself.

In all, I found My Name is Number 4 to be interesting and enlightening, but not completely satisfying. I suspect that the version of Ye's story meant for adult readers will fill in many of the gaps left by this abridged version.

An old proverb says: When at home, depend on your parents; when away from home, rely on your friends.

Ah Si, which means number four, was told this by a beloved teacher when she was sixteen and about to leave for a prison farm.

The author was born into a capitalist family in China. Her father was a prosperous business owner who was forced into becoming a laborer. His sudden death caused the family to take drastic steps to survive. The older children needed to find jobs to support the others. Then their mother died of cancer and the children were totally on their own.

Number 4 found herself in the middle of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. She was treated poorly because of her upbringing as a capitalist and protested with other students in Beijing. She made a brave decision to work at the prison farm in exchange for her sisters to remain in Shanghai.

Life at the prison farm was grueling and Number 4's capitalist background causes the guards to bombard her with questions. Yet Number 4's spirit and drive remain strong and she knows she has the courage to succeed.

This was a very good novel full of history about a time period that Americans may not be familiar with. I found it to be educational as well as motivating.

Reviewed by: hoopsielv