Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party [Hardcover]

Ying Chang Compestine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 21, 2007 | Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

Nine-year-old Ling is very comfortable in her life; her parents are both dedicated surgeons in the best hospital in Wuhan. But when Comrade Li, one of Mao’s political officers, moves into a room in their apartment, Ling begins to witness the gradual disintegration of her world. In an atmosphere of increasing mistrust, Ling fears for the safety of her neighbors and, soon, for herself and family. Over the course of four years, Ling manages to grow and blossom, even as she suffers more horrors than many people face in a lifetime.

Drawing from her childhood experience, Ying Chang Compestine brings hope and humor to this compelling story for all ages about a girl fighting to survive during the Cultural Revolution in China.

 

Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party is a 2008 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Picture book and cookbook author Compestine (The Real Story of Stone Soup) turns to 1972 China as the setting for her first YA novel. Eight-year-old Ling, the spunky daughter of two doctors, lives in Wuhan, China; dreamy and idealistic, she often describes her world in metaphor (about her neighbor, Ling notes, Mrs. Wong was fragrant and warm like a red peony, which always welcomed visitors). But the lives of Ling and her family are disrupted when Comrade Li, an officer of the Communist Party, moves into their apartment. Difficulties mount as friends and neighbors disappear, Ling's father is arrested and she endures vicious tormenting at school because of her bourgeois background (At times I wished my family was poor and my parents worked on a vegetable farm... so I could have friends. But if my parents worked on a farm, who would treat their patients?). Although her father has been jailed, her family starved and their books burned, Ling fights to keep her long hair, a symbol of dignity and individualism to her, though her classmates see it as emblematic of Ling's privilege. Ling survives on wit, hope and courage until the death of Chairman Mao, after which she and her mother have a joyful reunion with Ling's father. Readers should remain rapt by Compestine's storytelling throughout this gripping account of life during China's Cultural Revolution. Ages 10-up. (Aug.)
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From Booklist

Known for her picture books, Compestine grew up in China, during the Cultural Revolution, and her autobiographical novel tells the history from the viewpoint of the young, protected, privileged child who loses her innocence when political brutality invades her home. For nine-year-old Ling, things always seem clear. She's close to her loving father, who teaches her English and about freedom in America, but she feels distant from her tense, angry mother. During the course of four years, repression increases, and eventually the Red Guards arrest Dad as a class enemy. Ling feels the repression in other ways, too; she stands up to class bullies who try to cut off her "bourgeois" hair. Always she is sustained by memories of her brave father and his dream of freedom. In clipped lyrical sentences, Compestine's first-person narrative sets a naïve child's struggle to survive against betrayal and courage in one neighborhood and also the political panorama of spies and slogans. Rochman, Hazel

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR); First Edition edition (August 21, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805082077
• ISBN-13: 978-0805082074
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #232,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ying Chang Compestine is the author of 16 books, including A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts, a collection of frightening Chinese ghost stories, and the award winning novel, Revolution is not a Dinner Party, which has received twenty-eight awards, including the ALA Best Books and Notable Books. Ying has been featured on numerous national television and radio programs and in magazines and newspapers. She is the spokesperson for Nestle Maggi and Celestial Seasonings and a frequent contributor to many national magazines.

Ying has visited schools throughout the US and abroad, sharing with students her journey as a writer, how her life in China inspired her writing, and the challenges of writing in her second language. She has lectured on a variety of subjects at writer's conferences and universities, and aboard cruise ships.

Ying is available to talk about her books to book clubs in person, by telephone or online. Ying was born and raised in Wuhan, China. Her website is: www.yingc.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars an inauthentic book about Chinese history, January 10, 2008

By 

V. ZHANG "A fellow Chinese" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party (Hardcover)

I was excited to hear that another book about the Cultural Revolution was published. I always believe there should be more books about this period of history which should never be forgotten. But I was so disappointed after reading it.

This is a historical novel, but the author manipulated the fact to serve her purpose to make a melodramatic story, and totally ignored the accuracy of the year, the political condition and how Chinese would react at that time. Here are some clarifications.

The Cultural Revolution started in 1966 and the first few years was the most turmoil. It was common for ransacking people's home, having struggle meeting to condemn the class enemies. But after the first three years, the situation was much calmer. So the many things the author described were almost impossible to happen after 1972, such as, the teacher disappeared, doctors committed suicide, people got arrested, a public meeting held to humiliate the main character after Mao's death, etc. If there were only one or two mistakes, I could understand. But the inaccuracy was consistently throughout the book. Because the book was about an important piece of Chinese history, the accuracy of the political situation should be the essence of such a book.

Since I lived through the Cultural Revolution, I found the characters were not authentic. Eg: Mother wore a pearl necklace in 1972 (no one dare wear jewelry then); Father listened to Voice of America pretty openly which was a dead crime; educated people often drank coffee on the street in a western pastry; "I" longed to come to America and told Father "I love you," and even trying to whip a Red Guard with a metal belt in public...... All of these sound inauthentic. And, at age of thirteen or fourteen, the main character had such a clear view about Chairman Mao, even felt happy for his death. That was impossible even for most the adult.

I felt the author wrote the book with a strong desire to tailor the story to American's taste, which made this book less worthy. And the continuous mention of Golden Gate Bridge and the longing for it became annoying. This book could be misleading to Americans who want to know about China and the Chinese people.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revolution is Not A Dinner Party - Maybe not, but it's a heck of a read for the whole family, November 29, 2007

By 

Book Lady Review - See all my reviews

This review is from: Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party (Hardcover)

"Revolution is not a dinner party, . . . A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another." - Mao Zedong.

Ying Chang Compestine's title of her first novel is nothing short of brilliant irony. Ms. Compestine, like her protagonist, Ling, survived Mao's Cultural Revolution (a time marked by constant hunger) to become the author of three cookbooks and a recognized authority on Chinese cooking and culture.

It's hard to pick a place to begin in recommending this book. First of all, it is a "cross-over" novel, which, in the trade, means a book for both young adults (10 yrs. and up) and general readership. I cannot think of a better book to be read by everyone in any family.

China, and all things Chinese, is a big part of our lives and will be an even larger part of our children's lives. This novel is as fine a start as any to better understand China's recent past.

The year is 1972 when the story begins and it ends shortly after Mao's death in 1976. Ling is almost nine years old in 1972, and it is through her eyes that we experience her fear and terror when, "Danger began knocking on doors all over China."

Ling is a bright and vivacious only child. She is the great joy of an easy-going father and the consternation of a perfectionist mother. The family lives in a hospital compound where her father practices Western surgery and her mother practices traditional Chinese medicine. The tie-in to our California Bay Area is a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge given to her father by his teacher, a visiting American doctor. It is her father's hope that some day Ling will travel to America and see the Golden Gate Bridge.

The picture of the bridge, which would be perceived as a bourgeois symbol to the marauding Red Guard, is finally hidden behind the framed portrait of Mao Zedong on their mantle. When Ling's parents burn books, letters, old photographs and other family mementos, the hidden picture of the Golden Gate Bridge becomes their icon of resistance.

Ling's creator not only came to America, but on a clear day, when coming through the Caldecott Tunnel from her home in Lafayette, California, she can now almost reach out and touch the Golden Gate Bridge.

Compestine tells Ling's story in language both youthfully direct and emotionally honest. In her father's eyes, Ling could do no wrong. With her mother, it was different: "I believed Mother was unhappy with me because she had never wanted to have a daughter." She wishes her mother loved her "the way I was, like Father did."

When Ling's father is taken away by the Red Guard as an enemy of the people, we remember her worry: "How could I learn every one of Mother's rules so I wouldn't upset her?" Mother and daughter must build a relationship to survive. In the ensuing four years, Ling experiences loss, hunger, betrayal, fear and confusion, all topics worth generating lively family discussions.

Here's what I recommend: after each member of your family has read the novel, go out to your favorite Chinese restaurant and celebrate. Talk about what is familiar in the story, what is surprising, or how you might have reacted if it had been your family. Go out and celebrate your family, celebrate your freedom.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party, January 10, 2009

By 

Gerry Tatham (Edgewater, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party (Hardcover)

When a tyrannical government thrusts millions of its citizens into social chaos for over a decade, outsiders tend to dismiss their suffering as "unfortunate." When one little girl personalizes the horror inflicted on herself and family, indifference is no longer possible.

The explosive effect of Ying Chang Compestine's Revolution is not a Dinner Party comes close to nuclear in its effect on her reader. The sheer barbarity of Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution bullies its way into the reader's psyche as surely as Chairman Mao himself unleashed his bullying thugs on all things civilized. The plight of a loving, family-centered child becomes the plight of all helpless people suffering a topsy-turvey distortion of the intellectual, moral, personal values that make life meaningful.

Gerry Tatham

Retired Professor of Literature