Thirty Years in a Red House: A Memoir of Childhood and Youth in Communist China [Paperback]

Xiao Di Zhu (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1999

The wrenching saga of a patriotic Communist family in China. This is the personal account of Zhu Xiao Di, born in Nanjing in 1958, the son of idealistic, educated parents. At the heart of this narrative are the trials of a family caught in the crosscurrents of history--from the early attractions of the Communist revolution to the national disaster that followed and the subsequent odyssey of recovery. 24 illustrations.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This well-written memoir by a student of English tells of daily life from his birth in China in 1958 to his departure in 1987. Although they lived in comfortable circumstances in Nanjing, his father and uncles joined the Communist movement in the 1930s, rising to some prominence. Even so, they fell into disfavor during the Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s and were forced into different labor camps across China. Deprived of family, young Xiao Di found refuge in books, learning English to seek other ways of thinking and then finding a teaching position that allowed him to study abroad. Rather one-sided, Zhu's story is nevertheless engrossing and engaging. Recommended for contemporary China collections.?Kitty Chen Dean, Nassau Coll., Garden City,
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Ross Terrill says in his foreword, "Sometimes one person's story, like a single ray that bursts from a mirror as a powerful wave of light, illuminates the life of an epoch and a nation. Such is the case with Thirty Years in a Red House." Zhu Xiao Di was born in 1958. This matter-of-fact account of his family's travails, especially during the Cultural Revolution (his father was a prominent Communist official), is a splendid lesson in 20th century Chinese history. -- David Warsh, The Boston Globe

This well-written memoir by a student of English tells of daily life from his birth in China in 1958 to his departure in 1987....Engrossing and engaging. -- Library Journal

Truly I think it is well done and fascinating in many respects. Thirty Years in a Red House is a good book because it is so sincere, entirely free of prejudice, and tells us more truth about this great land of China and its people than many other books I have read in the past thirty years. -- Dr. Han Suyin, The Boston Chinese News --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Massachusetts Pr; New edition edition (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155849216X
• ISBN-13: 978-1558492165
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #278,588 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thirty Years In A Red House, March 21, 2000

By 

Brian Pressman (Honolulu, Hawaii United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thirty Years in a Red House: A Memoir of Childhood and Youth in Communist China (Paperback)

A wonderful account of life and childhood during the Cultural Revolution. As a college student interested in Chinese history and culture, I have been reading every Chinese memoir I could get my hands on over the past few years. In fact, I am often times more interested in the books these books I'm reading on my own than those assigned to me for class. "Thirty Years in a Red House" was one of the best Chinese memoirs I have read thus far. It was also the first Chinese memoir I have read written by a male author. The way Zhu told his story, of his father, family, and the struggles of everyday life drew me in like few books have. Every time I read someones personal account of the Cultural Revolution, I become even more fascinated and intrigued with how so many people held together over such a difficult time. The "seen through your eyes" style Thirty Years In A Red House was written in enables the reader to view Zhu's childhood and journey through Mao's China as if he or she were following his every step. I also enjoyed how historical and political events were artfully woven into the text. A great read!

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sad Yet Warm Memoir of Love and Loyalty, February 21, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Thirty Years in a Red House: A Memoir of Childhood and Youth in Communist China (Paperback)

Having lived and worked as an American teacher in China now for two years, I've been able to read a number of biographies and memoirs of China's modern history. But unlike so many westerners who read such literature, I don't have the luxury of finishing a book and passing it off as some faraway account of a society and system that I'll never personally have to deal with. On the contrary, I see and share daily in the environment that China is - the aftereffects of her history of poverty and oppression, the often-autocratic decisions of the government, the worldview that communism and recent extreme nationalism have shaped, and the now-booming economy and the poor it has left behind - and I have no choice: I must live and interact as a good citizen with a positive attitude in the surroundings in which I find myself, for better or worse.

Jan Wong's `Red China Blues' was the first memoir I picked up and read after I arrived. Though her work is a masterpiece of brutally honest journalism and is invaluable in tracking China's progress and change from Mao to now, Wong herself is Canadian, not Chinese; she can ultimately take China or leave it.

But enter Zhu Xiao Di. Born in 1958 into the home of one of Nanjing's most principled and loyal communist public officials, Zhu learned from his father's undying commitment to personal and public integrity and came of age during the nightmare of Chairman Mao's 1966-76 Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. '30 Years in a Red House' is his memoir of his own youth and growth during this tumultuous time, but even more so a memoir of his father's bitter suffering under the frenzied policies of Beijing's leadership. It is a story not of a starry-eyed outsider attempting to join in China's revolution, but of a Chinese person himself trying to remain loyal to the highest ideals and find sensibility and good even in the greatest of miseries.

Wong shows you China through the eyes of a foreigner who can ultimately walk away from China and its problems if she must; Zhu Xiao Di shows you China through the eyes of someone who will die to save it. '30 Years' is, frankly, much healthier reading for foreigners such as myself who must maintain a positive attitude toward our Chinese environment.

Zhu's picture of every facet of his family's daily life in Nanjing is full of insights into the culture of communism and reasons why the society was structured the way it was. It's full of personal stories of friends and relatives who struggled bitterly through the Cultural Revolution and the economic emergence that followed it. And it's full of perspective on the shifts of government and the way in which policies from Beijing affected every person's life during that time. We learn of his grandparents and their youth and adulthood during three great eras of 20th-Century China; of his father's ten years as an influential and heroic underground communist, leading to a career as an uncompromising and loyal public servant, followed by a severe denunciation and internment as a public enemy, and ending in release and return to public work; and of Zhu Xiao Di's own education as a circumspect youth, his entrance into college and experiences as one among the great Cohort '77, his work as a teacher, and his eventual pursuit of overseas study as a means to ultimately return to China and be a contributor to her economic and social growth. His knowledge of historical and political events, his grasp of western literature, and his ability to aid the westerner (the American, particularly) in understanding and appreciating Chinese and communist values and thought, are marvelous and indispensable.

For those westerners particularly interested in life and work in China, I recommend '30 Years in a Red House' without hesitation. Could I do it over again, this would be the first book I would read upon arriving here. Other memoirs may tell more riveting stories of fear or horror, other biographies and texts may give greater details of the intricacies of history and politics and great figures, but few - perhaps none - will instill you with as much love and appreciation for China itself and burden to see her society become and just and prosperous one.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An arresting portrait of growing up in Mao's China, July 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Thirty Years in a Red House: A Memoir of Childhood and Youth in Communist China (Hardcover)

I read with great interest the author's account of growing up in a China dominated by Mao and the Chinese Communist Party. Long after I had finished the book, what remained in my memory was the portrait of his Father in all his humanity, compassion, and unswerving loyalty to the party. Many of the books dealing with this period of Chinese history ("Life and Death in Shanghai", "Born Red", "Wild Swans") and others dwell on the excesses and cruelty of Mao's administration, and though the author does not ignore these in his memoir, he seems to focus more on his Father's reactions and responses to the madness generated during this terribly sad chapter in China's history, and by so doing, lifts him above this out-of-control mass movement and makes of him an heroic figure.

This is a remarkable book, one that will linger long in the reader's memory.