A spellbinding tribute to the human spirit, this exquisitely written memoir recounts the story of a girl coming of age during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Jaia Sun-Childers tells of her experiences, from a forced labor camp to a stint as one of Chairman Mao's "revolutionary warriors" to her eventual flight to the U.S.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Sun was born in Beijing in 1964 to doting intellectual parents. Because they worked six days a week at the Ministry of Culture, she was sent at age two to a live-in kindergarten, where she learned to worship Chairman Mao and desire nothing more than to be "his best kid." When her mother was sent to a distant agricultural labor unit, she went along to live at a nearby school, from which she could visit her mother occasionally; her father, a filmmaker, was left behind. In time, she was sent back to Beijing to be cared for by a nanny and be near her father. But he had taken a mistress and did not appear for a long time. On her mother's return, his infidelity nearly destroyed the family, though eventually her parents reconciled. Through their wrenching love story, her own accepting childhood and her teenage infatuation with a poet, Sun details the madness of personal life under Mao; the growing disaffection, subsequently, under Deng; and the rush of people, including herself, to emigrate to the once-hated capitalist U.S. Although the writing here does not compare with the poetic beauty of Anchee Min's Red Azalea, Sun has written an authentic document of growing up in Maoist culture. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
The nickname that gives this memoir its title comes from a famous Chinese revolutionary ballet about a good daughter. The chubby child who bore that nickname was born in 1964 to parents vulnerable, when the Cultural Revolution began, to attack as "stinking ninth category intellectuals" from the Ministry of Culture, once labeled by Mao as "a bourgeois organization stinking of capitalism and feudalism." At a labor camp in desolate Hubei province, her mother worked hard while Jaia, a city child, wandered the "golden hills" chasing grasshoppers and butterflies, but Jaia also learned that older relatives and friends from Beijing were "bad people who did not love Chairman Mao." Jaia's facile father scrambled to succeed in the nation's highly political film industry and romanced a series of "other women," even after his wife returned from the labor camp. Although it's hard to believe Sun-Childers truly remembers many incidents from her early years recounted here, her memoir is a nuanced, involving narrative of childhood in an exotic, puzzling time and place. Mary Carroll
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
I had no idea,
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This review is from: The White-Haired Girl: Bittersweet Adventures of a Little Red Soldier (Paperback)
This book was a gift, literally and... I knew nothing of the Cultural Revolution. This memoir was an introduction and an education into a devasting and horrendous period of time in China, told by a young girl whose educated parents were punished as traitors to the state. Despite that blemish on her record, she strives to be Mao's Best Kid, and model Chinese. Bright and resourceful, she learns for herself.
Beautifully written, with stark and grim detail. I still get shivers thinking of the fear and insecurity when corrupt neighbors would betray friends. When the police might come and take your family away.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully written, on growing up in Revolutionary China.,
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This review is from: The White-Haired Girl: Bittersweet Adventures of a Little Red Soldier (Paperback)
This book held me captive until I finished it. Jaia, and her husband Douglas, have created a wonderful picture of growing up during the Cultural Revolution. I felt as if I had been transported to China during those days and was right there, living out the same experiences as Jaia. This book is a must for anyone even slightly interested in China, its people, its culture and its history.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Its a great book about the Cultural Revolution.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The White-Haired Girl: Bittersweet Adventures of a Little Red Soldier (Paperback)
The White Haired Girl is about a young Chinese girl who had to grow up during the Cultural Revolution during the mid 1960's. She had to overcome the many difficulties such as having her mother taken from her in order for her mother to perform labor duties for the country of China during this time. The girl was faced with being sent away to school to learn and serve the "great" Chairman Mao. After reading this book, I think it's a great portrayal of this young Chinese girl during this difficult time for the Chinese. I like this book because it was great in detail with also a lot of hardships that this girl went through. At some parts of the book, it got boring. However it always seemed to bring itself back up to many high points of the factors of the Cultural Revolution. I recommend this book to people that are interested in different stories of the Chinese and the Cultural Revolution
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