Customer Reviews

The White-Haired Girl: Bittersweet Adventures of a Little Red Soldier

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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.

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.

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

While reading this book, I could see similarities between stories that my parents told me about their experiences. This book accurately depicts the grueling life they went through during the Cultual Revolution, and the everyday fears of survival. The fear of not being able to trust your next door neighbor for fear of betrayal. The fear of not being able to trust even your best friend.

Accurate, moving, and told it a concise narrative style, this book is a must read account of life in China.

This is an individual perspective on the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath by a very positive young woman who experienced a terrible state of affairs but came through. The anecdotes are interesting, and the dysfunctional family (especially the document-forging, lock-picking father) never ceases to amaze. The co-authors make for some interesting and fresh usages of Chinese words, such as "ghost-mixing" (for the Chinese gui3 hun4, approximately equivalent to scr--ing around). This book provides good background for some of the excellent contemporary fiction now appearing in English on this period, such as Geling Yan's new book, "White Snake and Other Stories."

I've read many first person accounts of living through the Cultural Revolution in China, and this ranks high on my personal list of favorites. Jaia's childhood story is told with a great deal of honesty, and she lets us see along with her the first realizations that all she is told might not be fact, and that there are different ways to view events. I loved the account of a survivor of the Long March talking at her school. Like another reviewer, I'd like to know more about her life in the US, and would love another book by her telling that story.

I enjoyed "The White-Haired Girl" much more than most other memoirs from the Cultural Revolution. This book really made me feel that I was experiencing events from the perspective of a child in a time of tremendous chaos and political upheaval. Although the author certainly experienced considerable hardship, her story lacks the self-pity or moralizing one often finds in similar accounts.

One proof of the author's skill is the fact that I found myself more interested in the people she writes about then in the political events surrounding them. The people who fascinated me the most were Ms. Sun's father and her friend, Little Plumb. I have a feeling that I would have been interested in their stories regardless of the environment or historical circumstances in which they lived.

One or two parts of the book irked me a little. For example, in describing the romantic evolution of her first love, Ms. Sun says something to the effect that Spring's perfect love turned into Summer's splendid passion and she didn't even tell her mother. I took this to mean that the relationship became very serious, perhaps even physical, and that she concealed this fact from her mother. While I sympathize with Ms. Sun's desire not to be explicit on this subject, I also find the metaphor to be a little weak.

But aside from such insignificant flaws, this is a powerful, honest, and well written memoir that I recommend warmly. I am curious to see the author's next project.