No comments about A Place of One's Own: Stories of Self in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

No comments about Wang Wei (Twayne's World Authors Series).

No comments about HAKKA CHINESE CONFRONT PROTESTANT CHRISTIANITY, 1850-1900: With the Autobiographies of Eight Hakka Christians, and a Commentary.(Review): An article from: Pacific Affairs.

No comments about Re-Educating Chinese Anti-Communists.

No comments about Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character (Chinese Edition).

No comments about Autobiography of a Yogi: Hindi.

No comments about Empty Cloud: The autobiography of the Chinese Zen Master, Hsu Yun.

No comments about Growing Up on Grove Street, 1931-1946: Sketches and Memories of a Chinese-American Boyhood.

No comments about Transcending Turmoil: Painting at the Close of China's Empire, 1796-1911.

2 comments about Shanghai Bride: Her Tumultuous Life's Journey to the West.

1. I felt that Christina Ching wrote this book for me. She speaks to me in my mother's voice, telling me about the insurmountable obstacles she had to overcome to pave the way for me. I used to think of Chinese women of Ching's generation as old-fashioned and oppressed, but after reading her memoir, I realize what a giant leap they have made, and how much I owe them. This is a universal story of the emancipation of a group of people, in this case, Chinese women. From tiny, timid steps, Ching took bigger and bolder steps until she was unstoppable. Yet while living out her ambitions, she was also a devoted mother and wife. Her life offers many important lessons for younger women. The memoir moves at the page-turning pace of a thriller, but I can't help stopping frequently to savor the beauty of her words.
   
   Veronica Li, Washington, DC, USA



2. This magnificent memoir is the first I have read that faithfully chronicles the love story of a 20th century Chinese woman with the idea of modernity. Many writers before Mrs. Ching-Tsao have tackled the gray and dismal role of women in traditional China, the horrors of the early and mid-20th century and equal tragedy of women under the Cultural Revolution, when supposedly they "held up half the sky." This account is more nuanced, more hopeful, and much more representative of the energy, dynamism and drive not just of Chinese women but all women entranced by the jazz age and the promise of equality. Mrs. Ching-Tsao's account is wonderful for its detail and its honesty, as well as the marvelous balance of her personality, whether she is unexpectedly charmed by her father's concubine or unexpectedly loyal to a man who has used rape to force her into marriage. This is an unusual woman who falls into no easy definition or category, as wife, mother, professional woman, or lover. She is simply herself, a Chinese Colette, charming, self-willed and compassionate. The book is beautifully written and paced, although as literature it has more the quality of a very good translation than a book that is fully comfortable in the boundaries of English, but that is to be expected from an author whose first encounter with English was as a teenager in a prep school in Shanghai. In the interest of full disclosure, I have known Mrs. Ching-Tsao's sons and daughters for many years, but was in no way prepared for the richness and depth of their mother's book.
   
   Edith Terry, Hong Kong