Books by Zhuqing Li
“This is about a family that is divided. One sister spends most of her life in Taiwan and the other spends most of her life on the mainland. It’s a very personal story. It’s a memoir and family history, driven by the author’s interest in figuring out the things that the family didn’t talk about. There’s a bit of the historian-as-detective in this book, as she tries to work out what was going on when her aunts were young…The women in the story are special and they’re not just passive agents. But there is a high degree of luck, which is something that also figures in this. The author herself, in some ways, was lucky. She benefited from having a relative who could help her get connected to the outside world, even though at an earlier point, you would have said, ‘How unfortunate to have a family whose members were disconnected that way.’ That captures something important about China and the China story.” Read more...
Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Historian
Interviews where books by Zhuqing Li were recommended
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1
Fragile Cargo: The World War II Race to Save the Treasures of China's Forbidden City
by Adam Brookes -
2
Agents of Subversion: The Fate of John T. Downey and the CIA's Covert War in China
by John Delury -
3
Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden: Two Sisters Separated by China's Civil War
by Zhuqing Li -
4
Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong
by Louisa Lim -
5
Accidental Holy Land: The Communist Revolution in Northwest China
by Joseph W. Esherick
The Best China Books of 2022, recommended by Jeffrey Wasserstrom
The Best China Books of 2022, recommended by Jeffrey Wasserstrom
From a true story that reads like a spy novel to a detailed study of the mythic origins of the Chinese Communist Party in Northwest China, there were lots of interesting books published about China this year. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a professor at UC Irvine and specialist in modern Chinese history, recommends some of his 2022 favourites.
