I thought the late 60s in the US were a time of radical change, but they're nothing compared to how Mao's Red Guards turned China upside down. I live in Shanghai where this memoir took place. Surprisinly, there's very little local history preserved. No walking tours, nothing much in the Shanghai Museum. While reading I wanted to run out and find her former house and the prison where she spent six years. No luck yet finding them. The author does a great job of blending her personal narrative with enough background history lessons that when you're done reading her story you come away with a much deeper understanding of why and how thousands of Chinese were persected. But for me, I have more questions about Communism than ever before. What Mao preached as class struggle and a new revolution was just the usual dictatorship diatribe. Maybe after reading up on it and comparing the Chinese revolution with the Cuban revolution I'll understand Communism better.Read this book. ( )

a memoir of the author's life during the Cultural Revolution when she was incarcerated for 6 years for the "crime" of belonging to the so-called elite and capitalist class. this is one of those "unputdownable" books i've read lately. one can't help admire the strength and poise with which this remarkable woman endured all that. written in unsentimental prose, and for all the tragedy that she had to go through (losing her daughter to the Red Guards among others), she manages to be somewhat detached from events - a fact which allows her to observe the events around her with as much objectivity as she could. thus she is able to provide the reader a context and analysis that is more logical in its approach rather than sentimental. i felt, however, that she adopts an almost condescending tone, both with the people she dealt with, and somewhat in the tone of her storytelling, as if she believed she was better than most and above all "these toiling masses." the book gives a very good insight too of the turmoil in China during this period. ( )

Eye-opening experience when reading this book. Loved it. ( )

Having read this a second time recently for a book group, I was struck again by how graceful Cheng's writing is. For someone who has endured what most would call a slice of hell, she has a grace and strength present from start to finish. It is a wonder that she is able to recall the smallest details that she writes about, but with the time of her hands spent in isolation, it's no small wonder that she had time to hone her storytelling. A beautifully written book. ( )

An amazing story of the power of the human spirit to survive adversity. While the story of a woman in solitary confinement during the height of China's cultural revolution may seem to be a story that would depressing and difficult to read, this woman's story is infused a tremendous amount of humanity and courage and steadfast belief in right and the ultimate triumph of right -- so much so that the book is continually uplifting and inspiring. Here is a woman to be considered a true hero. ( )