Rate this book

The Little Red Guard (2012)

by Wenguang Huang(Favorite Author)

3.71 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1594488290 (ISBN13: 9781594488290)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Riverhead Hardcover

review 1: To me this book was a beautifully written clash of cultures within the culture of emerging Communist China. The author's grandmother lives with his family during the end of Mao's reign, and she is their connection to pre-communist China, while Wenguang himself is growing up within the new China and participates in the youth program at school, where we get the book's title. His father is the bridge, stuck between the two. This generational dynamic is an endearing look into life for an average family under Mao as they struggle to one day give grandma the funeral she wants, which is illegal in communist China. Wenguang's writing is superb, bringing you right into daily life with vivid imagery. You can taste grandma's cooking, you can feel the tension between his parents over ... moregrandma's eventual death, and his seamless story-telling gives us a front row view into Mao's China for a typical family in the big city. Really enjoyed it.
review 2: Very entertaining and informative. His description of everyday life in China during the cultural revolution reveals some of the horrors, but because the author primarily focuses on the ordinary events of family life as seen by a child, it is also hysterically funny. Because of his father's position as a worker (factory manager) and party member, his family did not suffer as badly as the intellectuals and other targeted groups. This book is a great comparison to the same period described in Ping Fu's autobiography "Bend, Not Break, a Life in Two Worlds. Her father was a professor and mother, an accountant. Her family and Ping in pparticular suffered severely because of their status. Both authors are inspiring. Each migrated to the U.S. Huang is a Chicago based writer and translator. Fu is CEO of Geomagic, a developer and provider of cutting edge technology. Great Reads. less

Download links for: The Little Red Guard

Advertising