The great flowing river : a memoir of China, from Manchuria to Taiwan / Chi Pang-yuan ; edited and translated by John Balcom ; with an introduction by David Der-wei Wang.
Publisher:
Columbia University Press,
Copyright Date:
2018
Description:
xxv, 436 pages, 12 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map 24 cm
My homeland in song -- A journey of blood and tears : the eight years of the war of resistance -- With me, China shall not perish : Nankai Middle School -- At the confluence of three rivers : university life -- Victory : empty, everything is empty -- Taiwan trials and hardships -- Spiritual descendants -- University teaching, Taiwan, and literature -- Confirmation of this life : from the great flowing river to the sea of silence.
Summary:
" ... In this eloquent autobiography, the noted scholar, writer, and teacher Chi Pang-yuan recounts her youth in mainland China and adulthood in Taiwan. Chi's remarkable life, told in rich and striking detail, humanizes the eventful and turbulent times in which she lived. The Great Flowing River begins as a coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of China's war with Japan. Chi depicts her childhood in pre-occupation Manchuria and gives an eyewitness account of life in China during the war with Japan. She tells the tale of her youthful romance with a dashing pilot that ends tragically when he is shot down in the last days of the war. The book describes the deepening political divide in China and her choice to take a job in Taiwan, where she would remain after the Communist victory. Chi details her growth as an educator, scholar, and promoter of Chinese literature in translation and her realization that despite her roots in China, she has found a home in Taiwan, giving an immersive account of the postwar history of Taiwan from a mainlander's perspective ..."--Jacket.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.