Karoline Kan

Karoline Kan’s memoir about growing up in China. She covers three generations of women in her family. It recounts the political, economic, and cultural changes from Chairman Mao’s regime to Deng Xiaoping to present day. It recounts her personal journey from her birth in 1989 in a small village to her family’s move into town to eventually attending university in Beijing. She was born as a second child during the one-child policy and was influenced by her mother’s quiet rebellion to form her own feminist ideas.

Her family’s stories are used to illustrate their personal responses to historic events. It provides much insight into the cultural norms practiced in China, where traits such as sacrifice, obedience, conformity, and respect are valued. Millennials, especially, are faced with walking the line between the traditional behaviors expected by their parents and grandparents, while navigating the vast changes taking place in contemporary China.

It is written in a straight-forward manner. It is impressive that she wrote it in her second language. This is a view of China from the inside. Recommended to those interested Chinese culture and history, and especially to westerners seeking cross-cultural understanding.… (mehr)

Under Red Skies is an enjoyable read about the ordinary stories in everyone's lives. Many millennials are faced with more opportunities than previous generations and that is especially true in a country such as China undergoing rapid change. Karoline Kan recalls pieces of life in rural and urban China and the clash between traditional and modern values. While I had read about One Child Policy, I was not aware of how invasive it was for women in that time period. While westerners joke often about the censorship and surveillance in China, Kan's account made me think that we take many freedoms for granted. June Fourth and Falun Gong are examples of this. This book may not have a dramatic story some people may be looking for but it is a neat little portrait of Chinese life.… (mehr)

Karoline Kan’s Under Red Skies: Three Generations of Life, Loss, and Hope in China tells the story of her life and the lives of her parents’ and grandparents’ generation, showing the changing nature of life in China and people’s expectations. She became interested in the project when she had to write a report for school. Kan writes, “I wanted to learn the history of regular people like me and my family, not the martyrs China had invented. I was fed up with the patriotic tales. I started to doubt whether those stories were true at all, or to what degree. I often saw a different, sometimes even contradictory, point of view between the history books and history told through the lives of ordinary people I knew” (pg. 122). This led her to talk to her maternal grandmother, learning about foot-binding, which in turn led her to reflect on generational and gendered expectations.

Kan writes of changing attitudes toward popular culture, “My generation grew up with China’s embrace of commercialization. We didn’t sew our own clothes – advertisements on television, in magazines, and on billboards told us what to buy, what to wear, and what to do” (pgs. 153-154). This commercialization works to divide the experiences and expectations between the younger generation and the older as well as between city life and those who live in towns and the countryside. Describing her own family, Kan writes, “Mom grew up on stories of heroes and soldiers saving our country. I grew up with those grand stories, too, but also with Western fairy tales about Snow White and Cinderella. Mom’s generation regarded ‘bitter eating’ as normal and felt guilty about pleasure. Chunting and I – on the other hand – were more than fine with it” (pg. 155).

Discussing her growing outrage at the treatment of women in popular culture, Kan writes, “Ads on TV and in shopping malls reminded Chinese women every day that, as they aged, their value declined. Whether it was the latest hair-color product or anti-aging creams, everything was sold as a way for women to stay beautiful in order to be loved, and to make sure their husbands never left” (pg. 252). She reflected on the gendered system and the expectations children grow up with. Kan writes, “I was taught that a good girl should be considerate, loyal to her partner, and demure. I was told to pay close attention to my appearance. Boys, on the other hand, were encouraged to be strong, sporty, decisive, and independent… And even though statistically girls tended to outperform boys academically, it was implied that the boys had ‘greater potential’” (pg. 253). These reflections led her to find her feminist voice and reject many of the old expectations in order to find a way of living that makes her happiest.

Kan’s work offers invaluable insight into the millennial generation in China, not only showing how it differs from earlier generations, but also showing a great deal of commonality with millennials in the West, especially her decision to seek a job that would give her fulfillment rather than just a large salary. Readers interested in the millennial experience and in modern Chinese history will find this an enlightening volume.… (mehr)