Wang Cheng

This was like reading about a completely different world, and an interesting story of overcoming adversity and moving to another country with a completely different ideology. Although deprived of education under the Cultural Revolution, Wang went on to be a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Cincinnati, and achieve a successful career in America. This book contains many philosophical musings about the differences between American and Chinese cultures.
Middle-class and well-educated, Wang’s parents were regarded as part of the’Stinking Ninth’s’ during the Cultural Revolution, and mistreated and punished. Wang was sent to Inner Mongolia for years to help on farms, and almost deprived of a college education. He found mentors, making the best of it, and even being thankful for the experience in some ways. I think that this was because he seems to have a sunny nature, not because he approved of this crazy idea in any way. When his chance came to go to university, he really had to work hard to seize it.
Wang tells how he achieved his successful career, and how he found his wife, but the details about Chinese history and culture and the very different mindset there are the most interesting parts of the book. I felt that he seemed to lose his way a bit in the end, and I got a bit tired of it, but it is worth reading if you want an insight into modern Chinese history from someone who lived through it.

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I received this memoir as an Advance Reading Copy (ebook) from LibraryThing. At first, the tone of the book seemed overly naive and suspiciously non-critical of the author's experience being re-educated during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, but he was effectively recalling his state of mind as a teenager. As his memoir unfolds, he reveals how he naturally encounters many life observations (reversing his youthful acceptance of the effects of Mao's leadership), and concludes that few matters are defined in black and white and that "gray area" more accurately describes complicated conflicts in societies and within individuals. I'm glad I kept reading to discover the trajectory of the author's life and his understanding of events in his overall education. I've read a lot of what can be called "scar literature" from individuals who suffered greatly under Mao's leadership, and this memoir adds another important voice in that massive chorus.
As a memoir and a first published work, the writing is smooth and straightforward, if not particularly descriptive or elegant, I still regard it as excellent. 5 stars.… (mehr)