Memories of Silk and Straw: A Self-Portrait of Small-Town Japan

Book Description

Over 50 reminiscences of pre-modern Japan-illustrations of a way of life that has virtually disappeared. Voted "Best Book of the Year" by Japan's foreign press.

This is a collective biography, based on interviews taped by a small-town doctor, recording the lives of a cotton dyer, blacksmith, tofu maker, undertaker, carter, tenant farmer, local gangster, casual laborer, horse-meat butcher, magistrate's wife, apprentice geisha, rice merchant, thatcher,
carpenter, midwife, county hangman, pawnbroker, draper, fisherman, hairdresser, servant, charcoal burner, and so on-over fifty in all. Their memories are all related to a lakeside town and its rural suburbs northeast of Tokyo.

Born in the early years of this century, these people have both seen the old Japan and lived through the changes brought about by modernization and the onset of affluence. In a real sense, they provide the sole surviving links with a feudal way of life and its attitudes which have altered, in the
space of fifty years or so, beyond recognition.

Through plain-spoken anecdote-their voices by turns amused, nostalgic, disturbing but unsensational-they describe their youth in a tougher world where poverty was commonplace, where unwanted children were sometimes "thinned out'' at birth, where poorer families cooked out-of-doors and fishermen in
summer went almost naked. By saving their memories for posterity, the author hoped to close, just a fraction, the gap in perception between a traditional past and the Japan we know today. The result-as the distinguished anthropologist, Ronald Dore, says in his preface-is "a book to savor, and a book
to learn from."

These reminiscences are accompanied by illustrations painted by the author's father, Dr. Susumu Saga-themselves a record of an old man's past.

Customer Reviews:

far away and not so long ago.......2006-12-14

This book is filled with priceless historic snapshots of real-life everyday drama that cannot be found in any textbook. From farmers, fishermen, and merchants to executioners and geishas who entertained kamikaze pilots in the last days of their lives, these simple, unadorned memories of ordinary smalltown Japanese people living in a previous era under circumstances that we in modern, high-tech times cannot imagine left me in awe of the power of the human body and spirit. A learning experience in culture and history that reinforces how valuable the memories of our own elders are.

well written and interesting........2006-06-26

A collection of interviews with people who tell stories of their lives in a small japanese village from about 1890 to 1930. Arranged by occupation, all are very interesting. One of the most intriguing aspects of the book is the commonality the stories share with my own American relatives (as to the hardships of farm life, what people did for fun, etc.). The book even occasionally slips into a "when I was a kid we had to walk two miles uphill in the snow" sort of mode, but this makes many of the stories all the more touching.

A vanished world.......2004-10-29

This is a factual book in which a world that no longer exists becomes vividly real as seen through a provincial doctor's elderly patients recollections of their younger lives. My first introduction to this book came through my Japanese language teacher. Her physician is the son of the author. Each chapter covers the recollections of a single patient, so the book is very easily read in discreet portraits which together paint the overall picture. Dr Saga's patients tell their stories with such intimacy, warmth and frankness that you are drawn ever deeper into their world. All lived in and around Tsuchiura, a town on the edge of a large lake about 30 miles north of Tokyo. Many of the stories are of fishermen who made their living from the lake. There are also the merchants, gangsters and entertainers. Together, these people provide a real insight into the way people lived and worked in Japan before the rapid development of the latter half of the 20th century produced the comfortable lifestyles of today.

Memories of Silk and Straw.......2001-02-11

One of the best books about pre-war Japan. Each story brings to life a different aspect of life, culture, and class as they existed before the war. If you've visited Japan, you'll have a hard time believing this kind of world ever existed. I guarantee you won't be able to put it down.

Excellent 1st person accounts of pre-war japan.......1999-02-02

1st person accounts collected by a Tsuchiura doctor from elderly Japanese. Together, they piece together a quiltwork of Japanese society from the bottom on up. All, in pre-war Japan. Tsuchiura is just next door to Tsukuba, a modern science city and destination for many foreign researchers in Japan. As one such researcher, the book helped me understand some seemingly unexplainable remnants of old practices that still persist. I couldn't put the book down. The stories of lives jump out of the pages.

Bushido: The Classic Portrait of Samurai Martial Culture

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A Bible of Aristotelian-Like Virtues
Not only historic Japan, but also Japan at present
elegant, concise and informative
Understanding Bushido is like cooking...
Good material, but a peculiar rendering

Bushido: The Classic Portrait of Samurai Martial Culture
Inazo Nitobe
Manufacturer: Charles E Tuttle Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0804836280

Book Description

This classic introduction to the chivalric code of honor of the samurai will appeal to a broad range of readers interested in Japanese philosophy, military history, and the samurai era.
Inazo Nitobe, a Japanese philosopher writing in eloquent English, outlines the origins of bushido, or the way of the samurai, and shows how the code permeates traditional Japanese culture.
Nitobe's extensive research results in an eclectic and far-reaching book. He delved into Buddhism, Shintoism, and Confucianism while seeking similarities and contrasts by citing philosophers going back to the Romans, the Greeks and Biblical times.
Originally published 1905, this work is in its 33rd printing with Tuttle Publishing. It represents one of the most popular and authentic depictions of Samurai-era philosophy.

Customer Reviews:

A Bible of Aristotelian-Like Virtues.......2006-09-15

This book is highly relevant to Japanese society today, and I'm glad that at least some reviewers have noted that fact. Nitobe writes in a style one would expect from a man educated in the manner of Edwardian England, but that does nothing to detract from what he says. It may give the impression that his message is dated, but the opposite is true: he writes clearly and directly and his laconic gems of expression lead straight to a solid undertanding of the modern Japanese heart. He manages to pull off this feat by using apt comparisons to our Western pre-Christian heritage, primarily comparisons to pagan Rome and Greece, writers like Tacitus, Polybius, and Aristotle. Nitobe also often quotes Shakespeare and the likes of Carlyle, Nietzsche, and Emerson, but almost always as an extension of his use of classical literature. If a Western reader wants to know what Western culture would have looked like without the Judeo-Christian ethic, this book is likely a window directly into that alternate universe. Under the best outcomes, Bushido appears as something like a combination of the spirits of Athens and Sparta in harmony.

As a retired US Army officer living in Japan (off and on for the last 34 years), married into a Japanese family, witness to the raising of my daughters in the Japanese way (as Nitobe says, "to be able to hold their own against unexpected odds"), there is no doubt in my mind that Bushido is alive and thriving in modern Japan. When I was a teacher at the US Military Academy, we used this book in some elective philosophy classes to convey to students how Confucianism has become, over the centuries, the dominant influence in the Japanese way of life. Bushido adds to Confucianism healthy measures of resourcefulness, self-reliance, and emotional stamina within the central concept of filial piety. Emphasis on these virtues adds up to a character that values patience and self-control as its principal strengths in a personality whose purpose-driven-life is one of respect. It is hard, even for the most jaded cynic, to not have soaring admiration for the average Japanese person, at least those who have been steeped in this mighty tradition.

Many find it hard to imagine that such a culture could have spawned the war crimes and abuses witnessed in China and Korea during WWII. What most do not know is that the Japanese soldiers were the most chivalrous people on Earth in the early 20th century (during the Russo-Japanese War four years after this book was written). People who feel exploited and betrayed react with virulence and frequently end in moral failure; witness our own history of war crimes which even today we are loathe to own up to. There is no paradox. What Bushido does is foster an excellent environment for the possibility of a strong and honest character--that is what is most compelling about it.

I recommend reading this book with a copy of Aristotle's Rhetoric near to hand. Between the two the reader will never want for moral guidance and will be able to dispense with any library of self-help books or religion.

Not only historic Japan, but also Japan at present.......2006-04-07

I am a Japanese graduate student, aged 24, who studies molecular biology. I would like to add to the excellent reviews so far that this book is full of insights to understand not only historic Japan but also Japan and Japanese people at present.

The first reason is that most Japanese know Nitobe's name, face and act of writing this book. It is because his portrait was featured on the 5000 Yen banknote printed from 1984 to 2004.

The second reason is that many leaders at present, including, as far as I know, Masahiko Fujiwara, a mathematician, who wrote a recent Japanese best-seller titled Kokka no Hinkaku (Style of a nation) and some professors in my department's faculty, admire this book.

The third reason is that, though modernization and westernization wiped out the great fraction of Bushido customs, its spirits prevail in the minds of Japanese people. You may ask 'How is it possible without Bushido customs?', as M. de Laveleye, a Belgian jurist, asked Nitobe in the preface of the book, 'How do you impart moral education without religion?'. The answer, Masahiko Fujiwara points out, lies in people's reading classics, such as Genji Monogatari, Heike Monogatari, poems by Matsuo Basho and so on. In fact, as I see it, Bushido characteristics mentioned in this book, rectitude, courage, benevolence, politeness, sincerity, honor, the duty of loyalty, and self-control, still remain in Japan.

I agree with Dr. Fujiwara in general, but, I regard Manga (comic books) and Anime, now summed up as Otaku or Akihabara culture, as the main source of the Japanese moral for the younger generations. People of my age did not read much of original classics, when they are children. Instead, we have been surrounded by and soaked with many classics reproduced as Manga or/and anime (eg Nihon Mukashi Banashi (Japanese folklore), Asaki Yumemishi (Genji Monogatari), Vagabond (the story of Miyamoto Musashi, a famous Samurai), and so on). Some people despise Manga as picture books, but it is not. It is a powerful media of information that is easy to read and, therefore, rapidly, widely, and voluntarily read. So, Bushido spirits prevail in the minds of Japanese people much more deeply than you imagine.

For the reasons above, I assure you that reading this book will greatly enhance your understanding of both historic and present Japan and Japanese people.

elegant, concise and informative.......2006-02-13

Not only does this book provide the philosphy behind Japanese culture, this philosphy still offers a reasonable ethic to live by. Certainly I do not recommend seppuku (ritual suicide) as component of a healthy value system. But rectitude(justice), courage, benevolence, politeness, veracity, honor, loyalty, education, and self-control are healthy values which Bushido is based on.

This book is not for everyone, Nitobe assumes the reader is well versed in the classics of western literature, philospophy and relgion. This facility would be common to college graduates of the 19th century, these days we do not receive such a broad liberal arts education. I found I had to do some self education to understand his finer points...yet I am the better for it.

Not only did I learn more about Japan and Japan's place in world history, through Nitobe's analysis I became more aware of my own culture and it's standing relative to the rest of the world.

Understanding Bushido is like cooking..........2005-06-14

No, really. Bushido is not a science and it's not easy to understand. It is made up of many parts, each designed to carefully balance each other. Justice, Courage and Loyalty are just some of the ingredients needed to be added in just the right amounts. Too much can be as bad as too little. A man worried just about Justice might forget about Benevolence and a man worried about Honor might forget about Politeness.
Bushido is not like a coat, that you can put on and take off, but a way of life. A Master Chef does not just practice his art on the weekend - and neither does a Samurai.

Good material, but a peculiar rendering.......2004-09-26

The Bushido - the Warrior's Way - is one of the wonderful, unique features of Japanese culture, still important in the modern world. It has inspired many books, spanning several centuries. This book, written around 1905, is distinctive for being addressed to a Western audience.

It was written by a Japanese scholar in Europe, educated (possibly over-educated) in Western ways. As a reader of my own era, I would say that bushido can only be understood in the terms that it sets out. The reader must knock down the Western tradition, from medieval mythos forward, and accept wholly Asian premises for the bushido to make sense. This author, instead, tries to describe the bushido in Western terms. The result is paltry and grotesque.

Nitobe is a product of the bushido, and I am not. He is also a product of the late 19th century, writing in the first few years of the 20th, and writing with English learned at the end of the Victorian era. He explains the bushido in terms of the Old Testament, Shakespeare, Aristotle, and Cervantes. He speaks eloquently to his audience, men who are rigidly Christian and just plain rigid.

I find an unhappy desperation in this book, where the author tries to justify a profoundly Japanese culture in un-Japanese terms. This was the era just after Legge, Hearn, Burton, and FitzGerald. There was an influx of Eastern culture, but it was filtered so that proper English could disuss in their own terms. I am afraid that the filter stopped out all that was truly Japanese.

The serious sudent should read this book, but not to understand Japanese culture. Instead, the reader should try to understand the Western culture that this book addresses. Even now, we are afflicted by Victorian translations of Eastern classics. This book, working from East to West instead, shows just how dire that affliction had become.

//wiredweird

Self Portraits: Stories (Japan's Modern Writers)

Average customer rating:

"Been Dazed and Confused for so long it's not true"
a collection of his autobiography
Witty, perceptive, sometimes disturbing

Self Portraits: Stories (Japan's Modern Writers)
Osamu Dazai
Manufacturer: Kodansha Amer Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Seven Japanese Tales

ASIN: 4770016891

Customer Reviews:

"Been Dazed and Confused for so long it's not true".......2007-09-01

In the world of modern Japanese literature, Dazai stands alone. Or rather perches precariously on a tall stool, rambling effusively (and just a tad drunkenly) to any with ears to hear--an open, unpretentious, warmly irreverent expression on his face the whole time. His writings, like the man himself most likely, contain a host of contradictions: goofily entertaining and yet deadly serious, tragically pessimistic and yet irresistibly humorous, self-effacing and humble and yet conceited and arrogant, devil-may-care iconoclastic and yet solicitous of public opinion, full of vice and degradation and yet sublimely wholesome, prodigal and profligate and yet confessional and repentant, honest to a fault and yet full of sly little deceptions, full of life and yet suicidal.

And the collection of short stories in "Self Portraits" is perhaps the very best possible way to get to know this eccentric writer and his unique literary voice, in English translation anyway. As the title suggests, each tale is more or less (semi-) autobiographical in nature, mostly brief little vignettes taken from his own life and arranged and fictionalized just enough so that it's art rather than merely memoir. The stories themselves were written by Dazai over many years for a number of different venues, but the translator, Ralph M. McCarthy, has brought them together and anthologized them in chronological order according to the events in Dazai's life to which they more or less correspond, crafting from such disparate fragments the self-told tale of an extremely talented and troubled man--told as only he can. This imposed overarching structure is effective, certainly, but each story stands on its own too, each with its own character, mood and feel. By the end, the reader will get a surprisingly vivid sense of Dazai's versatility in tone and variability in literary craftsmanship--every so often a bit unsteady, admittedly, but never slipping off entirely.

In addition, the translator has supplied a fine introduction that quickly brings the reader up to speed on Dazai's life and writing and has generously included 22 photographs of Dazai and those close to him, many of which can only be found readily right here (at least on this side of the Pacific). So for longtime Dazai fans and new acquaintances alike, this fine little book is a great way to get to know this short-lived and yet unforgettable author a little better. Only be careful--sometimes he's just pulling your leg.

P.S. The short stories included in this collection are as follows:
1. "My Elder Brothers"
2. "Train"
3. "Female"
4. "Seascape with Figures in Gold"
5. "No Kidding"
6. "A Promise Fulfilled"
7. "One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji"
8. "I Can Speak"
9. "A Little Beauty"
10. "Canis Familiaris"
11. "Thinking of Zenso"
12. "Eight Scenes from Tokyo"
13. "Early Light"
14. "Garden"
15. "Two Little Words"
16. "Merry Christmas"
17. "Handsome Devils and Cigarettes"
18. "Cherries"

a collection of his autobiography.......2005-05-05

this book include the more biographical works of Dazai. Many of these explained his unorthodox behaviors, such as his addiction to drugs, and his involvement in communism. But some stories are a little confusing, such as "I Can Speak English" and the "Handsome Devil and Cigeretts". or maybe it's just me.

The pictures are very interesting. there were pictures of his wife, his suicide partner, and his best friends. how skinny he was when he was using drugs, and how depressed he looked in his later years, especially after he became a celebrity after the pblication of the setting sun...

Witty, perceptive, sometimes disturbing.......2000-07-03

This is a collection of the autobiographical stories that made Dazai's reputation in Japan during the 1930s and 40s. Dazai, like many Tanizaki characters, shows that a good analysis is only a good analysis, not a means to change. He did not lack for insight into his pathologies, and he wrote with considerable wit about his self-defeating and self-destructive patterns (especially parasitism, lack of any ability to associate with others casually, alcoholism, and, for a time, addiction to pain-killer medication). Dazai sounds like a wittier version of the European Romantic artist suffering on the road to suicide, not made for the crass world, but feeling less superior to it than European romantics.

Book Description

Reflex is a kaleidoscope of the youth culture of modern Japan, sex-obsessed, star-struck, and violent, struggling to overcome hidebound traditions that nevertheless pervades a world encompassed by bobby sox and Sony. Alarming yet playful in its frankness, it offers Western audiences a coherent view of Japanese subcultures as seen from within by Japan's leading creative artists. Forty contemporary Japanese artists, professional and amateur photographers, Manga illustrators, and renegade artists are included. Reflex is co-edited by Mark Sanders (senior editor for Another Magazine), Kyoichi Tsuzuki (artist and editor of the award-winning Roadside Japan), and Fumiya Sawa (consultant and co-curator on the Barbican Gallery's exhibition JAM: Tokyo - London).

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Japan: A Self Portrait
Osam Hiraki , Alain Sayag , and Keeichi Takeuchi
Manufacturer: Flammarion
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 2080304631
Release Date: 2004-11-29

Book Description

The Japanese photographers in this volume are the undiscovered Cartier-Bresson, Brassai, or Doiseneau.
From the 1945 bombing of Japan to the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, photography blossomed in the rapidly evolving country. Documentary photography that captured the horrors of war shifted to focus on the human strength for survival and solidarity. By the mid-1950s, Japan was at a crossroads between tradition and modernization, a contradiction immortalized by the most talented photographers of the time.
Chosen for aesthetic merit and content, these 150 photographs are accompanied by essays from renowned Japanese experts, covering historical, social, and photographic perspectives. Three chapters reflect the different periods of this societal transformation and the evolution of Japanese photography from social realism to a subjective and increasingly personal style.
Photographers: Ken Domon, Hiroshi Hamaya, Tadahiko Hayashi, Eikoh Hosoe, Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Kikuji Kawada, Ihee Kimura, Shigeichi Nagano, Ikko Narahara, Takeyoshi Tanuma, Shomei Tomatsu

Gendai Nihon: Sono jigazo = Contemporary Japan : self portraits

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Gendai Nihon: Sono jigazo = Contemporary Japan : self portraits

Manufacturer: Gakuseisha
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 4311700172

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Japan: A Self-Portrait

Manufacturer: Intl Center of Photography
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0933642024

Memories of Wind and Waves: a Self-Portrait of Lakeside Japan.(Book Review): An article from: The Oral History Review

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Memories of Wind and Waves: a Self-Portrait of Lakeside Japan.(Book Review): An article from: The Oral History Review
Linda McCann
Manufacturer: Oral History Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B00082F5OG
Release Date: 2005-07-31

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Oral History Review, published by Oral History Association on December 22, 2004. The length of the article is 1059 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Memories of Wind and Waves: a Self-Portrait of Lakeside Japan.(Book Review)
Author: Linda McCann
Publication: The Oral History Review (Refereed)
Date: December 22, 2004
Publisher: Oral History Association
Volume: 31 Issue: 1 Page: 86(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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Memories of Silk and Straw: A Self-Portrait of Small-Town Japan

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Memories of Silk and Straw: A Self-Portrait of Small-Town Japan
Junichi Saga
Manufacturer: see notes for publisher info
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NP6ZII

Memories of Wind and Waves: A Self-Portrait of Lakeside Japan

Average customer rating:

No geishas, no pagodas; real life in rural Japan.

Memories of Wind and Waves: A Self-Portrait of Lakeside Japan
Junichi Saga
Manufacturer: Kodansha International (JPN)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Memories of Silk and Straw: A Self-Portrait of Small-Town Japan

ASIN: 4770027583

Book Description

"When I close my eyes, all I see is clear, bright water." So remarks one of the people whose memories, told in their own words, make up this record of a vanishing way of life in small-town, lakeside Japan. Memories of Wind and Waves gathers the richly detailed stories of thirty-three elderly men and women who spent their lives working on or around Japan's second-largest lake, Kasumigaura. Though just forty miles from Tokyo, the area was throughout much of the twentieth century very rural and poor -- a world away from the capital that we know today. Many people tell of working late into each night in a struggle to survive, supplementing their main livelihood from fishing with a bit of farming or other work. Yet these are people who lived so close to nature -- in some cases literally on the lake -- that a great many of their reminiscences are not about hardship but about just how beautiful the place was.

Through this rare, rich oral history we come to know a world very different from our own, inhabited by people like the woman who was married off at nineteen to a riverboat captain and was "steaming mad" to find there was no toilet on board the ship where they were to live, and that she was expected to stick her rear end over the side to relieve herself, or Catfish Kyubei, who, when he dived underwater to catch catfish with his bare hands, stripped completely naked first, to make his body as cold as the fishes' so they wouldn't sense his presence.

Since the lives of many of the storytellers actually span the twentieth century, these people have been witness to remarkable changes, with much of the work they once did by hand and in extremely difficult conditions having now been industrialized, mechanized, or made obsolete. They take great pleasure in remembering a time when the lake and the lives of the people around it were more closely intertwined.

Their stories present a little-known, very human face of modern Japan and, perhaps more importantly, deal directly and in a plainspoken way with the issues that concern us all -- family, work, love, and memory.

Customer Reviews:

No geishas, no pagodas; real life in rural Japan........2006-09-04

This book is a collection if interviews with old Japanese men and women, remembering their life experiences in one particular area of pre-war Japan. The author is obviously very close to these people, as they speak freely and intimately about family, work, and hardship. This is a glimpse of every-day Japan in a past era that we rarely see. The strength of the average hard-working Japanese men and women is what shines through.

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Better translation than original

Escape From China: The Long Journey from Tiananmen to Freedom

A Gripping Story of Bravery and Determination Beyond Belief

telling truth or not

Cat-and-mouse game between government and dissident

Escape from China : The Long Journey From Tiananmen to Freedom
Zhang Boli
Manufacturer: Washington Square Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0743431618

Amazon.com

When the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations became a bloody massacre, Zhang Boli, a prominent student leader, was placed on China's most wanted list. Of the 21 listed, he is the only one to elude authorities. Escape from China is Zhang's first-person account of his perilous two-year flight from his pursuers, a flight that eventually brought him to America. Fleeing from a regime that had "lost rationality and humanity", he went north--crossing into Russia for a while--relying not only on the kindness of friends, relatives, and strangers, but also on his own ingenuity. He spent months living rough in the harsh, wild, Russian-Chinese border region east of Mongolia. Zhang's narrative is blunt, precise, and commendably modest. Especially compelling are the conversations he had during his odyssey. Much of their power derives from Zhang's rendering--unblinking, no matter how gruff and vulgar. Escape from China is at once an indictment of authoritarianism and a gripping story of hardship, bravery, and determination. --H. O'Billovich

Book Description

Who can forget the images, telecast worldwide, of brave Chinese students facing down tanks in Tiananmen Square as they took on their Communist government? After a two-week standoff in 1989, military forces suppressed the revolt, killing many students and issuing arrest warrants for top student leaders, including Zhang Boli. After two years as a fugitive, Zhang -- the only leader to elude capture -- knew that he must bid his beloved country, as well as his wife and baby daughter, farewell. Traveling across the frozen terrain of the former Soviet Union, where peasants rescued him, and through the deserted lands of China's precarious borders, Zhang had only his extraordinary will to propel him toward freedom. As told in Escape from China -- a work of great historical resonance -- his story will renew your faith in the human spirit.

Customer Reviews:

Better translation than original.......2006-03-08

Just a simple response to Mrs. G's review. Firstly, I wanted to ask Mrs. G, Could you read Chinese to decide whether the English version is good or bad? I found the translation a lot better than the original Chinese version. That is, the original Chinese is even more vulgar in many contexts, and I appreciated the translator's job, with some British taste indeed. A translator can only do so much to improve on a text that was not brilliantly written to begin with. If the translator's English is not refined enough, then it should be the editor's job to edit and revise it. Since you think the English version is exciting, what flaws is there that made you blame the translator? Indeed, I am glad that the translator has beautifully REwritten some content in a way that is acceptable to the American readers, and that shows that the translator is actually a good English writer and also well learned in Chinese studies. Maybe it does not occur to Mrs. G that even a pastor can be biased. It's regrettable if Mr. Zhang, who has apparently converted many Chinese, still cannot acknowledge the translator's efforts and achievement.

Escape From China: The Long Journey from Tiananmen to Freedom.......2005-08-20

This book provides a great view into the life of Zhang Boli, the Chinese culture, and the powerful hand of a sovereign God. Yes, the book contained explicit language; however, after visiting with Pastor Zhang Boli, I came to understand that the translating was done by a foreign writer who used lude American language. Pastor Boli, with his very limited English, was not able to read the final production so was unable to even identify the kind of language used in his story's English version. This is an exciting story that is even more awe-inspiring when one realizes that Zhang Boli is still alive and well, pointing many Chinese to Christ in America as well as abroad.

A Gripping Story of Bravery and Determination Beyond Belief.......2004-09-21

First, a short response to the review "telling truth or not" by "a reader". Shortly after the June 4th massacre the Chinese government broadcasted on television a video (apparently taken by the secret police) mockingly claiming that "while the 'poor worms' were on hunger strike, the leading 'turmoil elements' were eating in local restaurants using the donations intended for the movement." Almost immediately after the broadcast a university student in Hong Kong (a student of Chinese Universtiy of HK, if I remember correctly), whose face also appeared on the video, came out and clarifed that the dinner took place AFTER the hunger struck (the hunger strike ended at 10:00p.m. May 16). He was a representative of the universtiy students from HK, and he invited the leaders for dinner and he paid the bill -- no money was used from donations. When the video was replayed in slow motion, one could see what they were eating and would appreciate that it was indeed a very, very simple meal.

One may find that the way the officers conduct their business and the way the commoners response are somewhat beyond believe. I know that the author is genuinely telling the truth, for I was detained in China twice, once for a month and once for 3 days.

I have read the original Chinese version of the book and also some background material about the author. Within three months after he arrived at US he was diagnosed to have final stage liver cancer. The auther immediately started writing his memoir in the hospital bed hoping that he would leave something valuable for his daughter Little Snow. Miraculously his cancer was gone when he finished writing his book!

telling truth or not.......2003-05-21

I was a strong supporter of the Tiananmen movement for freedom and democracy, and those leaders were once a time my heros and heroines. But now I began to question the truth of their statements. They were not respectable as they claimed, and they did something actually not decent during the movement. When the others were on hunger strike, some of them were eating in local restaurants using the donations from those poor students, which were intended to fund the movement. What they have done later in the US is also disappointing. During my years in Beijing University, I secretly contacted some classmates of the former leaders, who I believe are honest people. They gave a totally different description of the deeds of those former heros. The Communists did kill the students, but the roles of these leaders in this movement should be studied more carefully before I believe them. I highly respect those died at the Square for the freedom and democracy of China, but those leaders are not my heroes any more, and began to question their doings in the horrible summer of 1989.

Cat-and-mouse game between government and dissident.......2003-04-29

Escape from China is a memoir of a Tienanmen demonstration student leader's 2-year harrowing dodge and escape from Communist China. The original Chinese edition postponed its publication until 1998 (almost 10 years after the massacre) for fear of the government's purge of those who helped Zhang Boli flee the country. Zhang Boli, 26 years of age in 1989, was a graduate student of the Writers' Class in Beijing University, the most prestigious institution of the country. Along with Chai Ling, Wuer Kaixi, Li Lu and other university students, Zhang organized a pro-democracy campaign that sent some one hundred thousand students from all over the country to Tienanmen Square in Beijing. The demonstration and hunger strike, the largest and the most overt of its kind since the 1976 April Fifth Campaign, resonated throughout the country and won support from workers and Beijing civilians.

The road to Tienanmen originated from the death of Hu Yaobang on April 15. The national mourning of the former secretary lent it a premonition to a horrible historical event that will be seared into memory of Chinese people. Zhang, in taut manner and rabid details, chronicled the events that led to what the Western world claimed to be the darkest and bloodiest day of modern China-June 4,1989, when the Communist Party ordered troops to pull into Beijing and enforced martial law. From the evening of June 3 to dawn June 4, blood splashed all over the capital and mingled with smoke wafting from vehicles ablaze. Party Secretary Zhao Ziying was forced out of office for his open support for the student demonstrators. While the National People's Congress opposed sending troops into the capital, the Party seized to disperse the students and end the movement by all means. The students and civilians simply underestimated the Army's brutality and were blinded by their naivete.

Nobody who has not lived through (and witnessed) the massacre can imagine the terrible burdens imposed on ordinary citizens who live under a totalitarian regime. For two years, Zhang lived the life of a fugitive-he was among the 21 most wanted insurgents who would most likely to be sentenced to death. An executive member of the Preparatory Committee in Beijing University, the editor-in-chief of the News Herald, the deputy commander of hunger strikes, and the President of the Tienanmen Democracy University (a term that refers to the new regime resulted upon the fall of Communist Power, in which people from all over the country can enjoy freedom of speech and rights), Zhang Boli bore the most severe accusations from the Communist Party and was deemed an immediate threat to national security. Zhang fled to Soviet Union and was brought back to the China. He hid in huts along the river banks in Heilongjiang (the northernmost province of China) with the help of friends, distant family relatives and policemen who disapproved of the Party, Zhang settled down as a farmer and lived under a fake identity. His little daughter and his wife Li Yan became his only solace during the struggles. He was determined to live on, to survive as a strong man, struggling against suffering and the Communist dictatorship that had ruined so many lives. When Zhang finally secured a connection in Hong Kong that will help him flee the country, he met his fate that was not only cruel but also excruciating and unexpected.

This book is by far the most gripping account of the Tienanmen massacre in 1989. It contains first-hand information from one of the 21 brave souls who stood up and challenged the Communist Party. While many of his dissident comrades were arrested and imprisoned (some were executed), Zhang managed to seek political asylum from the United States and reunited with his daughter Little Snow 10 years after he left the country. Was not for his account of the tragic events, many will not see the true faces of the Communist Party which ruled over 1.6 billion people in a totalitarian dictatorship. Was not for the souls lost in bloodshed, Chinese people will never see the vileness and the deceit of the leaders. Nothing published so far manages to achieve the same caliber as this memoir has conveyed the excruciating pain of a common civilian under such dictatorship. 4.0 stars.

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