Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden - Two Sisters Separated by China's Civil War

Scions of a once-great southern Chinese family that produced the tutor of the last emperor, Jun and Hong were each other's best friends until, in their twenties, they were separated by chance at the end of the Chinese Civil War. For the next thirty years, while one became a model Communist, the other a model capitalist, they could not even communicate.

On Taiwan, Jun married a Nationalist general, established an important trading company, and ultimately emigrated to the United States. On the Communist mainland, Hong built her medical career under a cloud of suspicion about her family and survived two waves of "re-education" before she was acclaimed for her achievements.

Zhuqing Li recounts her aunts' experiences with extraordinary sympathy and breath-taking storytelling. A microcosm of women's lives in a time of traumatic change, this is a fascinating, even-handed account of the recent history of separation between mainland China and Taiwan.

About the author

Zhuqing Li is a professor of East Asian Studies at Brown University and the author of four scholarly books on Chinese linguistics. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Product details

• Authors: Zhuqing Li, Li Zhuqing
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.10.2023
• EAN: 9781324064398
• ISBN: 978-1-324-06439-8
• Dimensions: 140 mm x 211 mm x 25 mm
• Weight: 307 g
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; China, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Women, Biography: general, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Minority Studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Women's Studies, 20th Century, HISTORY / World, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, HISTORY / Asia / China, HISTORY / Women, General & world history, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, Social and cultural history, Ethnic groups and multicultural studies, Asian History, Gender studies: women, General and world history, Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies, Gender studies: women and girls, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Biracial & Multiracial Studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Cultural & Ethnic Studies / Asian Studies, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Cultural & Regional