Mulberry and Peach: Two Women of ChinaThis extraordinary novel, winner of a 1990 American Book Award, recounts the story of two women--Mulberry and Peach--who are really one. Mulberry is a young woman who has fled the turmoil of postwar China to settle in the United States. Unable to forget the terrors she has witnessed or resolve the conflicts between her new life and her old, she develops a second personality: fearless, tough-talking, sexually uninhibited, Peach. While Mulberry clings to her cultural and ethical roots, Peach renounces her past to embrace the American way of life with a vengeance. Brilliantly innovative in style, Mulberry and Peach offers a rare women's perspective on the upheavals of modern China, and presents an unforgettable portrait of the pain of cultural dislocation and the anguish of psychological disintegration. |
Contents
Peachs first letter to the man from the USA Immigration Service January 1970 | 11 |
Mulberrys Notebook from the Chutang Gorge July 1945August 1945 | 15 |
Peachs second letter to the man from the USA Immigration Service 2 February 1970 | 59 |
Mulberrys Notebook Peking the Besieged City December 1948March 1949 | 66 |
Peachs third letter to the man from the USA Immigration Service 22 February 1970 | 113 |
Mulberrys Notebook an Attic in Taiwan Summer 1957Summer 1959 | 116 |
Peachs fourth letter to the man from the USA Immigration Service 21 March 1970 | 157 |
Mulberrys Notebook USA July 1969January 1970 | 160 |
Princess Bird and the Sea | 207 |
Afterword | 209 |
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Common terms and phrases
A-king asks attic Aunt Shen boat body bunk Chia-ch'ing Chia-kang Chiang Chiang Kai-shek child China Chinese Chungking clothes Communist courtyard dark glasses dead Donner Lake door dragon Eighth Army escape eyes face father Female Clown flowers Gate of Heavenly girl Gorge hand head Heaven Heavenly Peace Hsing-hsing Hualing I-po Immigration Service jade griffin Japanese kill Lao-shih laughs live look Mao Tse-tung married mother mountains Mulberry and Peach Mulberry's Nanking Nationalist Nie Hualing Nieh Nieh's night Pai Hsien-yung Peach-flower Woman Peking People's Liberation Army police Refugee Student River Sang-wa says shouts sing sitting Six points snow someone stand stares stop story suddenly Taiwan talking Tan-hung tatami mat tell Temple Temple of Heaven Teng There's Tientsin Tso-i turn Uncle Ts'ai voice walk wall water tower Wei County window women Yangtze River yells
Popular passages
Page 6 - You're wrong. Mulberry is Mulberry and Peach is Peach. They're not the same at all. Their thoughts, manners, interests, and even the way they look are completely different. Mulberry, for instance, was afraid of blood, animals, flashing lights. I'm not afraid of those things. Mulberry shut herself up at home, sighing and carrying on. I go everywhere, looking for thrills. Snow, rain, thunder, birds, animals, I love them all. Sometimes Mulberry wanted to die, sometimes she wanted to live. In the end...