Tracing it Home: A Chinese JourneyIn the tradition of Wild Swans and Life and Death Shanghai, Lynn Pan's Tracing It Home weaves a captivating tale of a family caught up in the turmoil of twentieth-century China. Set in motion by the death of the author's mother, the narrative chronicles the unraveling of an intricate puzzle of familial relationships spanning three generations and two continents. Here is Shanghai in the forties and fifties - a universe of drug addiction, anarchy, suffering wives, and concubines - a way of life on the brink of collapse. From this world emerges a parade of unforgettable individuals: the grandfather, a flawed but brilliant tycoon, and his two mistresses, Pearl and Jade Peach; the mother and grandmother, who refuse to waive their claims to love and fidelity; and Hanze, the devoted family retainer who paid for his loyalty with twenty-four years in labor camps. Pan follows these lives through the years of Japanese occupation, revolution, and exile, and shows how the larger wave of history takes its toll on the hearts and minds of ordinary people. With the intimacy of a novel and the pace of a mystery, Tracing It Home is a profoundly moving portrait of China in this century. |
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Anfeng arrived asked Baoji better brother called Canton Cantonese Chiang Chiang Kai-shek China Chinese Chusan Chusan Archipelago communist Cultural Revolution dark daughter dead death Didi door Du Yuesheng everything eyes face fate father feel felt French Concession grandfather grandfather's hands Hanze Hanze's happened head heard Hong Kong hour imagine Jade Peach Japanese Jieshou King of Beggars knew Kuomintang labour later leave Little Panshi living looked Madame Malaya Mao Zedong memory mind Minutti mother Nanny never Niangniang night Ningbo once one's opium past People's perhaps Red Guards remember revolution Road Route Winling seemed Shanghai Shanghainese singsong house Sinkiang Soochow stood tell thing thought told took turned Urumqi voice wait walked Wang Wang Jingwei wanted wife woman women wondered words Yeshu Ying young Yuesheng Zhaotong