Synopses & Reviews
Born between 1907 and 1914 in Hofei, China, the Chang sisters have lived through a period of astounding change. In this extraordinary book, written with the benefit of a rare cache of letters, diaries, poetry, and interviews, writer and historian Annping Chin shapes the story of this family into a riveting chronicle that provides remarkable insight into the old China and its transition into the new. From their father, the Chang sisters inherited reason and a belief in the virtues of education. From their mother, they learned about the human spirit and the art of finding an appropriate path. And from their nurse-nannies they learned how modern ways were often countered by older Chinese values. Such a background launched these four women into worlds as varied as their personalities: those of theater, education, modern literature, classical studies, and calligraphy. Through their years of artistic exploration, courtship, modern marriage, and grim tests of world war and Communist victory, each of these four would bear witness in her own way to their nation's paroxysms. Blending personal experiences with historical scope, Four Sisters of Hofei is inspiring, illuminating, and important.
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Carolyn See andlt;Iandgt;The Washington Postandlt;/Iandgt; Extraordinary...The four sisters live, sustained by family, music, love of learning...an amazing story.
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andlt;Iandgt;The Washington Timesandlt;/Iandgt; This is a charming book, full of quiet scholarship and illuminating insights, and offers the Western reader a good introduction to the long tragedy of 20th-century China.
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andlt;Iandgt;The Sunday Telegraphandlt;/Iandgt; (London) Remarkable....It is not often that you read something so powerfully understated. One hesitates to throw the word `uplifting' around, yet it is appropriate here.
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andlt;Iandgt;The New York Times Book Reviewandlt;/Iandgt; Chin's style is fluent without verbosity, poetic without ostentation....This is, above all, a story of private lives, sometimes quite alien, sometimes disturbingly familiar. Chin is...to be commended for...re-creating a world that would otherwise have been lost to us.
Synopsis
The true story of four sisters born between 1907 and 1914 in China, andlt;Iandgt;Four Sisters of Hofeiandlt;/Iandgt; is an intimate encounter with history. The Chang sisters lived through a period of astounding change and into the twenty-first century. Unusual opportunities and an extraordinary family education launched them into varied worlds -- those of the theater, modern literature, classical studies, and calligraphy -- but their collective experience offers a cohesive portrait of a land in transition. andlt;BRandgt; With the benefit of letters, diaries, poetry, and interviews, writer and historian Annping Chin shapes the Chang sisters' stories into a composite history steeped in China's artistic tradition and intertwined with the political unrest and social revolutions of the twentieth century.
About the Author
andlt;bandgt;Annping Chinandlt;/bandgt; studied mathematics at Michigan State University and received her PhD in Chinese Thought from Columbia University. She was on the faculty at Wesleyan University and currently teaches in the History Department at Yale University, where her fields of study include Confucianism, Taoism, and the Chinese intellectual tradition. She is the author of three previous books: andlt;Iandgt;Children of China: Voices from Recent Years, Tai Chen on Mencius,andlt;/iandgt; and andlt;Iandgt;Four Sisters of Hofeiandlt;/iandgt;. She has also coauthored, with Jonathan Spence, andlt;Iandgt;The Chinese Century: A Photographic History of the Last Hundred Years.andlt;/iandgt;
Table of Contents
Contents Acknowledgments
The Chang Family
Prologue
Chapter 1: The Wedding
Chapter 2: Birth
Chapter 3: Reasons for Moving
Chapter 4: The Hofei Spirit
Chapter 5: Grandmother
Chapter 6: Mother
Chapter 7: Father
Chapter 8: The School
Chapter 9: Nurse-Nannies
Chapter 10: Yuan-ho
Chapter 11: Yun-ho
Chapter 12: Chao-ho
Chapter 13: Ch'ung-ho
A Note on Sources
Notes
Bibliography
Index