Synopses & Reviews
“Shirley Temple” in Wonderland meets Chinese opium addicts, Nazis, and Japanese bayonets—Tea on the Great Wall is a young American girl’s account as the world falls apart in 1930s China. Patricia Luce Chapman’s memoir is full of the color and feel of living as a foreigner in a Chinese world, the encroachment of the Japanese, and the takeover by the Nazis of the German school in Shanghai that she attended.
Review
“Patricia Chapman’s beautifully written memoir offers texture—a sense of colors and smells—that puts history in an essential perspective. We can appreciate and enjoy her remarkable story, and be grateful that it has been told, and told so well.” —James A. Kelly, former U.S. Asst. Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs
Synopsis
"Shirley Temple" in Wonderland meets Chinese opium addicts, Nazis, and Japanese bayonets--Tea on the Great Wall is a young American girl's account as the world falls apart in 1930s China. Patricia Luce Chapman's memoir is full of the color and feel of living as a foreigner in a Chinese world, the encroachment of the Japanese, and the takeover by the Nazis of the German school in Shanghai that she attended.
Synopsis
China in the 1930s and a young American girl is an eye-witness as the world falls apart. Patricia Luce Chapman's memoir is full of the color and feel of living as a foreigner in a Chinese world, the encroachment of the Japanese, the takeover by the Nazis of the German school in Shanghai which she attended. This book more than any other brings to life the era and the link through to today.
About the Author
Patricia Luce Chapman was born in 1926 and lived in Shanghai for the first 14 years of her life, moving to the United States in November 1940 when the tensions that led to full war with Japan grew to unacceptable levels. Her father, interned in a Japanese camp after Pearl Harbor, was evacuated to the United States in 1943 on a prisoner exchange ship. Mrs Chapman has since had a rich and varied career in journalism, songwriting and acting. TEA ON THE GREAT WALL is her fourth book. Her previous books include TO BERNARD BERENSON WITH LOVE, about her close friendship with the preeminent authority on Italian Renaissance art and SURVIVORS GUIDE TO GRIEF: be like a starfish. Mrs. Chapman worked on Town and Country Magazine in 1946-47 and has written for many other publications including the Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Times, and the Associated Press from Washington, D.C. and Micronesia. As a country music songwriter, Ms. Chapman has written many prize-winning songs and lyrics and as an actor has appeared in many musical comedy and drama productions. She lives on the Texas Gulf Coast; she has four children and four grandchildren.