Biography - General & Miscellaneous, Family Relationships, Historical Biography - Asia - China, 20th Century Chinese History - People's Republic - 1949-Present, Women's Studies - General & Miscellaneous, General & Miscellaneous Chinese History

Mulberry Child

Name: Mulberry Child
Author: Jian Ping
ISBN: 9780984277902

by Jian Ping

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Overview

Mulberry Child is a tale of resilience, narrated through the innocent eyes of a young girl who grew up during China’s Cultural Revolution. It covers the life stories of three generations—Jian’s grandmother, a traditional woman, her parents, both devoted Communist officials who went through severe persecution during the Cultural Revolution, and her siblings who grew up amidst political turmoil.

During the Cultural Revolution, Jian Ping’s father Hou Kai, a high-ranking government official, is falsely accused of treason—he is beaten, detained, and publicly shamed. Her mother Gu Wenxiu, a top school administrator, is paraded in public and detained by the Revolution Committee and the Red Guards—both driving forces of the Cultural Revolution. She is forbidden to see her children and repeatedly requested to divorce her husband. The family is pushed to a breaking point when they are forced to live in an adobe house without heating, water, or a toilet. Facing abuse and deprivation, Jian Ping’s family stands steadfastly together, but the traumatic experiences changed the courses of their lives forever.

Through vivid descriptions, Jian reveals the strong roles of women in the family. Based on her own memories, as well as extensive interviews and research, Jian presents an insider’s look into a closed-off world.

About the Author, Jian Ping

Jian Ping was born and raised in China. She is an author, public speaker, and film producer. Her book, Mulberry Child: A Memoir of China, tells the story of her coming of age as the daughter of a high-ranking government official and her family’s traumatic experiences during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) in China. Mulberry Child has been made into a feature-length documentary movie.

Since the publication of Mulberry Child, Jian has been featured on Chicago Tonight Show with Phil Ponce at WTTW and the Asian American Network News and conducted many radio and newspaper interviews in the United States and Canada. Book reviews on Mulberry Child have appeared in more than a dozen Chinese and English newspapers and select NPR programs. Jian is a contributing writer at Xinhua News Agency, the official news network in China, and a columnist for Asian Wisconzine, a monthly magazine in the Midwest.

Jian’s other publications include A Fool’s Paradise (Xiwang Publishing, China, translator, 1984), a collection of translated short stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Chinese Film Theory (Praeger, New York, co-editor, 1989). She was a translator at the China Film Corporation in Beijing for four years before coming to the United States to do graduate studies in 1986. Jian worked as a manager at the largest U.S. beer importer for 20 years (1989—2009).

Over the past two years, Jian has given more than 70 talks at business/social organizations, universities, schools, and special interest groups, including the World Trade Organization in Illinois, the International Women’s Association in Chicago, the Federal Asian Pacific American Council, University of Chicago, Benedictine University, DePaul University, National Federation of Press Women, the Art Institute of Chicago and Miss Porter’s. She is the keynote speaker at the 141st Commencement Ceremony at Loyola University (College of Arts and Sciences) in May 2011.

Jian held a Ragdale residency (2007) and was a recipient of the Florence Bear Picker Fellowship from the Radgale Foundation. Jian is working on her next book, From Changchun to Chicago, in collaboration with her daughter, Lisa. It focuses on their conflicts resulted from their different social and cultural backgrounds.

Jian has a bachelor’s degree in English from Jilin University, Changchun, China and dual master’s degrees in Film and International Affairs f

Reviews

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Editorials

Alex Kotlowitz

In Mulberry Child, Jian Ping has written a moving, important account of an extraordinary time. And she has done so with grace, acuity and a generosity of spirit. Mulberry Child is one compelling read.

Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Were No Children Here

Larry Engelmann

“Jian Ping pays tribute to her parents who struggled against tremendous odds.... that she herself survived to write this memoir, and to tell it with such maturity and wisdom and forgiveness, is a tribute to her family, her generation and her nation.”

Larry Engelmann, author of Feather in a Storm and Daughter of China

Rob Gifford

Jian Ping's book Mulberry Child is a moving account of her family's struggle to survive China's Cultural Revolution. She has in her poignant memoir helped Westerners to understand this little-known period in China's history, and put tragic and heroic faces to the individuals who suffered through that time. Mulberry Child is important reading for anyone who wants to understand where modern China has come from.

Rob Gifford, former Beijing Correspondent of NPR, and author of China Road

Ronald Yates

Jian Ping is a terrific story teller who writes with both power and precision.

Ronald E. Yates, Dean of the College of Media at the University of Illinois and former foreign correspondent and author based in Asia

Sharon Stangenes

I found this a fascinating and moving story about a child surviving in turbulent times. It is also a touching portrayal of the love that binds a close-knit family whatever the political ideology. Jian Ping’s family is a compelling glimpse of the resilience inside a closed and mysterious society about which Americans know little and only now are beginning to learn.”

Sharon Stangenes, Former Chicago Tribune Columnist