Thirty Years in a Red House : A Memoir of Childhood and Youth in Communist China

The wrenching saga of a patriotic Communist family in China. This is the personal account of Zhu Xiao Di, born in Nanjing in 1958, the son of idealistic, educated parents. At the heart of this narrative are the trials of a family caught in the crosscurrents of history--from the early attractions of the Communist revolution to the national disaster that followed and the subsequent odyssey of recovery. 24 illustrations. Zhu Xiao Di Discusses What It Was Like To Grow Up During The Cultural Revolution In China And Be Involved In The Communist Movement During The 1930s. Foreword / Ross Terrill -- A Long-awaited Son -- Father As A Young Rebel -- My Nanny -- A Nice Neighborhood -- Preoccupied Parents -- Once Upon A Time -- Seven Grandmas And Ten Grandpas -- My First Year In School -- Values Coming From Picture Books -- The Gathering Winds Of The Storm -- Red Guards At Home -- Good Reasons Against Bad People -- Behind The Bedroom Door -- The Early Storm Barely Hits Our Family -- Surviving The Storm -- A Legendary Man -- The Rebels Didn't Get What They Wanted -- A Family Torn Apart -- Visiting My Parents In Their Labor Camps -- My Sister In The Countryside -- Life For Art's Sake -- Nanny Gets A New Job -- Brainwashing At School -- Home, Sweet Home -- Rice Pudding Almost Leads To Suicide -- A Former Member Of The Communist Party -- A Man Can Die Once, And Only Once! -- The Emperor's New Clothes -- 100 Years After The Paris Commune -- My Mother Loses Her Freedom Again -- Six Families In One House -- A Trip To Visit My Redetained Mother -- It Was Too Late -- What Do You Want To Be? -- It Was More Than Just Learning English -- A Television Crew From Hawaii -- Nine-pound Granny -- Mother Comes Home -- Thousands Of Miles For Nothing -- We, The True Marxists ... -- My Sister's Long Journey -- Good Will Be Rewarded With Good, And Evil With Evil -- Letters That Helped Others -- Not Ready To Make The Pledge -- Millions Arise After One Man's Death -- Life Goes On -- My First Job -- Over Two Hundred Billion Hours Wasted -- Back To Work Again At The Age Of Sixty-three. Zhu Xiao Di ; Foreword By Ross Terrill. Includes Index. This is the personal account of a man who grew up in China and witnessed tumultuous years of the Cultural Revolution. Born in Nanjing in 1958, Zhu Xiao Di was the son of idealistic, educated parents. His father and uncles joined the Communist movement in the 1930s during the Japanese occupation and were influential underground and military leaders throughout the revolution. Despite their honorable history, they fell into political disfavor by the time of the Cultural Revolution. In 1968, when Zhu was just ten years old, his mother and father were taken to different labor camps for "rehabilitation." In the face of this injustice, the Zhus struggled to maintain family ties and uphold traditional values. Eventually, the family was reunited and restored to some measure of prominence, and a monument was later erected in Nanjing in honor of Zhu's father, Zhu Qiluan. At the heart of this narrative are the trials of a family caught in the crosscurrents of history - from the early attractions of the Communist revolution to the national disaster that followed and the subsequent odyssey of recovery. This is the personal account of a man who grew up in China and witnessed the tumultuous years of the cultural revolution. Born in Nanjing in 1958, Zhu Xiao Di was the son of eductated party members and whose father and uncles were influential underground and military leaders during the revolution. When I was born in 1958, my father was already forty-four years old.