Dimensions
134 x 203 x 19mm
In 1940‚ Li Na was born as the youngest son of a government official in a mansion in Nanjing. China was in the throes of World War II and the Sino-Japanese War; Nanjing itself was in the grip of a Japanese-collaborationist government. Twenty-one years later‚ when Li-now called Charles-abandoned China forever‚ the nation was fully embroiled in the chaos of Chairman Mao's Communist reform campaigns.
This is the story of the tumultuous years in between‚ years when Li lived through an almost unbelievable range of the emerging nation's many identities. He saw his father arrested by Nationalist agents and thrown into prison‚ then later released to flee as a refugee from Mao's newly established People's Republic of China. He lived in the dangerous slums of Nanjing and in the thriving former French concession of Shanghai. He experienced both the heady taste of materialism in British Hong Kong under the influence of the decadent foreign "white ghosts‚" and crippling starvation in the harsh confines of a Communist reform school.
At the same time‚ this is Li's personal story of his quest for acceptance and approval from his family‚ particularly his harsh‚ manipulative father. While his father's political ambitions caused the family incredible hardship and suffering‚ Li still strove to please him‚ bound by the traditional Chinese ideology of filial piety and his own desperate desire for his father's love. Ultimately‚ a play by his father for political power would test the limits of their father-son bond and change their relationship forever.
In this exceptional memoir‚ readers will experience not only the growth pains of a nation undergoing torturous rebirth‚ but will also gain an intimate understanding of the intricate‚ subtle‚ and yet all-powerful motivations and ties that bound the traditional Chinese family. Lyrical and luminous‚ intense and illuminating‚ The Bitter Sea is the unique tale of the coming-of-age of one young man and his country.
