At the age of 20, Fabienne Verdier dropped her studies in Paris to travel alone in Communist China in search of studies in traditional Chinese art. The year was 1981 and what Verdier found when she arrived at the small university in Central China was shocking. She was confronted with the Communist Party policies of artistic and intellectual repression and secrecy, which she met by boldly demanding to be treated as just another Chinese student. When the authorities relented and allowed her to joint the other students, she found herself struggling to maintain her health and mental well-being because of the students' harsh conditions, poverty, and malnutrition. She defiantly insisted on studying traditional arts and created chaos for local bureaucrats when she went searching for a genuine master of calligraphy and painting. This account of her adventures also documents the stark reality of life for Chinese students in the years leading up to the infamous Tiananmen Square demonstrations of 1989.
