Remembering Shanghai - A Memoir of Socialites, Scholars and Scoundrels by Claire Chao (paperback) - 9781954854055

Publisher: Ingram IPS

ISBN 13: 9781954854055

Condition: Brandnew

Binding: paperback

Pages: 308

Dimensons: 229 x 152 x 30 | 400 (gram)

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WINNER OF OVER 20 LITERARY AND DESIGN AWARDS including the Writer’s Digest Grand Prize and Rubery Book Award Book of the Year

True stories of glamour, drama, and tragedy told through five generations of a Shanghai family, from the last days of imperial rule to the Cultural Revolution.A high position bestowed by China’s empress dowager grants power and wealth to the Sun family. For Isabel, growing up in glamorous 1930s and ’40s Shanghai, it is a life of utmost privilege. But while her scholar father and fashionable mother shelter her from civil war and Japanese occupation, they cannot shield the family forever.When Mao comes to power, eighteen-year-old Isabel journeys to Hong Kong, not realizing that she will make it her home—and that she will never see her father again. She returns to Shanghai fifty years later with her daughter, Claire, to confront their family’s past—one they discover is filled with love and betrayal, kidnappers and concubines, glittering palaces and underworld crime bosses.

Lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched, Remembering Shanghai follows five generations from a hardscrabble village to the bright lights of Hong Kong. By turns harrowing and heartwarming, this vivid memoir explores identity, loss and redemption against an epic backdrop.In the tradition of Wild Swans, this fully illustrated, multi-generational memoir is at once a thrilling journey and a dazzling time capsule of Shanghai during a period of dramatic political and cultural change.“Beautiful and rich, with fascinating details—transports the reader to Shanghai and Hong Kong . . . this volume is a treasure." —Lisa See, New York Times bestselling author of Shanghai Girls and The Island of Sea Women

“Sparkling prose and enthralling stories catapult you into the inner life and doings of Shanghai’s cultured classes." —Helen Zia, author of Last Boat Out of Shanghai

“This memoir stands out for its creativity and artistry." —James Carter, author of Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai

“A lovely jaunt to 1930s Shanghai." —Dori Jones Yang, author of When the Red Gates Opened

“Mesmerizing stories; magnificent language.” —Betty Peh-T’i Wei, author of Old Shanghai

“This elegant family memoir transforms, transfixes, and educates." —Pamela Rotner Sakamoto, author of Midnight in Broad Daylight

“A volume that demands to be held." —Los Angeles Review of Books

“In a compelling narrative spanning turbulent centuries, the authors have brought warmly and vibrantly to life their family’s story of lowly origins, high office, austere scholarship, filial loyalty, vicious betrayal and fabulous wealth.” —Asia Literary Review

“An unexpected gem.” —Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society China