- Paperback: 848 pages
- Publisher: Abacus; New Ed edition (7 Feb 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0349112851
- ISBN-13: 978-0349112855
- Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 12.7 x 19 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
351,262 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4 in Books > History > Countries & Regions > Asia > China > Communism in China
- #65 in Books > Biography > Political > Countries & Regions > China
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Through the clear eyes and rather dispassionate voice of Aiping Mu is revealed her family's story and the idiosyncrasies, privations, optimism and horrors of life in 20th-century China. Now in England, where she has gained a PhD, Aiping has land-owning forebears--a fact which would haunt her family after the rise of Communism. Her parents were early converts to Communism who were given senior status by the Party only to be later persecuted, imprisoned and tortured during the Cultural Revolution when even combed hair was considered a sign of a hated bourgeois intellectual. Aipings childhood was privileged, but her teenage years, when she joined the Red Guard, a struggle. By the time she was recruited to the army and achieved a university place to study medicine, she had endured years of political persecution, humiliation, family separations and rural starvation. Her adult life was made miserable by a disastrous marriage and the painful disintegration of her family.
Vermilion Gate seems unsparingly honest about Chinese society, the traumatic breakdown of a family and Aipings ultimate loss of faith in Communism. It describes a world which, to Western eyes, at times seems almost that of a folk tale it is so unfamiliar. A work of biblical proportions, reading this saga requires a degree of stamina, but the committed will be enriched by a far greater understanding of the culture and history of this totally different world. --Karen Tiley --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Mu's life story is so remarkable that even the barest outline is difficult to absorb . . . comparisons to Jung Chang's Wild Swans are inevitable, but Mu's book is similar only in that it is long and gripping . . . it provides a rare glimpse of life in the highest revolutionary circles (THE TIMES )
[A] highly readable memoir... (TLS )
A gripping tale. (IRELAND ON SUNDAY )
[A] highly readable memoir... (TLS )
A gripping tale. (IRELAND ON SUNDAY )
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
At dawn, the city of Beijing (in the West often spelt as Peking), the traditional 'northern capital', was bathed in rosy clouds. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
At dawn, the city of Beijing (in the West often spelt as Peking), the traditional 'northern capital', was bathed in rosy clouds. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you loved wild swans then you will also love vermilion gate.
It is one of those can't put it down books! I can't do justice to aiping mu here, but trust me you will savour the time you spend reading it and be disappointed when it is over.
It is one of those can't put it down books! I can't do justice to aiping mu here, but trust me you will savour the time you spend reading it and be disappointed when it is over.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Not one for historical books, especially one on Chinese politics, I probably would never have bought this book. However, my husband read it and I picked it up - and I am so glad I did! I learnt so much about communist China through the life of Aiping Mu. How easily people in power can completely ruin the lives of others. What a life they endured - grandparents on the run; teenagers living in caves, and the destruction of whole families by using physical and mental torture. This book made me realise how lucky I am. Everyone (especially schoolchildren) should read it. Its long, but its worth it.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have read quite a few of the flurry of biographies written by Chinese women publised in the last 10 years or so. While recognising that all the stories are their own it is easy to pick the common thread amongst them. They have all left me wanting to know more about China through the 20th Century from different perspectives. Vermilion Gate certainly goes a long way to satisfying my thirst for the background to the China from the begining of the 20th century. It is a remarkable historical book. The personal history of Aping Mu and her family leaves one full of emotion and feeling so humble. Humanity in all it's forms) never seizes to amaze.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
one of the best books
I just love autobiography style books because of writers such as Aiping Mu.
this book is worth spending money on. don't be put of by the thickness of it
this book is worth spending money on. don't be put of by the thickness of it
Published 15 months ago by Ms. S. V. Moyo
Frustratingly long
Sanitized version of events and not helped by Mu's flat style of writing where the reader never connects with the events of her story. Read more
Published 21 months ago by K. C. Man
Before, During and (the start of?) After Communism in China - a...
While this book is the story of the lives of the author and her parents, they are inextricably linked with the tale of the progress of Communism in China. Read more
Published on 5 Oct 2009 by P. Robinson
An amazing family saga from Comunist China.
It is with a certain amount of relief that one arrives at the end of this book - not because one has managed to get through its 790 pages - but because it is hoped that - at last -... Read more
Published on 19 Aug 2001 by Joan Ann Corderoy
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