Adopted, The Chinese Way
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by:
ISBN:
0-7414-1224-1
©2002
Price:
$17.95
Book Size:
5.5'' x 8.5''
, 328 pages
Category/Subject:
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / General
The author tells the story of her adoption,her early life of luxury and rare privilege, and the traumatic years of World War II
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Abstract:
This is a story of a Chinese family: of an American woman who became the mother; of a father who was not always a father; of a favorite son who lost his identity; of a daughter not recognized as daughter; and of a concubine. It is also the story of the author’s own early years in Peking and a lifestyle of rare privilege brought to an abrupt end by World War II. Adopted at infancy by her own uncle and aunt, the author retains ties to her birth family. As the members of both families, adoptive and biological, move in and out of her life, each adds new and intriguing pages to her story.
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Customer Reviews
Beautiful read
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05/18/2005
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Reviewer:
Rachael Boyer
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I loved this book. I think this book should be marketed world-wide. The writing was a grand mixture of delicate, sensuous descriptions of sights, sounds, tastes, smells, feelings, thoughts of a young girl raised in upper class China in the 1930s. Ms. Church shows the reader a world most Americans will never experience; a world of such grace, traditional structure, and mixed-ethnic struggles that by the end, I felt almost a personal knowledge and a profound sadness that such beauty and attention to detail has been for the most part lost.
Also very intriguing was the life of Ms. Church's mother who was an American brought into this very foreign environment and how successful she was at taking it all on.
The family tree presented was very helpful in deciphering the complexities involved in the custom of members of the family adopting other members' children and who was actually related to whom, biologically and adopted.
Ms. Church managed to give us an idea of an exotic life long gone and not often viewed using her personal feelings and memories as guidlines. This is NOT a dry descriptive by any means. I would read it again several times over.
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