Remembering Shanghai - by Isabel Sun Chao & Claire Chao (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

WINNER OF 29 BOOK AWARDS including the Writer's Digest Grand Prize and the 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.

Review Quotes

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

"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

"Whimsical brush paintings and evocative vintage photographs are a visual feast for the reader and heightens the feeling of having fallen through time." --Alexandra A. Chan, author of In the Garden Behind the Moon

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

"An engaging and entertaining saga." --South China Morning Post

"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. A thoughtfully written story, accessibly and touchingly told--represents a valuable addition to the canon of accounts of life in Shanghai." --Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society China

"A feast of winning elements . . . The icing on the cake is its warm immediacy, helped by the authors' sunny dispositions and their storytelling skills." --Bookish Asia

"A well-told tale that is by turns jaw-dropping, exciting, touching, tragic, and insightful." --Historic Shanghai

"What distinguishes the story is the beauty of watching the bond between mother and daughter grow as they discover their often shocking ancestral secrets." --Literary Mama

"This book is beautiful. . . Illuminating details and a lovely walk through culture, family and personal evolution, always with gorgeous settings and realism in voice and story." --Grand Prize Winner, Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards

"A work of art. . . driven by compelling storytelling and packed with fascinating details." --Book of the Year, Rubery Book Award

"A masterpiece of storytelling and research." --Non-Fiction Winner, Indie Reader Discovery Awards