Last Boat out of Shanghai and What that Great Escape Means for Today.
Nov 17, 2020
Helen Zia
Last Boat out of Shanghai and What that Great Escape Means for Today.
Bay Area author Helen Zia discusses her latest book " Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao’s Revolution" , a deeply moving chronicle of the extraordinary ordeals and exodus of four ordinary Chinese in a world torn by war and fractured by ideology. Their experiences in fleeing China and their struggles to survive as exiles and refugees in the US, Hong Kong, Taiwan and wherever the diaspora would take them are mirrored by an untold exodus of millions of others then and throughout human migrations from catastrophe, and will likely provide insights to people of Hong Kong and other hot spots today. Marin's Amy Tan, author of "The Joy Luck Club" noted: “Zia’s portraits are compassionate and heartbreaking, and they are, ultimately, the universal story of many families who leave their homeland as refugees and find less-than-welcoming circumstances on the other side. I read with a personal hunger...”
Her book was one NPR's "Best books of the year" and finalist for a  national PEN America book award. As.the San Francisco Chronicle review wrote: "a fascinating read as a missing chapter of modern history finally coming to light. What makes the Shanghai story unique is that the real human cost of the massive exodus has remained a mystery. Official records, if any, are suppressed, and research in this area has been sketchy. " Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao’s Revolution"  . . . fills a gap in our collective memory.
 
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