A review by robertrivasplata
A Chinese Life by Philippe Ôtié, Li Kunwu

4.0

A memoir of growing up in Mao's China, and adulthood from Deng Xiaopeng's China to today. The memoir reminds me of Soviet Daughter, in that it's about a person who lived through revolutionary upheaval, and eventually thrived. The last part which covers China's boom times kind of drags, maybe because making a lot of money is less fun and interesting to me than revolutionary socialist constructing, or maybe it was because the revolution had gone on without Kunwu, or perhaps because Kunwu feels limited in the commentary he can make on contemporary politics. A Chinese Life is also interesting because it provides the little guy's perspective & also the Chinese Communist Party's perspective of the disasters and successes of communist China.