A review by archytas
House of Kwa by Mimi Kwa

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

A deeply engaging memoir outlining the extraordinary childhood of Mimi Kwa, and the Century of family saga that led up to it. Starting in pre-Opium War China, Kwa traces a dynasty to Perth. By early adolescence, Kwa shuttled between the high life of Hong Kong's elite and long days of work at her father's Perth backpackers spiced with alcohol-fuelled parties and managing her mother's delusion-induced self-harm. Kwa steadily highlights the family grandeur that underpins her father's ambitions and the history of sharp changes in fortune which help him survive his own bust years. The world of polygamous dynasties, opium and silk in the early book give way to migration, textile start-ups and the brutal occupation, hunger and deception, collaboration and survival.  And yet, through it all Kwa draws the thread of what it is to be "Kwa", to be part of this intense, loving, crazy ambitious and sometimes just crazy, family.
The book is in part a love letter to Mimi's extraordinary Aunt Theresa, and the scenes in China and especially Hong Kong are by far the most engaging. The occupation of Hong Kong is vividly and heartbreakingly evoked - and a reminder of how fast things can change in the most stable of societies.