"Gao Yuan's detailed retelling of his experience of the Red Guards, which almost allows us to live it through him, is invaluable. Gao's book not only surpasses any of the previously published accounts of the Cultural Revolution, it goes so far beyond them as to constitute almost a different genre."

-- Marilyn Young, New York University

Submitted by Publisher, March, 2001

An autobiographical account of a young man from a provincial town in North China who became caught up in the excitement and struggles of the Cultural Revolution (1966-69). As a teenager boarding at the top local high school, Gao found himself pulled in opposite directions: At school he exerted every effort to bring about the revolution by challenging authority, while at home his father, the highest official in the county, was a target. Gao tells his story well; it rings true with details of family life, stories of Red Guard treks around China, etc. The book, however, differs only in Gao's personal circumstances from many similar accounts, including Liang Heng and Judith Shapiro's Son of the Revolution ( LJ 2/15/83), and Yue Daiyun and Carolyn Wakeman's To the Storm ( LJ 11/1/85).