{"product_id":"the-great-flowing-river-a-memoir-of-china-from-manchuria-to-taiwan-9780231188401","title":"The Great Flowing River: A Memoir of China, from Manchuria to Taiwan","description":"\u003cp\u003eHeralded as a literary masterpiece and a best-seller in the Chinese-speaking world, \u003ci\u003eThe Great Flowing River\u003c\/i\u003e is a personal account of the history of modern China and Taiwan unlike any other. In this eloquent autobiography, the noted scholar, writer, and teacher Chi Pang-yuan recounts her youth in mainland China and adulthood in Taiwan. Chi's remarkable life, told in rich and striking detail, humanizes the eventful and turbulent times in which she lived. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Great Flowing River\u003c\/i\u003e begins as a coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of China's war with Japan. Chi depicts her childhood in pre-occupation Manchuria and gives an eyewitness account of life in China during the war with Japan. She tells the tale of her youthful romance with a dashing pilot that ends tragically when he is shot down in the last days of the war. The book describes the deepening political divide in China and her choice to take a job in Taiwan, where she would remain after the Communist victory. Chi details her growth as an educator, scholar, and promoter of Chinese literature in translation and her realization that despite her roots in China, she has found a home in Taiwan, giving an immersive account of the postwar history of Taiwan from a mainlander's perspective. A novelistic, epoch-defining narrative, \u003ci\u003eThe Great Flowing River\u003c\/i\u003e unites the personal and intimate with the grand sweep of history.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eChi Pang-yuan (b. 1924) is an internationally recognized educator, scholar, and author. She is professor emeritus of English and comparative literature at National Taiwan University. She is coeditor of \u003ci\u003eChinese Literature in the Second Half of a Modern Century: A Critical Survey\u003c\/i\u003e (2000) and \u003ci\u003eThe Last of the Whampoa Breed: Stories of the Chinese Diaspora\u003c\/i\u003e (Columbia, 2003), among other books. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eJohn Balcom teaches at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. His Columbia University Press translations include Cao Naiqian's \u003ci\u003eThere's Nothing I Can Do When I Think of You Late at Night\u003c\/i\u003e (2009); Huang Fan's Zero\u003ci\u003e and Other Fictions\u003c\/i\u003e (2011); and Yang Mu's \u003ci\u003eMemories of Mount Qilai: The Education of a Young Poet \u003c\/i\u003e(2015).\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Columbia University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50625509949714,"sku":"9780231188401","price":40.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_84dc1056-14b2-4212-b5c5-4f0b302b6771.jpg?v=1732630938","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-great-flowing-river-a-memoir-of-china-from-manchuria-to-taiwan-9780231188401","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}