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A Village with My Name: A Family History of China's Opening to the World Paperback – March 21, 2019
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A Village with My Name offers a unique perspective on the transitions in China through the eyes of regular people who have witnessed such epochal events as the toppling of the Qing monarchy, Japan’s occupation during World War II, exile of political prisoners to forced labor camps, mass death and famine during the Great Leap Forward, market reforms under Deng Xiaoping, and the dawn of the One Child Policy. Tong’s story focuses on five members of his family, who each offer a specific window on a changing country: a rare American-educated girl born in the closing days of the Qing Dynasty, a pioneer exchange student, an abandoned toddler from World War II who later rides the wave of China’s global export boom, a young professional climbing the ladder at a multinational company, and an orphan (the author’s daughter) adopted in the middle of a baby-selling scandal fueled by foreign money. Through their stories, Tong shows us China anew, visiting former prison labor camps on the Tibetan plateau and rural outposts along the Yangtze, exploring the Shanghai of the 1930s, and touring factories across the mainland.
With curiosity and sensitivity, Tong explores the moments that have shaped China and its people, offering a compelling and deeply personal take on how China became what it is today.
- Print length261 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateMarch 21, 2019
- Dimensions6 x 0.59 x 9 inches
- ISBN-10022663695X
- ISBN-13978-0226636955
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Editorial Reviews
Review
― Financial Times
"Immensely readable. . . . Readers of this book will find their views of China deepened and expanded, and will discover that they can never look on the China in the Western news headlines the same way again."
― Christian Science Monitor
"This personal narrative could easily become one of bitterness; instead, Tong tells his story with humor, a little snark, lots of love, and a determination to show the dignity of his people and others he meets along the way. A charming book about a second-generation American's search for his family (past and present) and for himself in contemporary China. Highly recommended, especially for those interested in Chinese history and family journeys.:
― Library Journal, starred review
"A solid exploration of China past and present in which the author climbs ‘a punishing mountain of history with [his] intergenerational team." ― Kirkus Reviews
“This ambitious work, part social and political history and part personal story, doesn’t attempt to cover all the members of Tong's family. Tong instead concentrates on a few representative relatives who reveal particular facets of the vast changes in China. . . . Tong clearly communicates the complexity of Chinese life and effectively integrates his own story into a much larger one."
― Booklist
"In this, his first book, Scott Tong does much to revive the stocks of two genres that have been looking a bit tired lately: China reportage and China memoir. A former correspondent for the US public radio series Marketplace, he argues that the official narrative of Chinese history is frustratingly incomplete, and his gentle and original fusing of the two genres backs up his claims."
― Inside Story
"An account of China's treasured historical biography [that] helps answer the question, 'Where did today's China really come from?' . . . Tong succeeds in sharing the raw spirit of China’s people through a period of history that is in many ways better left alone. He captures the hopes, joys, sufferings, losses, fears, present realities, hardships, and dreams of the Chinese people. . . .Like a warm blanket reminding me of good times gone by . . . . Tong gracefully shares the pain of China's history through his family's ancestral past. . . . He takes the secretly packaged and hidden histories of his family and reworks them into this beautiful story filled with both good and bad endings in order to leave a legacy; a legacy for all Chinese families who understand the disconnect between China's past and its current modern age." ― China Source
"A remarkable achievement: the writer has overcome his own family’s reluctance to speak about a past punctuated by heart-rending episodes to tell the story of China’s re-emergence through their lives. . . . [A] gem . . . more than just a trip through the ancestral archives." ― Post Magazine
“In this combination of memoir, genealogy, history, and current affairs reporting, Tong uses his discovery of his family’s past in mainland China to put many of China’s most monumental historical events into a human scale. His attempts to clarify or uncover his family history, and the disputes, controversies, and missteps he encounters along the way will be familiar to anyone who has spent time trying to understand how a family became the way it is. Here the story is even more interesting because the story of the Tongs is complicated by the political history of China, which remains very present in their lives.” -- James Carter, coauthor of Forging the Modern World: A History
“Tong uses a reporter's skills and dedication to track down his family’s own story, traveling to such unfamiliar places as a desolate prison camp in remote northeastern China and a child trafficker’s front room. The result is a vivid illustration of the high price paid by his relatives for their links with the West. Compulsively readable, this book traces China’s long and difficult relationship with the outside world through the extraordinary journey of a single family.”
-- Louisa Lim, author of The People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited
"One of the best books on China in a decade. Tong displays the creative zeal of a world-class investigative reporter, but also the huge heart and family ties of a great-grandson of old China. Tong's family stories are the lived history of China--where exile, starvation and shame alternated with escape, riches, and promise. This is a spellbinding and personal portrait by a remarkably gifted storyteller." -- Pietra Rivoli, author of Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy
“A Village with My Name is a wonderful unearthing of long-forgotten but ever-important ties between America and China. It is a great reminder that our relations with China are about more than politics and have stretched farther back than many of us would realize. Besides, it’s a great read!”
-- John Pomfret, author of The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, from 1776 to the Present
"A Village With My Name is a rich, subtle, closely observed study of the power of memory (and forgetting) to shape both a family and a nation. Tong's multigenerational tale of his remarkable clan captures all the contradictions of a China in world-changing metamorphosis." -- Eric Liu, author of A Chinaman’s Chance: One Family’s Journey and the Chinese American Dream
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : University of Chicago Press; Reprint edition (March 21, 2019)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 261 pages
- ISBN-10 : 022663695X
- ISBN-13 : 978-0226636955
- Item Weight : 14.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.59 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,771,717 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #487 in Historical China Biographies
- #2,088 in Asian & Asian American Biographies
- #3,675 in Japanese History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book engaging and well-written. They appreciate its insights into Chinese history and culture. The stories are told with warmth and humor, blending serious and humorous elements. Readers praise the vivid descriptions of the countryside and unforgettable characters.
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Customers find the book engaging and well-written. They appreciate the unique perspective and find it a good read for journalism students or genealogists. The writing is described as compelling and engaging, providing insights into modern Chinese culture.
"...His story telling is insightful, objective, yet entertaining, and approachable...." Read more
"...I was impressed by the fascinating, and humorous, narrative Mr. Tong put together, describing his painstaking research efforts, despite information..." Read more
"...Well worth reading." Read more
"...This book was a really easy read as he is a wonderful storyteller, and yet because there were so many nuances and bits and pieces of history, it..." Read more
Customers find the book provides interesting insights into recent Chinese history. They appreciate the author's skill in exploring layers of culture and historical information. The book is educational and personal, providing a deeper understanding of modern China.
"...I appreciated Mr. Tong's observations and insights on modern China, which is a culture (despite my own background as a Chinese-American) that is..." Read more
"...A Village With My Name - so much history, so much information, so much perspective, and so personal...." Read more
"...It is through books like this that history is best learned and I hope Scott writes more of them." Read more
"...Of course I loved the history and appreciate all the work and effort that went into his digging deep to locate information that people rarely want..." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's storytelling. They find the stories intense, noble, and personal. The book blends humor and seriousness, telling a beautiful family story with warmth and intensity. Readers describe the journey as compelling, enjoyable, and full of triumph and sadness, as well as a story of divided families.
"...With this determination, Scott Tong has told his readers a captivating and touching story of his family through the stores of five generations, both..." Read more
"This book was a compelling and enjoyable description of the author's family's journey through key points in modern China's history, and the account..." Read more
"...He moves through time and place with an extraordinary ability to tell a well-blended detailed story of five generations of family history...." Read more
"...- so much history, so much information, so much perspective, and so personal...." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's humor. They find it honest, humorous, and poignant. The book is described as insightful, objective, yet entertaining and approachable.
"...His story telling is insightful, objective, yet entertaining, and approachable...." Read more
"...I was impressed by the fascinating, and humorous, narrative Mr. Tong put together, describing his painstaking research efforts, despite information..." Read more
"...and interactions with people which I really identified with, and the humor...." Read more
"...I enjoy Scott's turn of phrase and his gentle humor which he is most likely to turn on himself...." Read more
Customers find the book visually appealing with vivid descriptions of the countryside. They appreciate the realistic portrayal of China in the years leading up to the takeover, as well as the moving scenes and memorable characters.
"...ability to combine a time in China with facts, feelings and word pictures to give readers deep appreciation for honor and hardship, for acceptance..." Read more
"...This book provides a very real look at China in the years leading up to the take over by the Communist party & the necessary decisions families..." Read more
"...Tong brings to life his search for his family roots in China with vivid scenes and unforgettable characters...." Read more
"...There were vivid descriptions of the country side as well. He explores layers of culture and historical information skillfully...." Read more
Customers enjoy the characterization. They find the author sensitively portrays his family, with vivid scenes and unforgettable characters.
"...He presents real people in his family, many of whom are outside the mainstream of daily living in the remote Tong village to share journeys..." Read more
"...search for his family roots in China with vivid scenes and unforgettable characters...." Read more
"...He sensitively portrayed his family along with sharing his family's history and Chinese history...." Read more
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Recent Chinese history through beautiful storytelling and personal perspective
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2017“This story has to be told in a real way --- setbacks, infidelity, arrests, labor camps --- to humanize what so many people have overcome. It has to be real.” With this determination, Scott Tong has told his readers a captivating and touching story of his family through the stores of five generations, both his paternal and maternal sides, covering a period of about one and a quarter century from the late 19th century to the beginning of 21st century. More than a family story, what Scott Tong has painted is also a sketch of China and Chinese people in general during this period, with some of his family members as the “actors” of many interconnected episodes. In less than 300 pages one would read a simplified, yet encompassing, history of an ill-fated and weak China’s struggle to restore itself as told or experienced by some members of Scott Tong’s family. It is a family story as well as a national history.
The story begins with Scott Tong’s paternal great-grandfather who joins, at the turn of the 20th century, the wave of Chinese young people who are determined to learn from the West or its proxy - Japan the new knowledge to restore China. His grandparents live the period of resistance against the Japanese aggression and the civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists. The individual decisions made by the grandparents during this turbulent times give rise to very different consequences on their lives and their children. Each of them typifies the fate of a rather representative segment of the intellectuals at that time. Scott Tong’s parents transplant themselves in American and have led successful careers and comfortable lives. Scott Tong, the relentless protagonist of family root searching, born and raised in America, spends a few years in China as a foreign correspondent. His adoption of a Chinese girl is a story of China’s one-child policy from the specific angle of adopting Chinese baby girls, mostly by American families.
Scott Tong, a noted reporter of Marketplace, has written the book with his journalistic skills and perspectives. His story telling is insightful, objective, yet entertaining, and approachable. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand and appreciate what China, now the second largest economy in the world, has gone through in the last and quarter century; it is a story told by the personal experiences of some of Scott Tong’s family members.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2017This book was a compelling and enjoyable description of the author's family's journey through key points in modern China's history, and the account of his quest to seek out his family's unique story. I appreciated Mr. Tong's observations and insights on modern China, which is a culture (despite my own background as a Chinese-American) that is hard for me to understand as a whole - How can it have endured such a harsh a one-child policy? Is it really a society that devalues women? Mr. Tong does touch on these questions, through telling his family's story, and I feel I have a better understanding of some of modern Chinese history, along with a more nuanced and sympathetic view of Chinese society.
I was impressed by the fascinating, and humorous, narrative Mr. Tong put together, describing his painstaking research efforts, despite information lost to the destruction of war, language barriers, and bureaucracy. Although I know of Mr. Tong's reporting in Marketplace, he is a terrific writer, and I'm hoping he continues to write more books.
- Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2022The second part of the title gives more of an idea about the book than the first. As a Chinese American, the first part of the title was intriguing, but I learned a lot, as did the author, about how China's political history affected his ability to learn about his family, and how it may/will affect the real history of people in China as the truth is suppressed and may disappear. I remember hearing hints of the Japanese invasion from my parents and this book confirms those stories. Well worth reading.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2017A Village with My Name: 5 stars is not enough! Scott Tong has an amazing ability to combine a time in China with facts, feelings and word pictures to give readers deep appreciation for honor and hardship, for acceptance for what is, and for hope of what might come. He presents real people in his family, many of whom are outside the mainstream of daily living in the remote Tong village to share journeys necessitated by political and personal challenges. He eloquently describes the profound impact of their impossibly difficult decisions made permanent over time.
The roads through China, the shared memories which give windows of understanding and appreciation of a very difficult voyage through life creates a vibrant mural of Chinese daily living that has been a mystery hidden for decades.
Mr. Tong moves through the stories of family members and acquaintances with agile ease and connected interest. He moves through time and place with an extraordinary ability to tell a well-blended detailed story of five generations of family history. He tells of his great grandfather Tong Zhenyong who went to Japan and returned to save the Tong villagers during the Japanese invasion of China in the 1930’s. The story continues with Grandfather Tong Tong who sided with the Kuomintang and escaped to Taiwan. The family he left behind was ostracized and humiliated during the rise of the Communist government. He tells of a progressive grandmother, Mildred Zhao, who ran a primary school in Shanghai, who along with her husband Carleton Sun was considered to be too Western. She escaped to Hong Kong with her daughter (Mr. Tong’s mother), and her husband, Carleton was arrested as a counter-revolutionary and sentenced to Mao’s gulag—a hidden national secret which Mr. Tong describes in detail. His grandfather died there. Family members of so-called enemies of the state were shamed and punished as well as for the departures of Grandfather Tong Tong who escaped on an overcrowded boat to Taiwan with his son (Mr. Tong’s father). The story ends with a commentary of the adoption of the author’s daughter from an orphanage that he later learned was into baby trafficking.
Scott Tong’s stories reveal the hurt and shame felt by those on the edge—those who stayed behind, those who left for America, as well as those with unfulfilled dreams who sought to leave, but were thwarted, particularly his grandmother Mildred. Family members who remained in China were blamed and persecuted for the efforts of their family members. The pain was felt by all, many of whom still do not want to relive the anguish of the past. The story ends with an optimism for the future with the story of the author’s daughter.
Mr. Tong relates his story with insights into Chinese language and cultural traditions giving us peeks into daily living while China is transforming itself into a modern culture. It is a culture in which there is opportunity now for woman and young people who while trying to transcend the restrictions and secrets of the past, face an inexplicable future in a China that continues to define and redefine itself as it becomes a major force in the Twenty First Century.