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Colors of the Mountain: A Memoir Paperback – January 16, 2001

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 196 ratings

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Colors of the Mountain is a classic story of triumph over adversity, a memoir of a boyhood full of spunk, mischief, and love, and a welcome introduction to an amazing young writer.

Da Chen was born in 1962, in the Year of Great Starvation. Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution engulfed millions of Chinese citizens, and the Red Guard enforced Mao's brutal communist regime. Chen’s family belonged to the despised landlord class, and his father and grandfather were routinely beaten and sent to labor camps, the family of eight left without a breadwinner. Despite this background of poverty and danger, and Da Chen grows up to be resilient, tough, and funny, learning how to defend himself and how to work toward his future. By the final pages, when his says his last goodbyes to his father and boards the bus to Beijing to attend college, Da Chen has become a hopeful man astonishing in his resilience and cheerful strength.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

-A completely engrossing coming-of-age tale...a defiantly happy book, big-hearted and sincere.---Newsweek
-This is a mad sad story with soul and spirituality. A child rises to man in these pages, forgiving those who did him ill, and tells his story with compassion and warm humor. Read this book and cheer a child who triumphes over the darkness and indeed becomes a beacon.- -Malachy McCourt
-A story about suppression, humiliation, vindication and, ultimately, triumph.---
The New York Times Book Review
-Here is that rarity in these times, a truly marvelous book...big-hearted and humorous, written in simple, evocative prose.---
The Denver Post

"A completely engrossing coming-of-age tale...a defiantly happy book, big-hearted and sincere."--
Newsweek
"This is a mad sad story with soul and spirituality. A child rises to man in these pages, forgiving those who did him ill, and tells his story with compassion and warm humor. Read this book and cheer a child who triumphes over the darkness and indeed becomes a beacon." -Malachy McCourt
"A story about suppression, humiliation, vindication and, ultimately, triumph."--
The New York Times Book Review
"Here is that rarity in these times, a truly marvelous book...big-hearted and humorous, written in simple, evocative prose."--
The Denver Post

?A story about suppression, humiliation, vindication and, ultimately, triumph.
The New York Times Book Review

?Da Chen has written a remarkable coming-of-age memoir filled with humiliation, revenge, vindication, and ultimately, pride?. A book of great dignity.??Lisa See

From the Inside Flap

Colors of the Mountain is a classic story of triumph over adversity, a memoir of a boyhood full of spunk, mischief, and love, and a welcome introduction to an amazing young writer.

Da Chen was born in 1962, in the Year of Great Starvation. Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution engulfed millions of Chinese citizens, and the Red Guard enforced Mao's brutal communist regime. Chen?s family belonged to the despised landlord class, and his father and grandfather were routinely beaten and sent to labor camps, the family of eight left without a breadwinner. Despite this background of poverty and danger, and Da Chen grows up to be resilient, tough, and funny, learning how to defend himself and how to work toward his future. By the final pages, when his says his last goodbyes to his father and boards the bus to Beijing to attend college, Da Chen has become a hopeful man astonishing in his resilience and cheerful strength.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group; Trade Paperback Edition (January 16, 2001)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0385720602
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385720601
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.19 x 0.73 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 196 ratings

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Da Chen
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4.6 out of 5 stars
196 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2024
    This was a first hand account of a boy growing into a man during the Chinese Communist cultural revolution.
  • Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2024
    Great book!
  • Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2009
    Author Da Chen writes an interesting semi-autobiographical novel of his years growing up during Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution. He narrates his rise from the persecuted landlord class up into the revered educated class during one of China's most turbulent periods. More interesting, though, is the glimpse we get of the madness that pervaded China during that time. Educated and skilled city workers were forced en masse out to the countryside to work the farmlands. Farmers and peasants were sent into the cities to run the schools and bureaucracy. Inevitable chaos ensured. Yet, life goes on and some people, like Chen, still managed to triumph through the struggles and sufferings.

    I would agree that Chen's perspectives on historical events may not have been totally objective or acurate. But the ease and warmth in which he recounts his own story makes "Colors of the Mountain" both captivating and inspiring. I liked it.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2020
    A great read involving a time that we can relate to. It is good to be able to find out what times were like and how many of our fore descendants had to endure. Well written. Loved it.
    Just sorry to hear that the author recently passed.
  • Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2009
    This is an amazing book. Da Chen writes beautifully, and his story opened my eyes to the effects of the Cultural Revolution and what it was like to live in China at that time. Here was someone who was born about the same time that I was in the U.S., but what a different life he had. When this book first came out, I bought many copies and gave them to friends and family.
    I just learned he has since written more books, and I can't wait to read them!
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2020
    I just started to read this author and love his writing style. I continue to purchase more of his stories. Amazing stories.
  • Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2014
    Sort of hokey story about post Mao China, but from a child's point of view. Then following the child's growth into his teen years and his determination to overcome the barriers to success outside of his caste status. Story could have been told in many fewer pages in my estimation. It was a book where I did not read every word--- not a cliff hanger, but OK.
  • Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2014
    A writer living in New York, Da Chen describes the harrowing tale of his youth when his family suffers untold misery during the Cultural Revolution. Ostracized for being a landlord’s grandson, Da Chen has to leave school and can take up education again only after Chairman Mao’s death, when the humiliation finally ends.
    One person found this helpful
    Report

Top reviews from other countries

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  • Cecilia Maringeiro
    5.0 out of 5 stars Acertei na escolha
    Reviewed in Brazil on September 7, 2018
    Há algum tempo vi um release sobre esta obra e percebi que me agradaria lê-lo.Enfim consegui, e tinha razão é muito bom.
  • Andy
    5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Read
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2008
    A brilliant book about a boy growing up in the poverty of the Chinese cultural revolution and eventually making it to America and becoming a lawyer. One of the most uplifting books Iv'e ever read. My wife is Chinese and reads loads of 'people growing up during the Cultural revolution' books, and most of them are incredibly whiny and angry (and they probably have good cause - but it doesn't make them a good read). Da Chen doesn't whine - his book is both uplifting in how he overcame adversity and sad and funny in some of the characters he protrays. His English prose puts many 'native english' writers to shame.

    Word of warning though - his second book which follows on from this is not as good and disapointed.

    If theres one book to read in your life though this is it.