Swimming to Freedom: My Escape from China and the Cultural Revolution

by Kent Wong, Freddie Wong (Narrator)

An extraordinary memoir of Communist China, the Cultural Revolution, and a yearning to be free

When Kent Wong was a young boy, his father, a patriotic Chinese official in the customs office in Hong Kong, joined an insurrection at work, allowing the family to return to the newly established People’s Republic of China. Hailed as heroes, they settled in the southern city of Canton. But Chairman Mao’s China was dangerous and unstable, with landlords executed en masse and millions dying of starvation during the Great Leap Forward.

In Swimming to Freedom, Kent Wong captures his childhood amidst revolutionary times, where boyish adventures and school days mixed with dire poverty and political persecution. Mao’s Hundred Flower Campaign had ensnared Kent’s father. A decade later, the Cultural Revolution closed schools, plunged the country into chaos, and scattered Kent and his sisters to disparate villages, where they struggled to eke out a bare existence.

As the son of a “capitalist rightist,” Kent began to realize that with higher education closed to him, he had no future in China. So when he hooked up with a dissident underground and heard about fellow countrymen, known as “Freedom Swimmers,” braving great hardship to reach freedom by swimming across miles of open water to Hong Kong, he decided to join them, risking his life for a better future. A gripping, heart-rending journey, this memoir is a moving testament to the human spirit.

8 hrs. 31 min.
 

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, China, History, Biography, Biography Memoir, Audiobook

9 pages, Audible Audio

First published April 27, 2021

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and ABRAMS books for an egalley in exchange for an honest review.

I felt that this memoir was absolutely fantastic in helping me understand Hong Kong and China during the post-WWII period, life under Mao, and the impact on the Chinese population during the Cultural Revolution. I didn't learn anything about China or its history during my time in school so I fell deep into Kent Wong's recollections of his life in China and his escape to Hong Kong.


#SwimmingtoFreedom #NetGalley


Publication Date 27/04/21
Goodreads review published 04/06/21

[Marsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading a memoir from this survivor of Mao's China makes me thankful for everyday comforts, freedoms and dignities that people in the west often take for granted. Kent Wong and his family lived through the horrors of mass repression during the Hundred Flowers Campaign, then the starvation of 36 million during the Great Leap Forward (chillingly similar to Stalin's first 5 year plan and the Holodomor), and years later, the Cultural Revolution. Determined to find freedom for himself and his family, Kent becomes one of the thousands of young people who try to escape by swimming to Hong Kong, and when he fails and is imprisoned, he tries again and again. He finally succeeds and ends up coming to the US, being accepted into Harvard Medical School and becoming a physician. Such hard work and determination. I highly recommend this enthralling book!
Thank you #netgally

[Mario’s Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

Swimming to Freedom by Kent Wong
Rate ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5

“Hope was always alive in a freedom swimmer’s heart.” Kent Wong

The author opens his heart, his fears, his worries and his hopes for his family, country and the World.

The author shares his personal stories of what life was like in China, from working in the villages, going to school, life in the city, working in peasant villages and being separated from parents. Wong is trying to escape to Hong Kong, and then to America. His life is hard, but he has family and friends who believe in him. He describes his plans of escape in detail which was very interesting to read, plus the consequences of his failed attempts are very sad to read.

This book is an important piece of history from someone who survived, escape and lived in China during traumatic years. Not only him, but millions of people lived there with similar or with the same life and social issues.
Kent Wong tells a story that needs to be told again and again. He was one of the 550,000 freedom swimmers to Hong Kong during the Cultural Revolution.

While reading the book you felt the pain and sadness of the people who lived there at that time in China. Mao's record as a leader of China is very mixed and it can be argued that he was both a good and bad leader.
The book shows that every Mao’s Act or every event to improve China has failed. The only thing that I know is that Mao was successful in leading the communist party, surviving the Civil War and a war against the Japanese. He is the most outstanding for having more deaths attributed to his leadership than any other person in history.

I was surprised by some events in the book. One of them being that if they have a newspaper with Mao’s picture and if they put that paper in the garbage or if they wrapped food with paper, and they found out, they were automatically arrested, convicted and even sentenced to death.

It's an amazing and powerful book. It's going to stay in my heart for a long time! I cannot wait to buy a physical copy of this book.
I highly recommend the book!

Thank you NetGalley and Abrams Press (@abramsbook) for providing me ARC.

Expected date: April 27, 2021
Genre: Autobiography
Publisher: Abrams Press

[Adam Moss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book chronicling the experience of Kent Wong as one of the “freedom swimmers “ — young people that fled Mao’s communist reforms in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s by literally swimming to Hong Kong. An estimated 500,000 people fled China in this way.

A great warning against the dangers of communism and totalitarian rule. Highly recommend.

[Patrick Pilz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not your average polished biography and certainly will not win awards for its writing. The story though is still engrossing, when you follow "Kent" through his upbringing under Mao Zedong and his eventual escape to the USA via Hong Kong. It is one of those surprising stories I have never heard before. You can tell from the sentence structure and the linear story telling that this book was written by someone whose English is not his first language, but on the other side, you can hear him almost speaking to you in your head with his Chinese accent as you follow along his life, It makes the book very personal and believable, despite the fact that it is sometimes not as much fun to read. But I am not sure if the book would be much better if a professional editor would bring out that big editing pen.

[Bk Z · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything is context.
It's a workman like account of what he and his family endured towards the end of cultural revolution. If you like this story, dig deeper.
I grew up in HK and "escaped" to the US just a few years before Wong got back to HK in his 3rd attempt.
I remember the news when I was young when there were many dead bodies flowing down the river/delta from China/Canton.
And how to trace back the suffering and success of Wong and many immigrants?
I never forget the west forced the corrupted and weak Chinese government to buy opium to lower their trade deficit.

[Marie -The Reading Otter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everybody needs to read this book.

[Sterling Shanks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have really enjoyed reading memoirs this year. This memoir centers around Kent Wong. He was one of the 550 thousand swimmers who during the 70s swam to escape the Maoist regime in mainland China.

There is so much of China’s history during this time period that I admittedly just didn’t know about. You get to be let in on its history from a very personal level through the story of Wong’s family and how they and many others were affected by the regime. Some of what he and his family went through is unimaginable. His story shows what drive a dream can have on a person’s life to move forward even when things are bleak.

Thank you net galley for the advanced copy. I would recommend this to those who loves memoirs and history.

[Vonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Kent Wong shares about his upbringing in China. He writes, “It was hard to find out the truth in China.” Indeed, the government regularly lied to the people, put out propaganda and false news (“Newspapers kept reporting this false information to warm the hearts of every Chinese.”), encouraged tattling or disparaging neighbors (“in China, bribery was a must-have skill”), and perpetuated a cultural practice of “saving face.”

In exposing the meaning of ”saving face”, Wong says, “When someone broke a social rule...the neighbors would inevitably learn about it—and sure enough, it would spread throughout the neighborhood, causing the kid’s parents to lose face. For...all Chinese of sound mind, saving face in public was of upmost importance.” This practice certainly contributed to the country’s problems and increased distrust of neighbors.

Young Chinese were enrolled in the Young Pioneers. “The grand purpose of the Young Pioneers was to make sure we believed that communism was our common goal.” Despite living within the confines of his culture, and being surrounded by the cultural praise of communism, Wong matured and began to separate the truth from the lies.

Wong was not persuaded to live by these rules as he began to think for himself. He had a yearning for truth and freedom. He could see the lies and only played the game to a certain extent in order to survive. He could see what this broken system was doing to his parents, particularly his father, draining away his spirit.

Wong displayed courage and didn’t conform. Eventually he began to plan his escape. I will let you discover the remaining details on your own.

My key takeaways from this book are:
*Freedom is of utmost importance. The human spirit yearns for it.
*Socialism and Communism steal much from the people they try to control. And yet nothing can stop an indomitable spirit.
* The bonds of family will always supersede bonds of government, though government will try to supplant the family through separation, education, etc.

Here are my two cents on these topics. This book is timely in that American government seems to be trying to offer the American people more. Many seem to want socialism. Socialized medicine. Government hand outs. Big government is getting bigger all the time. They want to convince us that what they can offer us is better than what we can achieve on our own. We don’t want to exchange our freedoms for safety nets. These things will come with strings attached. Working hard is always better than being controlled for a free slice of bread.

I received an arc copy from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good book.

Quite a story!

Thanks to Freddie Wong for recommending this on Corridor!

Admittedly, it was pretty slow, but it was good!

3.8/5

[Lilisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hats off to the author for his and others’ life history he has documented for the world. Kudos as well for his personal and professional achievements! The author is right - not much is written about the thousands of Chinese people who died or who risked their lives multiple times (like the author) swimming and/or boating across perilous waters for miles to reach freedom in Hong Kong to escape Communist China. Knowing that he isn’t a writer (he’s a retired anesthesiologist), but in the absence of books documenting hundreds of failed attempts and many successes escaping China, the absence of Communist China records about the escapes to “save face,” and the silent generation of Chinese baby boomers, who unlike their counterparts in the West had to struggle and endure immeasurable harsh conditions during the Great Famine and Ten-Year Calamity of China’s Cultural Revolution, he decided he HAD to write this book. This book is an account of the author’s life in China, his subsequent escape to Hong Kong in 1974, and his move to the U.S. as a refugee. The book maps out his life linearly, which I liked. (I am getting a bit tired of the recent trend of dual and triple timelines.) Read the book for the author’s story, and not for eloquence and show-stopping language. The language is simple and basic, and on a few occasions I had to make myself stay the course to get to the next chapter, but it was worth it. The book could have been stronger with more editing assistance but there’s no doubt that the author’s own voice is front and center throughout the book, which is maybe what was most important in the process. The small map of the escape routes on page 214 was incredibly helpful and provided an important perspective of what escapees had to overcome. A map was the first thing I looked for when I opened the book and was disappointed not to find one at the front or back of the book. It would have been great if the map had been larger and featured more prominently. So a hint for those looking for a map upfront, flip to page 214. This was a 3.5 reading experience for me, rounded up to 4 stars.

[Eileen Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

✨ fave quote ✨

…I realized that the world was so much worse than I had once believed, or wanted to believe, it to be. An animal would not hurt its own parents. How could humans behave worse than an animal?

✨ review ✨

I tried so hard to finish this before the new year, but there are far worse books I could have chosen as my first read of 2025! This was a wonderfully informative read about Maoist China, told from the perspective of a Cantonese man who grew up in the 1960s-70s has unique insight into his home country. It was at times harrowing, and I’m sure there were many, many horrors that didn’t make the final draft. That being said, I would wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone looking to expand their understanding or historical perspective!

What I loved: photos throughout, very accessible writing style, fantastic primary source, extremely moving true story with an ending that made me tear up (good tears)

There were several moments throughout the book when the author would mention a something specific to Chinese culture or history, followed by a rhetorical question about how few Americans knew this tidbit or fact. While valid, and while I was very glad to learn all the things, I did find the questions to be used in excess.

That being said, I really enjoyed this book and am so grateful to have read it and learned more about a country that, while so important on the world stage, Americans don’t learn much about in school!

✨ overall rating ✨
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

✨ rating breakdown ✨
Concept: ⭐️
Freshness:⭐️
Character Development: ⭐️⭐️
Main Characters: ⭐️
Supporting Characters: ⭐️
Voice: ⭐️
Style: 💫
Intrigue: ⭐️
Enjoyability: ⭐️

[Chase Parsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a phenomenal book! Author Kent Wong is one of the hundreds of thousands of “Freedom Swimmers” who periously swam to their freedom from mainland China to British Hong Kong during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). I am glad that he wrote this book...what a tale to share!
Wong does an excellent job talking about China during this time period. Mao’s cult of personality, the Red Guard gangs, and many Chinese cultural tidbits are discussed. Amazingly, Wong ended up in the United States and graduating from Harvard as a doctor. He is a true immigrant success story and he is a hero. This is a wonderful memoir about a vital era in world history.

[Hollis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Especially the first half of this book was difficult to read because I know less than nothing about Mao's China. Wong does a great job explaining the cultural revolution and acknowledges his readers/most people know little to nothing about it but not in a condescending way.
Once the concept of swimming To Hong Kong is brought up ( to author and reader), book moves along quickly.

[Sheri S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd never heard of the Chinese freedom swimmers before reading this book. I found the history of China and its government's impact on its residents very fascinating. I gained a great understanding and empathy for individuals growing up under such an oppressive regime. Wong tells his escape story and how he managed under stressful conditions. A good story...

[Esj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring first book of the year!

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating story of the lives of ordinary people surviving incredibly tumultuous times.

[Chris Ringelberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like many things that come across my attention, it is through several degrees of falling down rabbit holes. This one came from being a long time fan of Freddy Wong, known as the big YouTuber behind Rocket Jump, and especially now the hit podcasts Story Break and Dungeons and Daddies (my personal favorite of all time). And in several episodes of both podcasts, Freddy pushed this book as its written about and by his father about his escape attempts from China during the Cultural Revolution there to Hong Kong, which sounded crazy when hearing that his father had swam almost 6 MILES to try and achieve freedom from Mao’s China. Also being a huge fan of Asian culture and some of its history (more so the older interesting bits) and having a sister from there, I was beyond invested in wanting to read this.

I’ve read now several different auto-/biographies by many people (Elton John’s ME is a great read and Will Smith’s Will is on my list for this year), but many don’t come across as fluently and engaging as Kent’s. Swimming to Freedom takes you on the tumultuous journey of his life, having to live through Mao’s China from age 3, to the point of finally escaping to Hong Kong around age 25. Its truly inspirational to read his story and about the hardships his family, as well as most of China, had to go through to live while faced with adversity, uncertainty, and scrutiny at every possible corner. It reminded me a lot of the book First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung that I read in high school for a book quiz competition.

It was also interesting getting such rich and deep knowledge of China and the nuances of the Cultural revolution and how the country changed/adapted/governed during those years. Early on it might seem too textbook-y and would want to gloss over it, but Kent expertly weaves things in to make points and connections between what was being ordered and how it would reshape his family’s life. Even being someone who normally knows nothing about that period of time for my own country’s history, let alone in other parts of the world, I was actually drawn in to want to know more or what was done next. And while I could never begin to connect with it on such a close level, it was beyond special to read Kent sharing his with us. I even feel more inclined to retry reading a couple books I tried to read over the past couple years that I couldn’t get past the beginning cause they dealt in this period of time that I knew nothing about and was instantly and thoroughly lost.

Swimming to Freedom was a book I though I would read and end up forgetting or mentally shelving right away. Enjoying it perhaps, but not being memorable. That is not how it is. This book is as inspirational as it is emotional, forcing the reader to keep reading, rooting for Kent with every new problem or obstacle he has to overcome, until he makes it and the joy that he feels contagiously bleeds through into your soul. For anyone interested in that period of time in China, or love auto-/biographies, give this book a read. Getting ahold of a copy was a hard enough task, which means that not enough libraries have this in their catalogs and shelves. SPREAD THE WORD! If you want a surefire great read for 2022, read this book!

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

My dad was a freedom swimmer, but never shared his account. There were many who went to Hong Kong and Macau but never shared their stories. I'm glad to read an account and learn a little more about what my dad went through.

[Adrien · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book because of Freedie Wong. I’m a Dungeons and Daddies listener and when I heard his own father was a Freedom Swimmer during Mao’s rule of China, my first question was, “what’s a freedom swimmer?”
This is a memoir of a historical event that I have never heard of at all because of how fucked the US education system is. In this one book alone I learned the pain of someone who has lived through the Cultural Revolution in China under Mao’s ruling, and got what felt like a first hand look into someone else’s eyes of the world they lived in during that time.
I think my favorite quote from this memoir is one at the start of it. I read an ebook version of it so forgive me if the page number is incorrect, but page 12, my favorite excerpt is this;
“Before Heaven grants a man great responsibility, it must first frustrate his spirit and will, put his flesh and bones through toil, deprive him of food and wealth, ruin his actions and efforts.”
It’s an old ancient Chinese poem, again one I have never heard but I felt deeply in my heart. It summaries the trials Kent Wong went through at this time of history.
Sadly though, this isn’t the end of terror’s of ruling like Mao’s. In 2023, for 70 years we have been seeing this exact thing happen to the Palestine people. Just because the rain of terror under Mao’s ruling has passed doesn’t mean we should turn a blind eye to the rain of terror happening in other countries too. This is still happening and if you feel uncomfortable knowing this fact then GOOD. You should. We’re a privileged few who are living in comfort when there are people out there being killed by the who have the exact mindset of those like Mao, Hitler, etc. Just because it’s behind a different religion and face doesn’t make this any less evil than those dictators of the past.
Never forget history, even those you were not taught about before, knowing is half the battle in most cases.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is inspirational and also terrifying to think that a government can have this much control over your life and what you do with it.

The author was raised in China during the reign of Mao and thoroughly described the terror and misery that communism and authoritarianism brought their land. Wong wrote, in great depth, about Mao's campaigns towards a communist government: the Hundred Flowers Campaign, in which people searched for wrong thought in others; The Anti-Rightest Movement, where people labeled as "rightests" were sent to work camps or punished otherwise; The Four Pests Campaign, that disrupted the natural ecology and led to the Great Famine, killing from 15 million (which the Communist Government reported) to 55 million people (number scholars determined much later); and the Cultural Revolution, removing capitalism and cultural elements of China, often by brutal force.

Wong endured these hardships, but his family was called "rightest" (despite his father's loyalty to the government and China) and therefore labeled as "black" rather than red. Years later, as a result, he and his siblings were sent to be reeducated by peasants in rural villages. This meant that he had no hope of following any of his dreams; he would wade through feces-laden rice paddies for the rest of his life. This spurred his desire to escape China, and he set his mind towards success despite many obstacles and heartbreaks.

I had never read about Mao's communist dictatorship before, so I struggled a bit in the beginning having no background information. But when he set his mind to escaping, I couldn't put it down. What a determined man (he's a doctor in America now, BTW) and I'm so grateful that he put down his story so many years later.

[Sharen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book about perseverance and survival. It shows the inside details of some traumatic years in China's history as we watch how Wong's experiences fueled his desire to escape and make it to Hong Kong, freedom, and eventually America. It is a unique glimpse into what happened during the Cultural Revolution in China.

The world needs to hear different voices sharing their experiences such as Wong's. To understand an immigrant's plight or refugee's life prior to reaching the US or Canada (for example) should be read and shared far and wide. Those of us blessed to have been born in less challenging places cannot fully comprehend what it takes to overcome hardships we cannot fully understand.

Of course the book is written in the author's second language but that does not stop the story from unfolding. There is a lot of detail on everyday life in Communist China during the 1950s-70s. The author's repeated reference to his mother as 'mommy' throughout the book feels a bit off but the author indicates that is accurate and how everyone referred to her.

The amazing academic success that his family and circle of friends who left China have in the US is amazing.

'A happy person takes pictures to remember happy moments.'

'And in a country of extreme nationalism, it is taboo to talk about, write about, or even remember the causes and extent of the wound of the past political movements.'

Thank you to Netgalley and Abrams Press @Abramsbooks for allowing me to read an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Jena Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a memoir of hope and perseverance. The author Kent Wong was born in China after World War II and lived under Mao’s communist regime until he was a young adult.

He grew up in Canton, China and he had a hard-working father, a wonderful Mother and four sisters. He worked hard in school and followed the Chinese cultural DNA- conformity and obedience. The book features many of the fun and interesting times he had growing up, interspersed with wry Chinese proverbs.

By the time the author was in high school, he was swept up in the Cultural Revolution and he and two of his sisters were sent down to a village to live and work with the peasants on the land. Still, Dr. Wong always yearned for a better world. “Hope is one of the few luxuries the Chinese were ‘legally allowed’.”

Through friends, he listened to the Voice of America and he dreamt of going to America. He learned of the freedom swimmers and he explored how to go about swimming from China to British Hong Kong. (It is estimated that 550,000 Chinese swam to Hong Kong). How he prepared and made his perilous escape attempt is exciting reading.

In the book’s Epilogue we learn of his success and happiness as he and his family achieved their dreams in America. Let freedom ring. I want to thank the author for his inspiration and willingness to share the truths about life in Communist China. Reading this book was a humbling experience.

Thanks to NetGalley and Abrams Press for an advance digital review copy. This is my honest review.

[PollyStyrene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Under what circumstances would you swim 6 miles at night, in rough water, with no navigation, chancing sharks and currents that could pull you out to sea? To escape the horror of mass repression in Mao's communist China, Ken Wong and thousands of others, in desperation, risked or lost their lives trying to escape authoritarian rule.

The writer brings to life in a very personal way the Hundred Flowers Campaign, the death by starvation of 36 million during the Great Leap Forward, the Red Guard and the Cultural Revolution. Wong describes the Red Guard in a manner that parallels what we saw in Portland over the summer - violence, destruction and theft using ideology as an excuse.

I believe this book to be very important at a time in North America when our culture is shifting towards marxism. It cautions us to value and make the most of the freedoms and opportunity that democracy offers.

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent autobiography.
What was it really like to live in China in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s? Kent Wong shares his personal experiences and explains customs, traditions, and the culture of Communist China during this period. He shares stories about growing up in China, going to school, being "reeducated", life in cities and peasant villages. Of course, he details his plans and escape attempts and the consequences of capture. Swimming to Hong Kong was a common escape route. Wong cooperated with many other people, some who made it and others who did not.
In the epilogue, Wong describes what he did after he left China and the sacrifices and hard work that contributed to his personal success. He is an amazing person with a fascinating and inspirational story.
This book is beautifully written and immediately engrossing. I was rooting for Wong, his friends, and family until the last page. Highly recommended.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please read this memoir. Equal in its educational and emotional content Kent Wong does an amazing picture of painting the middle, and the pursuit of freedom through the Chinese cultural revolution. In particular, Kent’s description of his mother, found families and living life amongst struggle, and the sheer bravery and honesty of his escapes had me pause multiple times throughout. After finishing this book I immediately started researching the holes in my understanding of the Chinese revolution - all spurred by Kent’s description of the hardship and famine faced by millions at that time in history. Seriously - read this book. Hearing his words through his son Freddie added a layer of perspective - I highly recommend the audiobook.

[Kagen Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

When we study history, it’s easy to get lost in the broad strokes of countries, governments, and decades. This is a story that focuses on the small matters, the people at the heart of these events. As an American, it was difficult to understand parts of the story until I had confronted aspects of my own privileged upbringing and mentality. Doing so, however, gave me a greater appreciation for so much of the minutiae of our day-to-day existence that we take for granted; air conditioning, modern technological conveniences, and the knowledge that my family members aren’t currently being tortured aren’t typically on my mind. It’s good to be reminded how easily those can be lost, and how hard we must be willing to fight to keep the tears from our mother’s eyes.

[Jay Weidner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye opening and enjoyable

I have read many biographies about the trials and tribulations of those living in all parts of China during the cultural revolution but until reading this book I had no idea about the freedom swimmers. Kent Wong is an excellent storyteller who brings you into the heart of his experiences as a child and young man growing up amidst the warmth of a loving family during this painful period in Chinese history. I am fascinated by the inner strength and fortitude of these people and their transcendence of the sorrows and difficulties that they encounter. I was also pleased to read about his uplifting experience with Americans and his passion to learn work hard and succeed in achieving the American dream.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard about this book because of dungeons and daddies.

I give it 4.5/5 stars.

Kent Wong's Swimming to Freedom follows Wong as a child to early adulthood and his life in China during the Cultural Revolution. It's a story of friendship and heartache but most importantly, it's a story about hope. This is a beautiful story that touched me deeply.

I do take half a star off because there are points were the writing could have been a little more clear.

I highly recommend this book to any fans of memoir.

[Jacob James · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent personal memoir about a man that grew up during the Chinese Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, and his daring escape from it. Unfortunately this tale is hampered by some awkward pacing and stilted dialogue. The audiobook version I listened to made this a more bearable read than it would've been otherwise, even if it made the strange dialogue more apparent. I will chalk that up to differences between Cantonese and English; they're very different languages are don't translate very well it seems...

Closer to 3.5 stars but we'll round up!