Refraction: An American Girl in Mainland China

by Teresa Buczacki

"Refraction: An American Girl in China" tells the story of the American-born daughter of a U.S. Embassy military attaché in Chongqing and a Chinese actress. Sent back to China to live with her grandmother, the 2-year-old girl arrives in Shanghai on the eve of the Communist takeover. Moving to Beijing, she faces hostility because of her nationality and her refusal to denounce her father. After graduating from high school, she is sent to work in rural Shanxi Province in 1962 and later, to escape the madness of the Cultural Revolution, she moves to Xinjiang, where she spends nine years in farm work. Returning to Beijing after the death of Mao, she struggles against Chinese officialdom to reassert her American citizenship and return to the land of her birth.

Funny, sad, heart-breaking, and thrilling, this novel shows China at a very human level during a thirty-year period of great social change, with all the goodness, evil, kindness, and greed to be found in mankind on display.

Genres: China

367 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 1990

Reviews

[David Yang · Rating 5 out of 5]

她的书，都是以传统中国文字书写的。

《折射​》以特写镜头的方式记录了自己在中国30年的生活，以自己的亲身经历，写出了个人在时代大潮中的遭遇，为这个国家这个民族留下了一份珍贵的记忆。要了解一个国家一个民族一个人的真实历史，还是要从这种个人书写读起。


阅读这种个人书写，可以培养我们的同理心，对个人遭遇给以同情的理解；可以培养自己的认知能力，给历史注入感性的内容，以对抗历史的虚无。

[B & A & F · Rating 4 out of 5]

非常难得的个人纪录，作者本人身份特殊，最后有个美好结局，但那么多意难平又能怎样的人呢