China Saga

by C.Y. Lee

Traces four generations of a Chinese family, from the Boxer Rebellion of the 1890s to the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, offering a portrait of China's history, people, and culture

Genres: Historical Fiction

544 pages, Paperback

First published April 6, 1989

About the author

Chin Yang (C.Y.) Lee, born in Hunan, China, received a B.A. degree from Southwest Associated University, Kunming, China, and an M.F.A. with a major in playwriting from Yale University (1947).

Before his American education, Lee worked during World War II as Secretary to the Sawba of Mangshih, a small principality on the China-Burma border. The experience resulted in a series of articles published in the New Yorker magazine and, later, a book entitled The Sawba and His Secretary (British edition: A Corner of Heaven). A television series based on the book was made and aired in Taiwan.

Lee wrote his first novel, The Flower Drum Song, in San Francisco while he was city editor of a Chinese language newspaper in Chinatown. The book was a New York Times best-seller; as Flower Drum Song it subsequently became a Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical and a Universal film.
--excerpted from The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization

Lee died at his daughter's home in Los Angeles in November 2018.

Reviews

[Christopher Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was enjoying this pretty well until about 120 pages in. Then the writing seemed to take this sudden shift toward things happening too quickly and for no reason. I read about another hundred pages and found myself skimming.
The shift was when the (first) main character has a child with a prostitute. They profess their love to each other repeatedly, to where it was getting annoying. He's forced to resign his government post, or leave her, so he chooses her. I left off after he delivered the resignation letter, and came home to find her having committed suicide suddenly because she didn't want him to ruin himself for her sake. Only, he did just ruin himself, and now for nothing. I spend the night wondering what would happen, and annoyed that the story had taken that turn. It was just so out of nowhere. As soon as I opened the book the next day, suddenly his letter of resignation was not accepted and he's just fine. Suddenly he's deeply in debt, that's immediately resolved by burning his ledgers. Suddenly China is facing an invasion from Italy, that's immediately resolved by his idea to pit Japan against them. Immediately meaning within a page or two. It started reading like a laundry list.

[Michael Arden · Rating 4 out of 5]

The turbulent history of China from the late 19th century to the 1960s is highlighted in this entertaining historical novel from the author of THE FLOWER DRUM SONG, C.Y. Lee. Three generations starting with the dashing government official, Fong Tai, his beautiful and talented daughter, Brigid, and Brigid's illegitimate daughter, Mabel, are well integrated with the events that shaped modern China. Beginning during the reign of the aging Empress Dowager, when foreign powers dominated China, and the resulting Boxer Rebellion, and continuing to the rise of the new Republic upon her death, the coming of the Sino-Japanese War and eventual Civil War between Nationalists and Communists that led to the emergence of Chairman Mao as supreme ruler, each character is thoroughly caught up in the nation's trauma. Mabel comes across as the most flesh and blood of the three, beginning as a stripper and prostitute during World War II and ending up as an idealistic Communist until her illusions are dashed by the excesses of Mao's Red Guards during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of the '60s. Her sons, Pang Sin and Jimmy, represent the radicals and pragmatists respectively, and as the latter group triumphs there is new hope for both the sympathetic Jimmy and China itself. While this read would be unlikely to give any new insights into human nature it superbly captures China's recent history while drawing the reader right in.

[Noela · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing account of the history of China right up until the rise of Communism in 1947. Likeable characters, wonderful detail, a good story line/s. An easy to read saga that leaves the reader with a good understanding of what has shaped the China of today.

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

A one hundred year saga of four generations of a Chinese family. It is rather tedious at times and characterization is very predictable, however it gives a good overview on Chinese history from the end of the 19th century to the 1970s.