Eighth Moon: True Story of a Young Girl's Life in Communist China

by Sansan

If you're a teenager in today's China

YOU GET UP at three in the morning to stand in line for rationed food...

YOU WORK after school and during vacations at dirty, backbreaking "volunteer" jobs...

YOU LEARN to distrust the classmates and friends who might denounce you for "political deviation"...

YOU FORGET your plans for career and marriage when the Party decides how and where you'll live...

After sixteen years, Sansan escaped from Communist China to the U.S.A. Here's the story of how she and her friends struggled to survive under Communists.

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

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1964

Reviews

[AlexB_E2 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about my grandma's little sister. It is interesting to hear about a young girls life in communist China but even more interesting to know that this is about someone you know. I know so much more about her history and think that I can connect with her even more than now. I can sort of see why her personality is the way that it is. She comes from two different backgrounds just like when Mr.Errico came from all of his different backgrounds and I can definitely see how those two backgrounds could change her in different ways.

[♪ Kim N · Rating 3 out of 5]

The "Sansan" of the book is Bette Bao Lord's sister, youngest of three children. When their father left China in 1946 to take a position in the US, he had to leave his family behind. Eventually, their mother was able to join him and brought the two older daughters with her. Sansan, who was barely a year old, was left with an aunt. The family thought the separation would be for a year or two at the most. But after the revolution and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, it was impossible for them to return or for Sansan to leave the country. The family was not reunited until 16 years later.

The story was simple and touching. It’s not anything I hadn’t read before about life in China under Mao Zedong, but I was reminded again of what happens when ideology becomes more important than individual lives and how precious personal liberty is.

[Ebookwormy1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

After enjoying other titles by Bette Bao Lord, I pulled The Eighth Moon out expecting fiction. However, a couple of chapters in, I had to regroup. I read the back of the book and did some searching online. It was then that I realized this is a non-fiction account of the life of her younger sister, who was trapped in China by political events and somewhat miraculously reunited with her family in the early 1960s.

Sansan’s story is all too familiar, though it is colored with personal details. School, countryside labor, poverty, family dysfunction, self and peer criticism sessions, walking the political tightrope, misinformation, mental/ physical illness, and trying to determine whether or not to believe the family reaching to pull her away from all she’s ever known, Sansan has a lot to navigate in her first 16 years stuck in China with her mother’s family. What is unfamiliar is the incredible way that her escape comes together to reunite her with her family in the United States and the publication of her story.

Assembled through interviews of Sansan (her sister’s nickname) by Bette herself, this is probably one of the first personal accounts ever published in the West about life in China during the communist period. It is a story China has resisted being told. Rescued in 1962 at the age of 16, Sansan’s story covers the disaster of the Great Leap forward and its aftermath. Thankfully for her and her family, she is rescued before the Cultural Revolution is declared. There is a sense in which the Lord family was able to extricate Sansan at just the right time. Hindsight shows that if they had not acted when they did, the window of opportunity would have slammed shut on her. Sansan’s memoir is not a pleasant or comfortable narrative, but it is a valuable narrative for students of history and those interacting with Chinese culture. The societal trauma of these events, compounded by those from which Sansan was saved, have cast a long shadow into modern China as Sansan’s peers enter middle age – most of which did not have family outside China to pull them out of the morass.

For more non-fiction about family division between East and West through Chinese political upheaval, see
Shanghai Faithful: Betrayal and Forgiveness in a Chinese Christian Family, Jennifer Lin, 2017
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

For more Bette Bao Lord, see this fictional account of three friends navigating twentieth century China…
The Middle Heart, Bette Bao Lord,
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[C2 Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book served as an exceptional glimpse into communist China when Mao was in power. I don't personally know about the daily struggles of this time period. The real living conditions and simple but complicated every day life tasks were brought to mind in a nitty-gritty way. I was amazed at she lived her day to day in terms of food, clothing, comforts, interactions and her perception on the events that where happening out side of her world. I also found it interesting that the people there had a complete lack of occupation choice.

[Amanda B · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this over and over in middle school.

[Toni Miranda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great companion to Red Scarf Girl. I think more people need to read these books so they can see a true picture of the effects of Socialism. It is scary how easy it is for a tyrant to use fear to control people and to get them to do things they would never have done before.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was published in 1964, so it's a wonder I came across it. I have volunteered in China working with elementary school teachers of rural towns, so this book was particularly interesting. From the first page I was fascinated with the story. The book is easy to read with a look into a young girl's life in China in the 1950s and 60s. Although as an American, we occasionally hear about Communist China or Mao, it's always difficult for me to really understand what it was like. We also hear about these things from an outside perspective, rather than from the experience of someone living through it. This book made history more real.

Although life in China was not easy for Sansan, I felt like the story she told was balanced and believable.

Definitely an interesting read and sheds light onto why Chinese immigrants from her time may act so differently. Certainly, the stereotyped emphasis on a good education is no surprise after reading this book.

Bottom line: Absolutely worth a read if you are at all interested in China.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is, as stated in the subtitle, a true story of a young girl's experiences growing up in Communist China. She was only a little girl, about four, when Mao came into power and began his endless, circular, campaigns. Life quickly became stressful and confusing, and even children learned how to keep their true thoughts to themselves and tout the party line.

Sansan's story is also one of discovery. She learns that she was given up by her real mother at the age of one; her parents left China so her father could take a job in the United States. By the time the family tried to reclaim their daughter, the rules and regulations of the People's Republic of China made it impossible for them to return or for her to leave. Part of her story is how she deals with this discovery, and how she finds a way to reconnect with her true family.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before the Communist party took control of China, Bette Lord's family left China to spend a year in the United States. They did not intend to be gone long and did not think that leaving their daughter, Bette's sister, would be a problem since she was so young. However, changes happened quickly and the two separated parts of the the family are unable to reunite. As a result Sansan grows up believing her aunt is her mother. Her story provides an interesting perspective into life in Communist China.

[shuhana · Rating 3 out of 5]

read around the world challenge #3: china

3.5 -- rip the copy geoffrey gave to me :(

[Pamela Mclaren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been interested in Asia, including China, for as long as I can remember. I have used every opportunity to read more about the people and culture. So when someone recommended that I read a book by Bette Bao Lord, I considered myself lucky to find Eighth Moon: The True Story of a Young Girl's Life in Communist China because I would be reading not only an Asian author writing about the culture and living conditions of China during a specific era in its history, but also one in which details the life of the sister that was left in China when the family traveled to the United States.

It is a very personal tale of a young child who grows up during a time of struggle to stay within the framework of Communism, during challenges in every aspect of the mainland Chinese. For many Americans there is something very jarring of a family to leave behind their youngest child, and to see how friends and family members struggled to protect themselves in those days when the government was looking for Chinese who didn't act in a certain way.

The tale of Sansan (Jean Bao), told through her own voice with Lord's skillful crafting, comes through with authenticity and insight. It's an incredible story of survival and tenacity.

[John Pitcock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heart wrenching turns into heart warming. Live through Sansan’s hard life as a young girl growing up in communist China and grow your own appreciation for how blessed (and spoiled) we are to live in a free country.

[Mike Orta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book that details what life was like under Mao Tse-tung. You should read Spring Moon too.

[Alan Alderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enlightening and engaging

This book served as an excellent glimpse into communist China. I'm an American, so I don't know about the daily struggles of the Chinese. The real living conditions were brought to mind in a detailed way. I was amazed at how little these people live on in terms of food, clothing, creature comforts and knowledge of world events, not to mention the complete lack of choice of vocation or profession. Truly eye-opening. There were only a few typos, and it was well written and easy to follow.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I traded my sad boy memoirs for a sad girl memoir.
This is historically interesting, and has a place in the women's narratives I collect, but I won't say it is a must-read, or even very compelling -- other than the trueness of it, and the importance that someone recorded it while it was still such a fresh memory and without much of a revisionist view.

[Fleur · Rating 5 out of 5]

An inspiring true story...

[sedge · Rating 4 out of 5]

In grade seven, my teacher-frenemy loaned this to me; I remember being absorbed and freaked-out in equal measure, and I'd love to read it again. I suspect my perspective has changed quite a bit.

[Jill]

EIGHTH MOON by Sansan and Bette Lord (1964)

[Shelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book shared a glimpse into the rarely seen world of early Communist China. So glad I read it and felt so grateful for the freedoms of America.

[MarieE · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was originally planning on keeping this with the books I'm saving for my daughter, but have decided to send it to my teenage neice.

[Heather]

B1 R2 C3

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick read. Story of a young girl and her struggles in Communist China with everything from food, school, and finally getting a pass to leave China and settle in the US with her real family.

[Charles Currens · Rating 5 out of 5]

awesome story

[Jennifer Morefield · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was an interesting look at the Chinese Revolution. I was shocked at some of the many difficulties the Chinese had to endure based on being a good citizen of China. A great story about something I knew little about. A great first hand look at that time period and a young girl who found freedom by coming to the US to see her family. Fascinating stuff.