Girl from Purple Mountain

by May-lee Chai and Winberg Chai

Book Overview

A family memoir set against the shifting tides of twentieth-century China, The Girl from Purple Mountain begins with a mystery: the Chai family matriarch, Ruth Mei-en Tsao Chai, dies unexpectedly and her grieving husband discovers that she had secretly arranged to be buried alone--rather than in the shared plots they had purchased together years ago.

For many years, Ruth's family remained shocked by her decision and could not begin...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312302703
• ISBN13: 9780312302702
• Release Date: November 2002
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Redeeming the Past: A Father and Daughter Remember

I had real reservations about this book. A woman who would go out of her way to make sure she was not buried next to her husband seemed to me to be less than worthy of my time. I didn't like her. I want to read about someone with whom I can form some identity. I looked at this book several times at the bookstore and passed it up. Then a friend handed it to me and told me to read it. I have always said that some of the best books I have read have come as an interruption to what I was "supposed" to be reading. This book is one of them. The introduction on the dust jacket describes a woman who makes a secret arrangement to be buried alone in a mausoleum. The book seeks to understand and explain this unusual behavior. But I didn't want to understand. I am tired of caring why strange people do strange things. Such an act seemed unheroic. But something completely unexpected happened to me as I read this book. I was prepared to hear an elaborate excuse by the writer for why her grandmother did what she did. I had concluded that I could never identify with such a person. But I was completely unprepared for the extent to which I identified with the writer herself. We are worlds apart. Literally. She grew up in America. I was born in Tokyo, and I grew up in the northern part of Japan. My parents were American missionaries, who went to Japan as volunteers after World War II. My grandparents came from Norway. I do not look Japanese. Not at all. Throughout my childhood, I was always a foreigner. Gaijin. Nevertheless, I am a child of Asia. When my parents took me to America at the age of 13, I had serious misgivings about that new country. We moved to a small town in Minnesota, about as far removed as it is possible to be (both culturally and geographically) from the place that had been my home. I forgot Japanese. But through all the years I have lived in America, I have never forgotten the strange feeling I had when I came to that small Midwestern town and tried to fit into a world where I knew nothing about anything, even though I was a native speaker of English. This book is about a woman who hated her father, and the ripple effect that this bitterness had over three generations. But it is written by a woman who loved her father, and with whom, in spite of clear generational differences, she was able to collaborate on a book about, of all things, relationships. The book is written by May-lee with her father, Winberg. It is about Ruth and Charles-her grandparents, his parents. Charles adores his wife, but he is forever the unfortunate recipient of the unresolved rage she feels for her father. In that sense, Charles is a pathetic figure. He really can't do anything right. But, Ruth, of course, is more pathetic. She epitomizes in every way the Biblical injunction, "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled (Hebrews 12:15).

Previous reviewers were ignorant.

Just because you cannot comprehend anyone having a hard life, doesn't mean you have to discredit the authors of this wonderful book. I am currently taking a course in Asian Political Cultures from Winberg Chai at the University of Wyoming, and I find him to be an incredible source of inspiration. Read this book and ignore anything the previous reviewers, or the critic from the New York Times have said.

An Excellent Historical Read

I strongly disagree with the previous reviewers who slammed this book. Every memoir is intrinsically biased: that is the very essence of autobiographical writing, to tell a story from a unique perspective. Those familiar with 19th and 20th Chinese history will no doubt be amazed by the achievements of the Chai family and will apreciate the historical tie-ins.

The Girl From Purple Mountain: A book to love

This memoir is told from two points of view: a father/daughter writing team. For memoir fans, this unique writing approach alone makes the book a must-read. The two voices are separated by chapters, so it's easy to keep the voices straight. The father's writing style is particularly humorous, the daughter most often provides historical context. The writing team takes care to clarify their memories, commenting on each other's intrepretations, providing insight not only into their story but the workings of human memory itself. The story is compelling, fascinating and engaging. I learned about this family and about China. This is a great book!

The Girl from Purple Mountain

A delightful mix of two authors that tell two views of a strong lady in a time in our history that is often repressed and forgotten by Chinese-Americans. The Girl from Purple Mountain has made me realize that we should try to learn from our relatives past so that we can find incite to our own existence while honoring our ancestors lives.