Winnefox Library System

Swimming to freedom, my escape from China and the Cultural Revolution : an untold story, Kent Wong

eng

autobiography

illustrations

no index present

non fiction

Swimming to freedom

1249442483

Kent Wong

my escape from China and the Cultural Revolution : an untold story

When Wong was a boy his father, a Chinese official in the customs office in Hong Kong, joined an insurrection at work and returned with the family to the newly established People's Republic of China. This is his memoir of a childhood amid revolutionary times, where boyish adventures and school days mixed with dire poverty and political persecution. Mao's China was dangerous and unstable ; the Cultural Revolution closed schools, plunged the country into chaos, and scattered Wong and his sisters to disparate villages where they struggled to eke out a bare existence. As the son of a "capitalist rightist" he had no future in China. He became one of an estimated half million "Freedom Swimmers" who swam across miles of open water to Hong Kong, risking their lives for a better future. -- adapted from jacket

Prologue : "It's your time to fly away" -- Hong Kong is not China, and we are Chinese -- Chasing sparrows -- Hunger -- Red versus black -- The big link-up -- "No noble men" -- Rooftop underground -- The calm before the storm -- A call from heaven -- The endless sea -- Life and death in heaven's hands -- Life is a stream of water -- "Hey, Hong Kong! I'm back!" -- Epilogue : So much has changed, yet much remains the same

adult

My escape from China and the Cultural Revolution : an untold story