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The Little Red Guard

3.67 of 5 stars 3.67 · rating details · 178 ratings · 40 reviews

Three generations of a family living under one roof reflect the dramatic transformations of an entire society in this memoir of life in 20th century China

When Wenguang Huang was nine years old, his grandmother became obsessed with her own death. Fearing cremation, she extracted from her family the promise to bury her after she died. This was in Xi’an, a city in central Chi...more

Hardcover, 272 pages

Published April 26th 2012 by Riverhead Hardcover (first published January 1st 2012)

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Oct 18, 2012 Carolyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a memorable story by Wenguang Huang regarding his Chinese family and living through China's political turbulence in the late 20th century. Mr. Huang begins his memoir in 1973 when he was 10 years old an was living in a tiny house in Central China where he grew up with his mother, father, paternal grandmother, and his two younger sisters and brother. He chooses this moment in time to begin his tale because his grandmother, who was 72 that year. became obssessed with her death and the the...more

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Sep 08, 2012 Louise rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoirs

Story Description:
Riverhead | May 1, 2012 | Hardcover |ISBN: 978-1-59448-829-0
Three generations of a family living under one roof reflect the dramatic transformations of an entire society in this memoir of life in 20th century China

When Wenguang Huang was nine years old, his grandmother became obsessed with her own death. Fearing cremation, she extracted from her family the promise to bury her after she died. This was in Xi'an, a city in central China, in the 1970s, when a national ban on all tr...more Story Description:
Riverhead | May 1, 2012 | Hardcover |ISBN: 978-1-59448-829-0
Three generations of a family living under one roof reflect the dramatic transformations of an entire society in this memoir of life in 20th century China

When Wenguang Huang was nine years old, his grandmother became obsessed with her own death. Fearing cremation, she extracted from her family the promise to bury her after she died. This was in Xi'an, a city in central China, in the 1970s, when a national ban on all traditional Chinese practices, including burials, was strictly enforced. But Huang's grandmother was persistent, and two years later, his father built her a coffin. He also appointed his older son, Wenguang, as coffin keeper, a distinction that meant, among other things, sleeping next to the coffin at night.

Over the next fifteen years, the whole family was consumed with planning Grandma's burial, a regular source of friction and contention, with the constant risk of being caught by the authorities. Many years after her death, the family's memories of her coffin still loom large. Huang, now living and working in America, has come to realize how much the concern over the coffin has affected his upbringing and shaped the lives of everyone in the family. Lyrical and poignant, funny and heartrending, The Little Red Guard is the powerful tale of an ordinary family finding their way through turbulence and transition.

My Review:

From the age of ten, Wenguang was forced to sleep next to his Grandmother’s coffin each night. His father forbade them from calling it a coffin but instead a “shou mu” which meant something along the lines of “longevity wood.”

In 1973, Wenguang’s Grandma had turned seventy-two-years of age and she became entirely obsessed with dying and the fact that they would “cremate” her upon her death. She absolutely did not want to be cremated but instead “buried.” However, at the time, China wouldn’t allow any of its citizens to be buried in order to preserve the land for more important things. The only way the Huang family could calm her fears and get poor old Grandma to stop talking non-stop about her death was to build her this coffin and keep it hidden in their home at great risk to themselves, they would be arrested if found with it.

Wenguang had never given much thought before to his Grandma dying as to him at ten, she had always appeared old, with wrinkles, and brownish age spots on her face so he thought she’d live forever.

The family was concerned that maybe Grandma was ill when she so suddenly began talking about herself dying. Wenguang’s father asked her if she was sick but she said “no” but that: “when a person reaches the ages of 73 or 84, the King of Hell is most likely to make his call.” Since she only had one year to reach that first threshold she wanted to be ready, and asked Wenguang’s father to start planning her funeral. She wanted to be “buried” in her native village in Henan Province next to her husband. The family thought that Grandma’s new obsession with death was just a phase and that she would soon “snap out of it.” How wrong they were when Grandma continued to sleep less and less and peppered every single conversation with her growing obsession. She regaled her grandchildren of stories about how the people of her native village viewed death, especially burials.

Grandma’s husband had died in the 1920’s after succumbing to tuberculosis along the Northern Bank of the Yellow River. He was one of the first to succumb to the sickness. She said it was a “bloody death.” Grandma was adamant that as filial son, Wenguang’s father would not disappoint her. She said she was positive that they had kept a place for her. She made it quite clear to her son that she would be buried in her native village with a traditional funeral, and she would: “NOT be denied her final request.”

Over the next fifteen years, the entire family is consumed with planning and talking about Grandma’s burial much to the detriment of Wenguang. It wasn’t until he was older that he realized just what affect this all really had on him.

The story was well-written, interesting, funny, interspersed with the political state of China at the time. A story and history lesson all-in-one. Excellent read.
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Aug 29, 2012 Edith rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir, non-fiction, china

The theme of this book could be titled “Grandma’s coffin and her obsession with death”. This Chinese grandma, who raised the author Huang while his own mother was off working like a good Communist for the benefit of the Revolution, had her bound feet in the “old ways” of traditional China and would not be reconciled to the new way of handling death by cremation. Grandma put the entire household in strife for YEARS over this issue. Her insistence on a traditional burial in her place of birth beca...more The theme of this book could be titled “Grandma’s coffin and her obsession with death”. This Chinese grandma, who raised the author Huang while his own mother was off working like a good Communist for the benefit of the Revolution, had her bound feet in the “old ways” of traditional China and would not be reconciled to the new way of handling death by cremation. Grandma put the entire household in strife for YEARS over this issue. Her insistence on a traditional burial in her place of birth became the main conversation in the household and an albatross around the neck of Huang’s father, a dutiful member of the Communist Party attempting to steer clear of censure by adhering to Party dictates, but still compelled by tradition to respect his old mother’s wishes.

Growing up in 1970’s and 80's China, Huang shows us an ordinary family struggling to live with the new changes mandated by the government while still honoring the values and teachings of tradition. The dilemma for many Chinese is that they have been in the midst of great upheaval in their society ever since the Communists took over in 1947 - there was great disparity between the “old ways” of Confucius and the Communist Party teachings of Chairman Mao. The people lived anxious lives, attempting to keep one foot in each camp. Give up tradition and you will have the ghosts of your ancestors forever wandering and suffering; give up adherence to the Party line and you will suffer demotion and any chance of prosperity, however meager.

Wenguang Huang, now a US citizen, wrote this memoir as a tribute to his deceased father because he was ashamed of his disrespectful behavior at his father’s funeral when he was 24 years of age- an arrogant son with some education, unappreciative of the agonies and tremendous contradictions that his father had attempted to juggle all his life. He writes about the difficult relationship he had with his father from the “mellowness that comes with middle-age". Huang wholeheartedly adopted western culture as a young adult studying abroad and wanted to put his Chinese personae behind him, but growing older, he found memories of family and home invading his thoughts more frequently. He also wrote this story to come to terms with all the conflict he experienced growing up in this era.

It is particularly interesting to compare what you were doing in the 70's to what was going on clear across the globe in Huang’s life. This is truly a touching story about people trying their best to live good, dutiful and meaningful lives in a less than perfect world.

I heard about his book on a booktv.org broadcast- http://www.booktv.org/Watch/13577/201...(less)

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May 22, 2012 Diane S. rated it 3 of 5 stars

3.5 Wen is a very likable and easy to relate to narrator. Living with a grandmother, who is from a time when they still bound woman's feet, he and is family try to navigate between the old customs and the new ways after Mao's cultural revolution. Burial is no longer an option, as Mao only endorses cremation, a fact that his grandmother finds horrible. The old customs dictate that she must be buried next to her husband so that they may be reunited. At the age of nine, as the oldest grandson, Wen...more

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May 10, 2012 Chad Post rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a really excellent and fascinating book--and I'm not just saying that because I spent a week with Wen in a palace in Austria. Nor am I saying that because Wen may just well be the most genuine and kind person I've ever met in my life. No, his story of growing up in China in the 70s and 80s, and his relationships with his family--in particular his father, who tragically passed away, and his grandmother, whose impending death hangs over the entire book--is really illuminating, and written...more

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May 04, 2013 Christine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: chinese, memoir, reviewed

First, thumbs up to the author for his very unusual Cultural Revolution memoir. While many CR stories I've read have been written by those persecuted during that time and/or suffered hardships in the countryside, Huang's memoir lacks that bleakness. For one, he was lucky to have grown up in a city at the tail end of the CR. His family belonged to the "right" class (workers/peasants) and he was able to attend prestigious Fudan University, a huge opportunity and achievement. Although life wasn't a...more

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May 01, 2012 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Little Red Guard chronicles the decision Huang’s father made to give his mother a traditional burial, and the fifteen years of planning and family friction this decision cost him. Wenguang Huang calls this a “family memoir,” because although he tells the story from his point of view, he writes about how the decision to give his grandmother a traditional burial affected the entire family. He describes the friction it caused between his mother and father; he writes about how his mother and gra...more

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Mar 13, 2013 Peggy Galle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Very entertaining and informative. His description of everyday life in China during the cultural revolution reveals some of the horrors, but because the author primarily focuses on the ordinary events of family life as seen by a child, it is also hysterically funny. Because of his father's position as a worker (factory manager) and party member, his family did not suffer as badly as the intellectuals and other targeted groups. This book is a great comparison to the same period described in Ping...more

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Jun 21, 2012 Bernadette Bender rated it 4 of 5 stars

While I thought this memoir started off slowly, I was fully engrossed about one third of the way through (could also have to do with the fact that I was traveling and had many interruptions). In fact, I would rate this last half of the book five stars. This story is about a boy/young man's coming of age in Communist China during the 1970's and 1980's revolving around the funeral plans for his elderly, traditional grandmother. This book had me in tears at the end regarding the frailty of life and...more

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Jun 12, 2012 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: east-asia_southeast-asia, biography-memoir

We sit right there at the dinner table of the Huang family, beginning in Xi'an in the early 1970s. The author's grandmother began thinking about her funeral when she turned 72. For roughly 15 years, those funeral plans dominate the family, and dominate the author's thoughts long after she's gone. This is a great story of family and political change.

Many times in this story, what at first seems unlucky turns out to be a life-saver as the family, miraculously, survives. They survive famine, invas...more

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Jul 17, 2012 Jeanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Interesting memoir about a time and place of which I know very little. Huang Wenguang (isn't that how his name should really read?) tells about growing up in China. Born in the Year of the Dragon 1964, the eldest male child, Wenguang bears the brunt of his familial expectations. He's caught between societal Communist indoctrinations and Confucian teachings in the home where he's expected to be a filial son and grandson.

His grandmother, worried about her impending death, insists on being buried w...more

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Apr 01, 2012 Brenda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I hadn't read anything set in Communist China since Dal Sijie's novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress & was delighted to win Wenguang Huang's The LittleRed Guard: A Family Memoir from First Reads. The author is only slightly older than I am so I found myself comparing his experiences in the 1970s to my own. During those years, my cultural/historical education was pretty much limited to reading about the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria--or, the American Bicentennial celebration....more I hadn't read anything set in Communist China since Dal Sijie's novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress & was delighted to win Wenguang Huang's The LittleRed Guard: A Family Memoir from First Reads. The author is only slightly older than I am so I found myself comparing his experiences in the 1970s to my own. During those years, my cultural/historical education was pretty much limited to reading about the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria--or, the American Bicentennial celebration. My later education really didn't add much to my knowledge of life in China in the mid-twentieth century. I didn't realize that women with "toes bent inward" into pyramid shapes, resembling "pig trotters" were still around in that era. For some reason, I'd thought foot binding to be a much older practice. Huang's grandmother is terrified of not being able to outrun an earthquake on such little feet!

Although other reviewers have commented on the tensions that developed between family members as a result of a promise made to this extravagantly stubborn grandmother, I found myself concentrating more on the many humorous moments that arise as a result of the community's subterfuges. So often we're only exposed to fear and treachery in accounts in which neighbors and children are encouraged to betray loved ones in order to prove their allegiance to Chairman Mao and company (or their counterparts if the narrative transpires in Russia). While Huang's memoir is certainly mindful of the risk run by his family's attempts to honor his grandmother's desire to be buried in a coffin instead of being cremated, as demanded by law, I found his story to be lightened by the revelation of how many people conspired to assist in the plot to defy the government. The coffin in the bedroom is a frequently shared secret.

Overall, I was greatly entertained by interactions between characters who might be described as likeably annoying. I can only hope that someone will adapt this memoir for the big screen. (less)

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Apr 11, 2012 Miss GP rated it 4 of 5 stars

I found this brief little book fascinating; it covered a lot of ground over just a few pages. The author was a child during the Cultural Revolution, and it was interesting to see how he first embraced and then later rejected the party viewpoint. He also did a wondeful job of contrasting his father's party-line views with his own, as well as with those of his grandmother's traditional outlook (and hence the conflict over her burial).

I do think, however, people without at least some familiarity wi...more

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Mar 25, 2012 Wesley rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012

*I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway*

The Little Red Guard is a book about a family being pulled into a changing Chinese society while some members of the family are trying to stay firmly grounded in the old, pre-Communism, Chinese ways.

The author grows up with his father, mother, siblings and his paternal grandmother all in the same house. The Grandmother does on the author, and the only thing that she cares about more then him is her funeral. Though she wasn't in ill health she harps on her...more

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Apr 04, 2012 Lyla rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: goodreads-first-reads, non-fiction-memoir

I got a free copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads Giveaway Program.

I didn't know much about the Chinese culture nor it's history and I still don't, but I found that I could relate to this book in a way that I never expected to.

This is based on Huang's life at the time China was moved into communism and the toll it took on his family, being that traditions and the "old" ways, down to religion or even how one might "appear" to be became dangerous.
(view spoiler)...more I got a free copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads Giveaway Program.

I didn't know much about the Chinese culture nor it's history and I still don't, but I found that I could relate to this book in a way that I never expected to.

This is based on Huang's life at the time China was moved into communism and the toll it took on his family, being that traditions and the "old" ways, down to religion or even how one might "appear" to be became dangerous.
(view spoiler)[
What I found hard to swallow was how almost the entire memoir revolved around funeral preparations of Huang's grandmother, being that burials had become outlawed due to land restrictions. The grandmother refused to accept the new ways and because she had suffered through numerous hardships in order to raise her son (she was widowed), she expected for her last wish of being buried to be upheld no matter what financial strain was put on the family or the fact that the son she struggled so hard to give a future to...could lose his future as well as his children's if they were caught. It seemed so selfish to mme, but at the same time, like I stated before, I had no clue about their traditions. Soon, her obsession became her son's as well.

It put a huge strain on the family unit. From gathering people to help with the building of a coffin, to hiding it, and bribing people to help with relocations should anything go amiss. All this going on while the grandmother was still alive. The jealousy and friction between the mother and mother-in-law over some sort of control over son/husband, son/husband caught in the middle and constantly leaning towards his mother's wishes, putting his wife on the backburner, and children witnessing the not-so-subtle tug-of-war going on in the home while trying to outwardly appear as if they were living the lives of true communists in and out of the home.

While I never experienced all of that in it's totality, I came to understand the part where traditions were involved because it's quite similar in my culture. Not the ceremony and pre-preparations, that I found to be quite romantic and beautiful in sentiment, but in the way that it's just as important if not more than any other life's event.

Huang was also easy to relate to and I was surprised that in writing this, he wasn't afraid or ashamed to admit to feeling saddened or somewhat shamed at key points in his life upon reflections of feelings he had towards his family. I find that with memoirs, the author will hint at their own misgivings but not really take on it's entire responsibility. I really liked that about Huang...it made me feel a connection.
(hide spoiler)]
I give this book 4 stars. I enjoyed it and the bits of historical events peppered through-out the book as well as the in-home drama. This is a book that should be read by anyone interested in seeing a realistic account of how life was in those days in China without all of the propaganda or bias as Huang may have been raised as a communist, but was very vocal about what he actually saw and how it affected the most important people in his life as well as himself.

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Apr 03, 2012 Alisha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I won this book through a goodreads first-reads contest

This is a memoir about a boy and his family, and his childhood during the communist revolution in China. After his grandmother becomes obsessed with keeping to her religious convictions of how to be buried, which is outlawed, the family must make sacrifices to give her what she wants. This is a book on how it affects their lives, and the way times change time and time again in China. Honestly, I wanted to read this book because I wanted to k...more

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Jul 17, 2012 Ariel Uppstrom rated it 4 of 5 stars

I very much enjoyed this book. I have always been fascinated with Chinese traditions and know only a bit about the Cultural Revolution that obliterated much of those practices. This book shed more light on the blight of the average person who was indoctrinated by Mao.

The book is an autobiography of Huang and follows him throughout his upbringing to discuss his own struggles with being a "good revolutionary" and his family's struggles to reconcile the new doctrine with their heritage. The book c...more I very much enjoyed this book. I have always been fascinated with Chinese traditions and know only a bit about the Cultural Revolution that obliterated much of those practices. This book shed more light on the blight of the average person who was indoctrinated by Mao.

The book is an autobiography of Huang and follows him throughout his upbringing to discuss his own struggles with being a "good revolutionary" and his family's struggles to reconcile the new doctrine with their heritage. The book centers around Huang's grandmother's desire to be reunited via burial with her long dead husband back in their original village. This is an extreme problem because burial has been outlawed by the Mao leadership and all good proletarians are to be cremated and no traditional ceremonies are permitted. However, Huang's father is a filial son and wants to do right by his mother. Therefore, there are elaborate plans concocted to build a coffin, store it in the house, and create contingency plans in order to get Grandmother buried whenever that might happen. However, Grandmother is far from dying and eventually is troubled by the coffin residing so close to her. Huang grows up and witnesses the contradictions of the Communists as new regimes are set up. It seems that with each "changing of the guard" there comes new perspectives on Mao doctrine. For this reason, Huang is eventually permitted to learn English and attend college abroad. From a distance, it is easier for Huang to begin to question his past and comes in conflict with his patriotic father. I won't tell what happens at the end, but I really admired the way Huang reflected on his own behaviors and decisions.

Overall, I found it fascinating to watch Huang's younger self exposed to the ability to criticize a government when that was so forbidden in his childhood. His writing style was both journalistic and artistic and I was very curious to see what would happen to the family. I think I might go on a Chinese reading kick now that I'm done with my Civil War reading kick. (less)

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Oct 12, 2012 Sara Dyck rated it 4 of 5 stars

Intimate, touching, sometimes painfully honest. I found this fascinating because it presents a disturbing view of what happens to a family under the Chinese Communist regime, in Mao’s time and more recently. These are not people who are opposing the government, but ordinary people with some dreams who are trying not to get knocked down. This memoir, set in the 1960s and 1970s, shows the struggle of Huang’s family to maintain their relationships against the pressure of Communist dictates. Making...more

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Jun 09, 2012 Suzanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a very different kind of Chinese memoir than most I have read. It was more like a psychological portrait of a family. At the center of the book is the grandmother's wish to be buried in her ancestoral graveyard in her home town. This provides a touchstone for the book, as at first this goal is very unreachable due to the Cultural Revolution, but over time, it is more do-able and more poignant in how it affects the whole family. This book seems to me to be at its core a tragedy,very well...more

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Apr 21, 2013 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

A well-written interesting tale that highlights the rapid cultural changes China is undergoing. Told throught the lens of a single family, each of the three generations that live under one roof see their current circumstances quite differently. A central conflict in the book is the desire of the Grandmother to be buried in the traditional style of her village. The Father is conflicted as a traditional burial is no longer allowed under the Communist system. Difficult decisions are made and as in...more

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Feb 14, 2013 Juan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting.

Still not quite sure what to make of this book. It is part tragicomic memoir, part homage to his father, and part documentary of the evolution of modern china. But I'm not always sure the author knew which one he was going for.

I finished the book although there were several times I put it down in relative frustration that it seemed that years would go by and there was no progression to the story other than detailing the ridiculous lengths that his grandmother would go to ensure a "pr...more

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Jul 08, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: quit-reading

I eagerly anticipated reading this book and was encouraged by several glowing reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. I’m 107 pages in, and I just can’t do it anymore. The story is a series of memories, which jumps around between past and present with not infrequent commentary that seems totally irrelevant and out of place. To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, check out this paragraph that demonstrates Huang’s writing style perfectly:

Grandma later saw Father’s inability to cook as her biggest...more I eagerly anticipated reading this book and was encouraged by several glowing reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. I’m 107 pages in, and I just can’t do it anymore. The story is a series of memories, which jumps around between past and present with not infrequent commentary that seems totally irrelevant and out of place. To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, check out this paragraph that demonstrates Huang’s writing style perfectly:

Grandma later saw Father’s inability to cook as her biggest failure, and she didn’t want me to be exposed to ridicule. Sometimes, before Mother came home in the afternoon, we would mix flour into dough and knead it to the right texture for noodles, cover the dough with a piece of wet cloth, and let it sit for fifteen minutes. Then we would use a rolling pin to make a big round sheet, which we folded and cut into either thin wide noodles. I also learned to make steamed buns. A tough job in those days was to make corn more appetizing and appealing. About thirty percent of our food ration was corn. I was sick of eating corn bread and corn gruel. Eating corn was not only a necessity but also considered a proletariat duty. At my boarding school, we all pretended how much we loved it because it was the staple food for early revolutionaries. One day, at the cafeteria, I tossed into a garbage can a hard, cold corn bun. A classmate saw it. I had to write a self-criticism in my journal, confessing that I was under the influence of the bourgeois and had discarded the precious corn bread, made by the blood and sweat of revolutionary peasants. Grandma taught me how to make what she called “silver and golden” rolls, containing layers of wheat and corn. They were much easier to swallow. I used to tell Grandma: “When I grow up and earn lots of money, I’ll never touch corn again.” Nowadays, hardship food such as corn bread is coming back as a type of healthful food that is served only at high-end restaurants in China. I still avoid it at all cost. The mere thought of it gives me heartburn.

Yes, this is one paragraph. (It begins on page 101 and carries over to page 102.) Can someone please tell me what Huang’s heartburn contributes to the fact that Grandma regrets not teaching Father to cook? And also, why is the boarding school experience included here? Huang obviously wasn’t at boarding school when he was being taught to cook at home with his grandmother. . .The first half of the book is written entirely in this style—no transitions between paragraphs, no coherence within paragraphs or chapters, no cohesive chronology. I kept wondering if I accidentally got a copy of a rough draft printed and made to look like the finished product. The writing left me with the distinct feeling that the author is trying to prove his own relevance by shamelessly injecting commentary into each part of his family’s history. Unfortunately, the author’s asides are not helpful, and only create frequent distractions that will leave your head spinning. I think this memoir set out to record a family history worth telling, but Huang fails miserably at creating a readable narrative.
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Apr 05, 2012 Penelope rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: goodreads-first-reads, memoir, spring-12

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

5 stars

I really enjoyed this book, and was surprised by how good it was. I say that because it started off a little slow, and I couldn't quite feel out where it was going. At first, I thought the coffin and Wenguang's grandmother's death was just an opening story--something to set the mood for the rest of the book. Those things, however, turn out to be at the heart of Wenguang's story, which is beautifully told with death, politics, and...more

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Jul 08, 2012 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It is a fast read, and quite different from some of the other Chinese memoirs I have read. It is set in Northwest China is the 1970's and tells the story of Wenguang Huang and his family and in particular, his fathers decision to make a coffin in order to give his mother a "traditional" burial, instead of cremation as was dictated at the time in China. This is a very readable, insightful book and gives you a glimpse of family life in China then.

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Aug 12, 2012 CarolineFromConcord rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting memoir about growing up in the Cultural Revolution and the conflicts between Chinese Communism and tradition. The focus is on burial practices that absorbed the attention of the author's father for many years as he tried to balance loyal Party membership with his mother's wishes for a traditional funeral. Feels a bit like a report. Not dramatic like Da Chen's "Colors of the Mountain," which I highly recommend.

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Jun 08, 2012 Anne B rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography

A memorable story of a life of a family set in northwest China from Mao's time through to today. An excellent history of Chinese traditions and how they effected this family. A very different memoir and full of China's coming out to the Western World and its effect on the members of this family,

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May 09, 2013 Erica Drayton rated it 4 of 5 stars

My Review: The author tells a pretty unbelievable story and I suppose that is what makes this true story all the more fascinating to me. Up until this book I knew very little of the Chinese culture during Mao’s reign and once he was gone. I’ve known that China was a communist country and that communism wasn’t a good thing. When it came to government structures I was aware of the distinct differences between our “Western” culture and that of China’s. But this book gave me a first hand account of...more

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Mar 25, 2012 Christy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: won-own

The Little Red Guard is a family memoir of a Chinese family and their struggle to keep a promise to bury their grandmother at her time of death. The burial not only costs the family financially but emotionally as the decision causes arguments within the family. Goverment at the time dictates cremation. Not only is this book a family memoir but a great learning experience of the Chinese culture and political history. It has me craving more books on Chinese history.

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Jul 03, 2012 Melanie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I won this novel in a Goodreads Giveaway. The writing was clear and beautiful. The novel tells the tale of a families being shaped around an illegal coffin and political confusion. The author discusses growing up in a world on contradictions, following tradition or following the government, and how the two did not always agree with each other. Through famine and limited means this family struggles to appease their grandmother’s last wishes and great costs. I enjoyed the author’s ability for tell...more

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Oct 30, 2012 Mary rated it 3 of 5 stars

Huang gives us the sense of growing up in Communist China where ancient beliefs are never completely obliterated by the state. A memoir of family and transitions.

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About Wenguang Huang

Huang was born in China in 1964 and is a writer, journalist and translator based in Chicago He has written for such publications as The Paris Review, Harper’s, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune and the Asia Literary Review. He also is the English translator of "The Corpse Walker" and "God is Red" by Liao Yiwu. He received a PEN translation award in 2007.

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Books by Wenguang Huang

The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories, China from the Bottom Up

God is Red: The Secret Story of How Christianity Survived and Flourished in Communist China

A Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel: Murder, Money, and an Epic Power Struggle in China

Für ein Lied und hundert Lieder: Ein Zeugenbericht aus chinesischen Gefängnissen

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The Little Red Guard

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