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Aug 08, 2011
Jan Wong very skilfully weaves historical vignettes and discursions into contemporary Beijing architecture into a very engaging story of her attempt to redeem herself by finding out whatever haoppend to a girl she had 'denounced' back in the 1970's when she was one of China's first foreign students after the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution.
She writes with great honesty and a self-deprecating sense of humour which makes this a really good read, and as a journalist she has a great ability to More...
She writes with great honesty and a self-deprecating sense of humour which makes this a really good read, and as a journalist she has a great ability to More...
Mar 31, 2009
Debbie
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This book is a memoir covering the author's experiences in China when she was college-aged up until just before the Beijing Olympics. The frame story is about her month-long trip to Beijing to find and apologize to a woman she betrayed when she was much younger. As the author tells about her present-day trip, she segues into relevant information about what China is like now and what it used to be like.
It's China like you probably never imagined it. The descriptions of city life are v More...
It's China like you probably never imagined it. The descriptions of city life are v More...
May 07, 2011
Will
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I'm here in Beijing with Jan Wong and confidentially, it's not going well. I wanted to find out what life was like in China today and thought she would be a good guide. Jan's Canadian but studied here in the early '70's. She was a dutiful right-thinking communist back then. Of course, she's become a more mature and reflective journalist since that time, and now she's back in Beijing again.
She uses this first-person present style and staccato sentences - a good journalism technique for More...
She uses this first-person present style and staccato sentences - a good journalism technique for More...
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Mar 21, 2011
Alison
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Jan Wong has an interesting life. Her first book was about her experience as a third generation Chinese Canadian (and fledging Maoist) being one of the first students allowed in Communist China in the late 1960s. Right before the Olympic games she goes back to Beijing to find an old classmate that she denounced for trying to go to America. I actually did not find the story of finding her and repenting to be so compelling but the descriptions of Beijing and how much it has changed were fascinatin
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May 21, 2010
Lisa
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Newer editions have replaced the word "Comrade" in the title with "Comrades", plural, which is a more accurate description of the book. Although the story revolves around the Chinese-Canadian author's search in a city of about 22 million people for a former classmate she betrayed during China's Cultural Revolution, that classmate appears relatively little. But along the way, the author reconnects with many other people from her past, and seeing how the Cultural Revolution t
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Apr 19, 2010
Lillian
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I really wanted to like this book. After all, it was Wong's debut book, Red China Blues, that first whetted my appetite for visiting China five years ago. The premise of this follow-up memoir intrigued me: seeking some form of redemption, Wong set out to find a former Beijing University classmate whom she snitched on during the Cultural Revolution and whose life she likely ruined.
But having just finished another book about contemporary China--Peter Hessler's excellent Country Drivin More...
But having just finished another book about contemporary China--Peter Hessler's excellent Country Drivin More...
May 30, 2011
Nancy
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This latest work of Jan Wong really captured the "feel" of Beijing -- the new, modern, constantly-under-construction, traffic-choked but fascinating city! I visited Beijing for the first time in January and Jan's book filled in a lot of gaps for me regarding historical and political developments in the last few decades. I remember reading about the horrors of the Cultural Revolution where even the slightest whisper could bring about imprisonment or even death and the demise of books
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Jan 09, 2011
Staggering wealth in Beijing. Beijing University now over 50 000 students. No discussion in China of Tienanmen Square tragedy. Women hold up half the sky- Jan Wong wonders if their arms are getting tired. Digging tunnels for the revolution to buying stuff. Jan Wong writes a very personal account. She narrates intimate moments with her children and many people she has met and gone back to see in Beijing. The narrative obscures and yet enlightens her struggling effort to halt the weighty boulder
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Jun 06, 2009
Book Jacket:
At the height of the Cultural Revolution, Jan Wong
traveled from Canada to become one of only two Westerners
permitted to study at Beijing University in the early
1970s. One day a fellow student, Yin Luoyi, asked for help
getting to the United States. Wong, then a starry-eyed
Maoist, immediately reported her to the authorities.
Thirty-three years later, Jan Wong revisits the Chinese
capital with her husband and teenage sons in tow to search
More...
At the height of the Cultural Revolution, Jan Wong
traveled from Canada to become one of only two Westerners
permitted to study at Beijing University in the early
1970s. One day a fellow student, Yin Luoyi, asked for help
getting to the United States. Wong, then a starry-eyed
Maoist, immediately reported her to the authorities.
Thirty-three years later, Jan Wong revisits the Chinese
capital with her husband and teenage sons in tow to search
More...
Dec 16, 2010
Anastasia
rated it:
This was a lighter read that I expected. It was actually pretty funny sometimes. I learned two new words: catamite (a boy or youth having a sexual relationship with a man) and tout (in the noun form: a person who urgently or persistently solicits support). Wong made the new Chinese sound like materialistic mega-consumers. Her descriptions of Beijing leave me without a single desire to see China. Apparently, China is the new US, making all our same mistakes. Sad. Oh yeah: the book was also about
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Jul 15, 2009
Betsy
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My version is just titled "A Comrade Lost and Found". I enjoyed reading about modern-day Beijing. Wong's need to apologize for a past wrong is understandable and, although the book contains more details than I personally needed, I kept reading because I did want to find out what happened to the comrade she ratted out years ago. The fact that her two teenage sons accompanied her on this trip made for some interesting commentary about lack of drinking age, night clubs, etc. - a nice bala
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Sep 17, 2009
Alison
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A serviceable overview of Beijing past and present (set in 2007 but ranges back to the 60s and 70s). Hooked on the search for an old classmate, so it had something to keep you reading.
It taught me a few useful things like: the lights in my hallway are sound-activated, not motion-activated! And that spiky, smelly fruit in the grocery store is durian. And the IKEA store and the Capital Museum are worth a visit. My daily experience of Beijing is so narrow that it helped to get a historic More...
It taught me a few useful things like: the lights in my hallway are sound-activated, not motion-activated! And that spiky, smelly fruit in the grocery store is durian. And the IKEA store and the Capital Museum are worth a visit. My daily experience of Beijing is so narrow that it helped to get a historic More...
Feb 28, 2008
Mortimersmom
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i cannot put this book down! Jan Wong, a chinese-canadian journalist, returns to China to seek a woman she turne in to the communist party during the cultural revolution. It simply fascinating, how a montreal-born chinese-canadian became a Maoist, and accidently turned in a fellow student, and came to realise her terrible role and went back to try to make ammends.
I'm not finished yet, but I wanted to give my impressions BEFORE I get to the ending, because ultimately, it doens't matter how More...
I'm not finished yet, but I wanted to give my impressions BEFORE I get to the ending, because ultimately, it doens't matter how More...
Jul 25, 2011
Jan Wong belated realized that a "mean girl" thing she did as an exchange students in 1972 got a classmate sent to a Maoist re-education camp. Now, as a journalist, she returns to Beijing with her family in tow to track down her lost comrade and, if possible, make amends. In the process, she describes a drastically changed "New China" of luxury condos, overnight factories, cell phones, traffic jams, Olympic construction and corruption and traditional manners deployed for ca
May 31, 2010
Pam
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Wong, a Canadian journalist is an excellent writer & revisits her past as an exchange student to Beijing University during the Cultural Revolution in the memoir A Comrade Lost and Found. As an idealistic student she became a devoted Maoist & actually turned in a classmate who asked her about America. The classmate subsequently vanished. Wong went back to Toronto, married, had kids & a successful career & forgot her revolutionary youth. However, just before the Beijing Olympics she was seized wit
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Mar 02, 2011
Lorraine
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Jan Wong goes back to Beijing with her family in 2008 to reconnect and repent for her actions during her Mao days in China. So much has changed in the city environment but no one wants to really talk about the past. She wonders if her memory is really correct and did everything she imagine really occur...
I am now a big fan of Wong's and love the way she tells her truth. It is raw and passionate. If you are looking for a unique insight into the People's Republic of China or are going More...
I am now a big fan of Wong's and love the way she tells her truth. It is raw and passionate. If you are looking for a unique insight into the People's Republic of China or are going More...
Jun 07, 2009
Leeann
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great insight into the naive view of the young, impressionable, mao-era communist outsider. but the author presents china as living up to the legacy of its name, the middle kingdom. dont know if i agree on that so much.
Jul 27, 2011
Richard
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Interesting glimpse at how much Beijing has changed in the past decade or so. Although it is dated, I much prefered Wong's Red China Blues for its insights on life during the time of Mao. June 08
Dec 18, 2010
Rudy
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This was disappointing after her previous books. The story that she built up was a real let down and felt contrived. Sorry Jan, it was not your best. Still worth a read for Sinophiles though.
Apr 06, 2009
Janet
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Learned a lot about Beijing and what they had done to get ready for the Olympics. Sad how much of the city was destroyed and how many people were displaced to make room for the Olympics.
Jun 07, 2009
Lorraine
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Kind of a "detective" story in her search for the girl she betrayed in the 1970s. Another excellent book that aptly gives a feel for Cultural Revolution times in China.
Jul 22, 2009
Julie
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This book was one of the best non-fiction I've read this year! I enjoyed Wong's humor, and found this an excellent way to learn about Communist China.
Jul 26, 2011
Kathleen
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love jan wongs writing and this book didnt disappoint. a great read in view of the upcoming olympics
Sep 29, 2010
Jennifer
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Follow up to Red China Blues (not as good in my mind, but I am a history buff)
Jan 22, 2008
Alexis
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I had to read this book much faster than I wanted to because I was going on vacation. I loved it! There's so much here; Chinese history, the story of a friendship betrayed, a relationship between a family, and notes about a reporter's instinct. I thought this book was both serious, and historical, yet it contained humourous moments that made me laugh out loud. I was incredibly moved, and now feel that I have a much better understanding of Beijing past and present.
