Ancestral Leaves: A Family Journey Through Chinese History

by Joseph W. Esherick

Ancestral Leaves follows one family through six hundred years of Chinese history and brings to life the epic narrative of the nation, from the fourteenth century through the Cultural Revolution. The lives of the Ye family--"Ye" means "leaf" in Chinese--reveal the human side of the large-scale events that shaped modern the vast and destructive rebellions of the nineteenth century, the economic growth and social transformation of the republican era, the Japanese invasion during World War II, and the Cultural Revolution under the Chinese Communists. Joseph W. Esherick draws from rare manuscripts and archival and oral history sources to provide an uncommonly personal and intimate glimpse into Chinese family history, illuminating the changing patterns of everyday life during rebellion, war, and revolution.

Genres: China, History, Nonfiction, Biography

392 pages, ebook

First published October 11, 2010

About the author

Joseph W. Esherick is an emeritus professor of modern Chinese history at University of California, San Diego. He is the holder of the Hwei-chih and Julia Hsiu Chair in Chinese Studies.

Reviews

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent book that had several strong points, the arrest and interrogation of one of the characters by the communist government was eye opening. Additionally the parts about the nationalist period and the subsequent cultural revolution among the youth more broadly were worth reading, though much of the book felt like filler.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book traces the modern history of China through one family's experiences. It does a good job of humanizing a lot of the experiences of modern China. I found it hard to follow and keep straight all of the family members, particularly in the latter portion of the book when it followed 5+ brothers, many with similar names. I also question the author's decision to drop most of the sisters from the story. If I'm remembering correctly, the reason he gives is because they didn't have contact with the rest of the family, but one of the brothers who left to become an actor didn't have contact with the rest of the family until the 1970s or 1980s. So I'm not sure why he really dropped them from the story, but it sort of made me pause.

Ancestral Leaves is really not a book to teach you modern Chinese history, so if you don't have a pretty strong background with most of these events, you might be confused. I was definitely confused during the Qing dynasty section of the book, since I didn't know that much about Qing dynasty history. But it's an enjoyable book to read, and the stories of the family are very interesting, especially the parallels and contrasts the author can draw between the family under the Qing and under Mao.

[Bathed In Sin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Required for school, it was ok. Some of the names get really confusing though and Im not certain who we're talking about anymore.