Confucius Never Said

by Helen Raleigh

This book is a four-generation family journey from repression and poverty in China to freedom and prosperity in the United States. Their lives overlap with many significant historical events taking place in China, such as the founding of Communist China in 1949, the Great Chinese Famine from 1958-1960, the Cultural Revolution from 1966-1976 and the Economic Reform starting from 1980.The author recounts the enormous suffering her family had to endure under Communist China’s radical social experiment. Her great-grandfather was denounced by the Chinese Communist Party and his neighbors simply because he owned land. He died in poverty, and his dying wish was never granted. Her grandfather loaned his fishing boat to the Communist Party, and ended up losing his independence and becoming a janitor. Her father escaped his village to get educated and thus survived the Great Famine. He became highly educated, but never joined the Communist Party . . . and was sent to a re-education labor camp because of it.The author herself grew up in China and immigrated to the United States as a young adult. She sought freedom and the American Dream, and found both. This book is about freedom—and about what happens when we let people take our freedom away.

Genres: China, History, Nonfiction, Politics

218 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 2014

About the author

Helen Raleigh is a business owner, a professional speaker, a writer and a community leader. She is the Owner and Chief Investment Officer of Red Meadow Advisors, LLC, a Colorado Registered Investment Advisory Firm. She has over 14 years of financial services industry experience ranging from Global banks to Pension Funds.

Helen Raleigh is a dynamic and highly sought-after professional speaker and author with an extensive background in education, immigration and free market economics. Her speeches have captivated audiences in the US and China, and she is best known for making complicated concepts simple, personable and actionable. Please see past and future speaking engagements at: http://helenraleighspeaks.com
https://www.goodreads.com/author/edit...#
As a writer, Helen has been published nationally and internationally in both English and Chinese. Bob Schaffer called her autobiography, Confucius Never Said, “one credible and powerful example of how rugged individualism and gritty self-determination secure the American Dream.” Helen’s other English articles can be found at the CFA Magazine, Colorado Biz Online and her blog postings at helenraleighspeaks.com

Helen has an MBA degree from the University of Wyoming and an M.S. in Business Economics from the State University of New York, College of Oneonta. Helen also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Project Management Professional (PMP) designations.

Reviews

[Brooke Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Definitely worth a read if you're interested in a first-person account of an American immigrant's story of her journey from China to the United States. This is one of those books that is so deeply meaningful and profoundly personal that I feel it is only fair to give it five stars. I can tell Helen put a lot of thought and heart into the telling of multiple generations of her family's story, and I found a lot of the information shocking, as I'd never learned precisely how life in China was before versus after the Communist Party took control.

This was definitely an eye-opening read for me, and I'm very grateful to Helen for sharing her family's story with all of us. What an incredibly important piece of history and of the human experience.

Visit my blog here for more reviews and bookish thoughts.

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read! Helen Raleigh’s journey from Communist China to Capitalist American is an immigrant’s tale that needs to be shared. From her youth in Communist China under the Mao’s Cultural Revolution to her struggles as an exchange student in the US, to her success as a Business Women and Naturalized American citizen, Ms. Raleigh’s story is one of triumph under conditions most Americans parents and grandparents may have endured In the early 1900’s. With persistence, determination and the will for a better life, Ms. Raleigh story rekindles the spark of what real freedom is and she sheds a light on what being an American’s by choice is about. The summary at the end of each chapter ties in current issues and ideas about individual rights, free markets and limited government that juxtapose Ms. Raleigh’s personal experiences. Highly recommend reading this and sharing a copy with young people.

[Eric Tanafon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some parts of this book were hard to get through, and I was sustained only by the knowledge that the author, at least, had been able to escape Communist China. The rest of her family wasn't quite as lucky, but they are survivors; they don't give up. In a way, this is a good book to read if you're having a really bad day. Whatever your sufferings, when you compare them with living through the Great Famine, the Cultural Revolution, and the other horrors inflicted on China by a totalitarian government, you'll realize that you actually don't have much to complain about.

I also appreciated the author's little 'Food for Thought' essays at the end of each section, comparing politics in China to developments in the United States today. They would be great starting points for classroom discussion, and my wife and I are thinking of using her book as a homeschooling resource.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book because I am heading to China soon and wanted to have a basic historical understanding of the lived experience of an ordinary Chinese family from the end of Chinese nationalism through the modern era of economic reform. This books succeeds tremendously well at telling that tale in vivid detail. The personal details are so well presented that I felt like I lived in the family home, attended the schools, worked the challenging jobs, feared the chaos, shared the deprivations and celebrated the successes of Ms. Raleigh's family. She is to be thanked for sharing so deeply and personally the details of her family history.

When Ms. Raleigh leaves China later in the book, it loses some of my interest. However, I did appreciate the "food for thought" sections that concluded each chapter. It is enlightening to see how someone raised under a communist government reaches her unique perspectives on the strengths and shortcomings of American democracy. Don't we all have a personal history (perhaps not as striking as Ms. Raleigh's) that colors our perspectives on what our government can do to increase the common good in our society?

I'm sorry to say that this is the most poorly edited and proofed book that I have seen in quite some time. It loses a star in my rating because the frequency and atrociousness of the errors was distracting to an otherwise engaging read.

[Walter Curran · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story of pure determination. A great insight into the thought processes of an immigrant who did things the legal way.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone who thinks Socialism is good needs to read this book.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be required reading for high school students.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

My rating on this is actually more of a 2.5, but I decided to round it up to 3 instead of down to two because of the narrative itself, which will be explained shortly.

*I received a copy of this book as part of the Goodreads Giveaway.*

Helen Raleigh has an amazing and inspiring story to tell. Through hard work, self-sacrifice, and determination, four generations of her family persevere in Maoist China to not only succeed, but to survive. Raleigh's story of her family deals with some rather heavy topics and leaves the reader with a lot to think about regarding the dangers of ignorance (especially ignorant leadership), the importance of education, how fear can change an entire nation, and the horrors of totalitarianism and tyranny. However, if she had only left it to telling the story of her family and her own life - which is what I expected from the back cover - it probably would've received more than 2.5 stars.

There are some errors in the book itself (grammar and word choice errors, as well as the map in the front has a key with letters and numbers showing important places in the narrative, but the map itself only has letters represented), but those can mostly be overlooked or could be fixed with more editing. The main problem is that the author gets in her own way sometimes. There's more telling than showing and several instances could've used more elaboration for a more well-rounded view into China, but it's the Food For Thought sections at the end of each chapter that took the rating down. Overall, they take away from the reading experience and the narrative itself by not allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions and by drawing the reader out of the story at the end of every chapter. Several of them are rather repetitive and overly moralizing - or maybe to say that she seems to be needlessly sermonizing would be more accurate. Perhaps Mrs. Raleigh could've made her points more effectively in a reading guide at the back, more an attempt to encourage the reader to think about the content for themselves and draw conclusions and parallels on their own than to tell them what conclusions they should be drawing. It's possible that this struck me as so odd because this book has such a strong message of thinking independently and making one's own choices that the lecture-like tone of the Food For Thought sections seemed out of place.

As I said before, the themes and events surrounding Helen Raleigh's family are complex and often heartbreaking. It's certainly an engaging read, but the story the author has to tell is what made me give this 3 stars. I don't know if the book overall quite deserves that.

[Ava · Rating 4 out of 5]

Food for thought

Raleigh's is a remarkable tale that follows four generations of her family and their experiences in Maoist China. At times heroic and harrowing, the core narrative is masterfully crafted and compelling. The same cannot be said, however, for the closing remarks at the end of most chapters. The political conclusions she makes comparing the current American political culture with that of communist China are rife with hollow logic and false equivalencies; I fail to see how universal healthcare would lead our government to dictate that girls must eat less than boys, and I might have expected Raleigh--who describes her family's personal acquaintance with the spectre of starvation--to be sympathetic toward welfare programs, particularly when her own family depended on governmental food allocation. Altogether, hers is an epic journey and a worthwhile read.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raleigh includes a parallel to Communist China with each chapter. I Han not considered political correctness as a form of self imposed censorship. Yet after reading how China progressively restricted thought and individualism, I understand her point.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Karla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enlightening, especially in today's America. Thanks, Helen.

[Broheros · Rating 5 out of 5]

an amazing book that explains very well why communism, and its close cousin socialism, never works.
i loved reading about Helen's parents' story and her own early and adult life, as well!

[Mitchell D · Rating 5 out of 5]

she's been where we seem to be heading - a good cautionary read.

[Camilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really appreciated the naked honesty of this book. The author describes life under totalitarian China and then life in America and then she interjected with socialist and capitalism ideology. She heavily leaned on the constitution to explain essential principles of governance. I really appreciated her perspective, her terrifyingly cautionary tale, and her deep respect for America.

[Wendy Kienbusch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great memoir exposing the dangers of communism

I likes that the author had the unique background of being educated in economics and the experience of immigration to the United States to bring to this book in addition to her childhood in communist China.

[Amy Kraushaar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting biography of a girl born in communist China & the struggle of her family. Her opinions & comparisons to her eventual life in America were thought provoking.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Author, Helen Raleigh, tells the story of her great-grandfather, grandfather, father and mother and herself, living under Chinese Communism from its beginnings in 1949, through Mao's Great Leap Forward and on to the present day. It is a sobering story about what happens when people allow their freedom to be taken away by their government. It is also an inspirational story about a young woman who grew up under the Chinese Communist regime and eventually managed to immigrate to the United States.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this as a "Goodreads Giveaway". I enjoyed the story. I am unfamiliar with Chinese history and was not aware of the struggles faced. There were errors throughout the book but not enough to take away from the story.