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Sisters separated by war forge new identities as they are forced to choose between family, nation, and their own independence.
Scions of a once-great southern Chinese family that produced the tutor of the last emperor, Jun and Hong were each other’s best friends until, in their twenties, they were separated by chance at the end of the Chinese Civil War. For the next thirty years, while one became a model Communist, the other a model capitalist, they could not even communicate.
PRAISE
Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden: Sisters Separated by China's Civil War
“Beginning in war-torn China, Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden tells a compelling story about diaspora, root-seeking, and the triumph of familial love and human perseverance.”
“At last, a profoundly human story that illuminates the staggering personal consequences of China and Taiwan’s historic split—from both sides. Rare is the author who can portray war and its aftermath so evenhandedly. This powerful page-turner of a family torn apart—and surviving—is as unforgettable as it is important.”
REVIEWS
"Riveting...absorbing...exceptional...in telling this gripping narrative of one family divided by the “bamboo curtain,” Li sheds light on how Taiwan came to be — and why China might one day risk everything to take it."
— THE NEW YORK TIMES Book Review
"The book’s gripping narrative reveals the devastating human cost of the Chinese Revolution... The author’s perspective, from having lived both inside and outside the People’s Republic of China, yields exceptional insight into her aunts’ personal histories and the constantly shifting political vicissitudes they endured. She unspools the unexpected, accidental swerves each life took with spellbinding grace."
"Li’s book explores the momentous impact of momentary decisions on people’s lives in the context of massively disruptive historical events."
“A poignant story of sisterly love and the search for self-knowledge in the face of considerable challenges....Beautifully woven family memories coalesce into a vivid history of two very different Chinas.”
This historical biography adds to the oeuvre of similar works (Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister and Wild Swans, both by Jung Chang) but is no less intriguing, as it’s only since recently that these stories can be told with the dignity and honesty they deserve. Cinematic in scope, each sister goes through parallel epic sagas that are sure to entrance the reader. VERDICT: A wonderful addition to any library that will appeal to a wide audience interested in historical narrative, Chinese, history, family dynamics, and generally as a story of struggle against the odds.
— LIBRARY JOURNAL
"Li eloquently tells a moving story of her aunts and their resilience throughout one of China's most fraught centuries"
— BOOKPAGE
“Laced with frank reflections on the author’s own experience as a Chinese immigrant to the U.S., this is a poignant and intimate chronicle of the Chinese diaspora.”
Brown University Book Award 2023
Brown Alumni Magazine "Divided Lives" (January-March, 2023)
The New York Times recommended in The Morning newsletter "What to Read" 6/21/2022
The Wall Street Journal "10 Books to Read: The Best Reviews of June" (2022)
BookBrowse 20 Best Books of the Year (2022)
Five Books The Best China Books (2022)
Arab News What We Are Reading Today (August 1, 2022)
Li Zhuqing is a professor at Brown University and a faculty curator at the University’s Rockefeller Library. She is the author of four books in her academic discipline, but Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden, a longtime personal project, represents her first foray into family history and memoir. The book follows the extraordinary lives of her two maternal aunts, women whose experiences traced China’s journey through war and upheaval across three quarters of the last century.
Zhuqing was born in Fuzhou, the capital city of Fujian province on China’s Southeast coast. The daughter of university professors, she spent many of her childhood years shuttled from one relative to another given that her parents had been exiled to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. Indeed, for part of that period, Zhuqing herself was sent to the countryside to be with her parents. By the time they were able to return to the city to resume their teaching, she was already in middle school. Then, at age 16, Zhuqing attended Zhongshan University, a 36-hour train ride from home. This disjointed life continued once Zhuqing graduated from university and was assigned by the state to teach English at a local college. Though she hoped to continue on to graduate school in China, her employer forbade it and refused to provide permission.
It was at that point that Aunt Jun, a relative from Taiwan who she never even knew existed, returned to China for a visit, and ultimately provided her a path to attend graduate school in the United States. Zhuqing would ultimately go on to earn a PhD in Asian Languages and Literature from the University of Washington.
Academic studies are systematic and logical, yet for Zhuqing, they cannot explain life’s randomness and disjointedness. It is that intermixing of fate and human agency that is so central to the story of Zhuqing’s aunts presented in Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden.
Media
"...long after the guns are silenced, even if the best efforts at reconciliation are undertaken, separation doesn’t end when the war does."
"Knowledge is something no one can take away from you."
South China Morning Post Magazine
Amid China's Civil War between Communists and Nationalists, How Two Sisters Were Separated by Fate and Kept Apart through Their Successes
Association for Asian Studies: Education About Asia
Sisters and Enemies: A True Story of Two Sisters
Washington Chinese Daily News 華府新聞報:
Introducing Prof. Zhuqing Li and the Story in Her New Book 《花香園的女兒們》李竹青教授的新書與故事
World Journal 世界日報週刊
親子 :教育至上的四代母親
World on Air 6/21/2022 "Sisters' 33-year Separation: Chinese-American Professor Lifts the Scars from the Chinese Civil War between the Nationalist and the Communist -- a Podcast
January 19th, 2023, 6-7pm
Queens Public Library NY
"Literary Thursdays" 6-7pm (Webinar)
January 28th, 2023, 3pm
The Foundry, Cambridge, MA
Conversation with Nina Simonds and Elaine Shiang as part of the Chinese New Year's Celebration
March 7th, 2023 7-8pm
Lexington Cary Memorial Library MA
Book talk, Q/A
March 16th, 2023 7-8pm
Cambridge Public Library MA
Book talk, Q/A
March 21st, 2023 7-8pm
National Consortium for Teaching About Asia (Webinar)
March 23rd-24th, 2023
Indiana University, Bloomingdale, IN
spring 2023 East Asia Colluquium Lecture Series
May 15th, 2023 4-6pm EST
Conversation with Professor Perry Link, UC Riverside
July 24th-25th, 2023
The Mount, Lenox, MA
30th Summer Lecture Series
Contact Me
For all media inquiries, bookings, and interviews please contact: kradler@wwnorton.com
Contact the author directly or give your thoughts about the book, find me at @ZhuqingLi1 on Twitter.
Zhuqing Li © 2022