The Scholar and the Tiger

A Memoir of Famine and War in Revolutionary China

David Wen-wei Chang and Alden R. Carter

The Scholar and the Tiger is at once a compelling family saga, thriller, social history, and spiritual journey. Written by a noted China scholar, assisted by a writer friend, the story brings to life a tumultuous period in Chinese history while providing surprising insights into China's emergence as a global power.

Wen-wei Chang was born in 1929 as famine gripped northern China, taking the lives of countless peasants, including his father. Only his iron-willed mother kept the family alive. The eldest son, Wen-po, joined the army. Eighteen years Wen-wei's senior, Wen-po fought bandits, opium smugglers, the Japanese, and Mao's Communists, becoming known as "Tiger Chang."

Meanwhile, Wen-wei—a brilliant scholar from childhood—seemed destined for a career in the age-old mandarin tradition of civil service. But civil war intervened, forcing him to evacuate his ill mother and two sisters-in-law and their children only days before the Communists reached Beijing. In Shanghai, they were reunited with Wen-po, now a leading Guomindang general who commanded the city's final defenses. Wen-wei refused evacuation to Taiwan, insisting on caring for his mother and making the best life he could under the Communists. But a day after the occupation of the city, a terrified friend told Wen-wei that Wen-po had been left behind and was hiding in the friend's apartment, putting all of their lives at risk.

What follows has all the drama of a spy novel: narrow escapes and rescues, treachery and blackmail, and a final wrenching irony that would tear Wen-wei from his family and homeland. Only after thirty years in America, with a new life as university professor David Chang, is he allowed to return to China to learn the fate of his mother and loved ones—and perhaps to heal his broken heart.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 200 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-0-7425-5761-1 • Hardback • February 2009 • $66.00 • (£51.00)

978-0-7425-5763-5 • eBook • February 2009 • $62.50 • (£48.00)

Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs, History / Asia / China

The Scholar and the Tiger

A Memoir of Famine and War in Revolutionary China

Hardback

eBook

Summary

The Scholar and the Tiger is at once a compelling family saga, thriller, social history, and spiritual journey. Written by a noted China scholar, assisted by a writer friend, the story brings to life a tumultuous period in Chinese history while providing surprising insights into China's emergence as a global power.

Wen-wei Chang was born in 1929 as famine gripped northern China, taking the lives of countless peasants, including his father. Only his iron-willed mother kept the family alive. The eldest son, Wen-po, joined the army. Eighteen years Wen-wei's senior, Wen-po fought bandits, opium smugglers, the Japanese, and Mao's Communists, becoming known as "Tiger Chang."

Meanwhile, Wen-wei—a brilliant scholar from childhood—seemed destined for a career in the age-old mandarin tradition of civil service. But civil war intervened, forcing him to evacuate his ill mother and two sisters-in-law and their children only days before the Communists reached Beijing. In Shanghai, they were reunited with Wen-po, now a leading Guomindang general who commanded the city's final defenses. Wen-wei refused evacuation to Taiwan, insisting on caring for his mother and making the best life he could under the Communists. But a day after the occupation of the city, a terrified friend told Wen-wei that Wen-po had been left behind and was hiding in the friend's apartment, putting all of their lives at risk.

What follows has all the drama of a spy novel: narrow escapes and rescues, treachery and blackmail, and a final wrenching irony that would tear Wen-wei from his family and homeland. Only after thirty years in America, with a new life as university professor David Chang, is he allowed to return to China to learn the fate of his mother and loved ones—and perhaps to heal his broken heart.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 200 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-0-7425-5761-1 • Hardback • February 2009 • $66.00 • (£51.00)

978-0-7425-5763-5 • eBook • February 2009 • $62.50 • (£48.00)

Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs, History / Asia / China

Author

David Wen-wei Chang is Rosebush Professor of Political Science emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Alden R. Carter, a freelance writer, is author of numerous books, including two histories of China for young people and China: From the First Chinese to the Olympics.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Lucky Daughter
Chapter 2: The Enduring Cycle
Chapter 3: The Frustrated Scholar
Chapter 4: Famine
Chapter 5: The Good Student
Chapter 6: The Tiger
Chapter 7: The Wise Mother
Chapter 8: The Tiger at Bay
Chapter 9: Exile
Chapter 10: America and the Prodigal's Return

Reviews

This is the gentle, touching story of a traditional Chinese family whose lives were shattered by war and revolution. . . . Chang's positive attitude gives the book its heart. Recommended for general readers in history as well as memoir.
— Library Journal

David Chang, with Alden Carter, has written an autobiography that is remarkable and touching for its personal insights. It skillfully integrates historical and political events in China and Taiwan with the life of a remarkable man. Most of all, it is a good read.
— Thomas J. Bellows, University of Texas at San Antonio

This remarkable memoir of a Chinese boyhood brings alive David Wen-wei Chang's childhood in a small village in North China and his family's trials during a 1930s famine and recounts how their lives were torn apart in the struggle between the Chinese Communists and the Nationalists. Throughout, David's love of family, home, and learning will delight the reader.
— David D. Buck, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee