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Gang of One: Memoirs of a Red Guard
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Gang of One: Memoirs of a Red Guard Paperback - 2006

by Fan Shen


From the publisher

In 1966 twelve-year-old Fan Shen, a newly minted Red Guard, plunged happily into China's Cultural Revolution. Disillusion soon followed, then turned to disgust and fear when Shen discovered that his compatriots had tortured and murdered a doctor whose house he'd helped raid and whose beautiful daughter he secretly adored. A story of coming of age in the midst of monumental historical upheaval, Shen's Gang of One is more than a memoir of one young man's harrowing experience during a time of terror. It is also, in spite of circumstances of remarkable grimness and injustice, an unlikely picaresque tale of adventure full of courage, cunning, wit, tenacity, resourcefulness, and sheer luck--the story of how Shen managed to scheme his way through a hugely oppressive system and emerge triumphant.

Gang of One recounts how Shen escaped, again and again, from his appointed fate, as when he somehow found himself a doctor at sixteen and even, miraculously, saved a few lives. In such volatile times, however, good luck could quickly turn to misfortune: a transfer to the East Wind Aircraft Factory got him out of the countryside and into another terrible trap, where many people were driven to suicide; his secret self-education took him from the factory to college, where friendship with an American teacher earned him the wrath of the secret police. Following a path strewn with perils and pitfalls, twists and surprises worthy of Dickens, Shen's story is ultimately an exuberant human comedy unlike any other.

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Details

  • Title Gang of One: Memoirs of a Red Guard
  • Author Fan Shen
  • Binding Paperback
  • Pages 282
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Bison Books
  • Date 2006-03-01
  • Features Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9780803293366 / 0803293364
  • Weight 0.87 lbs (0.39 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.08 x 6.3 x 0.59 in (23.06 x 16.00 x 1.50 cm)
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: 1960's
    • Chronological Period: 1970's
    • Cultural Region: Asian - Chinese
    • Ethnic Orientation: Asian - Chinese
  • Library of Congress subjects China, Chinese Americans
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2003017901
  • Dewey Decimal Code B

Media reviews

Citations

  • Kliatt, 09/01/2006, Page 40

About the author

Hailing from the People's Republic of China, Fan Shen is a professor at Rochester Community and Technical College in Minnesota. He has published three translated books and numerous articles in both Chinese and English.
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Gang of One: Memoirs of a Red Guard (American Lives)

by Shen, Fan

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