{"id":45051,"date":"2019-01-24T12:39:35","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T17:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=45051"},"modified":"2019-01-24T12:39:35","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T17:39:35","slug":"last-boat-out-of-shanghai-the-epic-story-of-the-chinese-who-fled-maos-revolution-by-helen-zia-in-christian-science-monitor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/last-boat-out-of-shanghai-the-epic-story-of-the-chinese-who-fled-maos-revolution-by-helen-zia-in-christian-science-monitor\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao\u2019s Revolution by Helen Zia [in Christian Science Monitor]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Last Boat Out of Shanghai<\/em>\u00a0has four stories at once\u00a0personal and universal<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the child of two refugees, Helen Zia can speak to the effects of displacement, separation, and the personal costs of survival, adaptation, and reinvention. As an advocate for Asian American and other minority communities, for women\u2019s rights, and for LGBT rights, Zia turns inward in her newest book,\u00a0Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao\u2019s Revolution<\/em>, melding family experiences with world events to illuminate an unknown but far-reaching moment of history.<\/p>\n

While most of China suffered the brutal Japanese invasion of the 1930s and \u201940s, exacerbated by multiplying aggressions between the Nationalists and Communists, Shanghai\u2019s significant international presence sheltered its inhabitants from devastation. The imminent Communist victory, however, prompted a mass exodus in the late 1940s, with estimates suggesting 1.5 million of Shanghai\u2019s 6 million residents fled to anyplace that would admit them, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, parts of Southeast Asia, and \u2013 in limited numbers due to anti-Asian immigration restrictions \u2013 the United States. The Nationalists destroyed vital records on their way out, ensuring that the Communists would find little evidence of the city\u2019s missing citizens.<\/p>\n

Zia spent 12 years, including a Fulbright residency in Shanghai, producing the first book in English about the Shanghai exodus. \u201cEven today,\u201d she explains, \u201cthe People\u2019s Republic of China fails to acknowledge that any exodus took place.\u201d After interviewing 100-plus Shanghai escapees, Zia chose four \u201creal people\u201d \u2013 one of whom is her own mother, revealed near the book\u2019s end \u2013 as her primary eyewitnesses. Extensive black-and-white photos enhance the text. Using the 1937 Japanese attack on Shanghai as a starting point, Zia introduces Benny Pan, the privileged 9-year-old eldest son of a well-connected family; Ho Chow, the 13-year-old son of a landowning family; Bing Woo, an 8-year-old given away by her destitute birth family; and Annuo Liu, the 2-year-old daughter of a rising Nationalist leader.<\/p>\n

Benny lives in luxury thanks to his accountant father, who joins the British-controlled Shanghai Municipal Police as an inspector. Benny\u2019s world shatters with his father\u2019s arrest, leaving Benny responsible for his siblings.<\/p>\n

For Ho\u2019s once prosperous family, his education is everything. His singular determination propels him to the U.S. to pursue engineering at the University of Michigan, but the cost to his left-behind family is dire.<\/p>\n

Passed around from her beloved\u00a0baba<\/i>\u00a0to Mama Hsu to a Shanghai mother and daughter, Bing finds salvation in her third family. Elder Sister becomes her protector, maneuvering the family\u2019s escape to San Francisco, where they gained entry despite immigration restrictions.<\/p>\n

Annuo\u2019s father, an important Nationalist official, regularly leaves his family in the able care of his doctor-wife. The Communist victory eventually sends the family into exile in Taiwan, where Annuo plans to escape \u2013 especially from her abusive father \u2013 to the U.S. to continue her education.<\/p>\n

Decades later, New York becomes the foursome\u2019s common ground; two will even cross paths. Blending the personal with pivotal world history, Zia succeeds in creating a universal, timeless story: \u201cCertainly what was true for the refugees and exiles of Shanghai remains true for people fleeing from catastrophe in contemporary times,\u201d she writes. She counters the dismissive narrative of refugees as \u201cfreeloaders and parasites\u201d with examples of their global successes. Among the Shanghai diaspora were two future Nobel laureates, as well as the founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world\u2019s largest silicon producer.<\/p>\n

Gathered, analyzed, and distilled with insight and meticulous documentation, Zia\u2019s book gives voice to a history almost lost.<\/p>\n

Review<\/strong>: “‘Last Boat Out of Shanghai’\u00a0has four stories at once\u00a0personal and universal,”\u00a0Christian Science Monitor<\/em>, January 24, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Boat Out of Shanghai\u00a0has four stories at once\u00a0personal and universal As the child of two refugees, Helen Zia can speak to the effects of displacement, separation, and the personal costs of survival, adaptation, and reinvention. As an advocate for Asian American and other minority…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,67,21,20,6535],"tags":[84,6608,148,341,10,11,4128,24,51,25,8262,13,129,39,432,44,45],"class_list":["post-45051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-chinese","category-chinese-american","category-nonfiction","category-repost","tag-betrayal","tag-bookdragon","tag-christian-science-monitor","tag-colonialism","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-helen-zia","tag-historical","tag-identity","tag-immigration","tag-last-boat-out-of-china","tag-love","tag-mother-daughter-relationship","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-refugees","tag-siblings","tag-war"],"yoast_head":"\nLast Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao\u2019s Revolution by Helen Zia [in Christian Science Monitor] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/last-boat-out-of-shanghai-the-epic-story-of-the-chinese-who-fled-maos-revolution-by-helen-zia-in-christian-science-monitor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao\u2019s Revolution by Helen Zia [in Christian Science Monitor] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last Boat Out of Shanghai\u00a0has four stories at once\u00a0personal and universal As the child of two refugees, Helen Zia can speak to the effects of displacement, separation, and the personal costs of survival, adaptation, and reinvention. 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