The Great Flowing River

Chi Pang-yuan

Published by Columbia University Press 2018

The Great Flowing River

A Memoir of China, from Manchuria to Taiwan

Chi Pang-yuan
Translated by: John Balcom

https://doi.org/10.7312/chi-18840

Overview
Contents

About this book

Heralded as a literary masterpiece and a best-seller in the Chinese-speaking world, The Great Flowing River is a personal account of the history of modern China and Taiwan unlike any other. The noted scholar, writer, and teacher Chi Pang-yuan recounts her youth in mainland China and adulthood in Taiwan in a novelistic, epoch-defining narrative.

Author information

Pang-yuan Chi :

Chi Pang-Yuan is professor Emeritus of comparative literature and English at National Taiwan University. In collaboration with David Wang, she published The Last of the Whampoa Breed: Stories of the Chinese Diaspora (CUP, 2003) and Chinese Literature in the Second Half of a Modern Century: A Critical Survey (Indiana University Press, 2000).Balcom John :

John Balcom is professor of Chinese-English translation at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He has translated a number of books, including Wintry Night by Li Qiao, The City Trilogy by Chang His-kuo, and Taiwan’s Indigenous Writers: An Anthology of Stories, Essays, and Poems.Chi Pang-yuan (b. 1924) is an internationally recognized educator, scholar, and author. She is professor emeritus of English and comparative literature at National Taiwan University. She is coeditor of Chinese Literature in the Second Half of a Modern Century: A Critical Survey (2000) and The Last of the Whampoa Breed: Stories of the Chinese Diaspora (Columbia, 2003), among other books.

John Balcom teaches at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. His Columbia University Press translations include Cao Naiqian’s There’s Nothing I Can Do When I Think of You Late at Night (2009); Huang Fan’s Zero and Other Fictions (2011); and Yang Mu’s Memories of Mount Qilai: The Education of a Young Poet (2015).

Reviews

An inspiring life story of unvanquished resilience.

J. Megan Greene, author of The Origins of the Developmental State in Taiwan: Science Policy and the Quest for Modernization:
I don’t know of any other memoir in English that is quite like this. It is of enormous significance because it adds so much for those with an interest in the Republic of China in both China and Taiwan.

Letty Chen, author of Writing Chinese: Reshaping Chinese Cultural Identity:
This is a memoir of epic proportions. Chi’s work is a testimony of this tremendous historical period that is the long twentieth century for the Chinese and the Taiwanese peoples. The English translation of this epochal memoir is most certainly significant.

Rana Mitter, author of Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937-1945:
The Great Flowing River is one of the great memoirs of modern China. Telling the story of one woman's odyssey through the twentieth century, this is not just a deeply moving account of Chi Pang-yuan and her family, but a window into how the Chinese people came through the trauma of war and turmoil, and created a new set of civilized values in their aftermath.

Ha Jin, author of Waiting and other novels:
The Great Flowing River is a grand memoir. It tells a story of loss, suffering, fortitude, and the nobility of sacrifice. It is a personal narrative that reflects the fate of the Chinese nation, especially the fate of those who were driven away from their homeland and managed to survive elsewhere with integrity and dignity. There is a calmness and tremendous power in the wise narrative voice, whose resonance lingers long after the last page is turned.

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Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface to the English Edition Chi Pang-Yuan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Translator’s Acknowledgments John Balcom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
1. My Homeland in Song Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. A Journey of Blood and Tears The Eight Years of the War of Resistance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
3. With Me, China Shall Not Perish: Nankai Middle School Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
4. At the Confluence of Three Rivers: University Life Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
5. Victory: Empty, Everything Is Empty Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	178
6. Taiwan: Trials and Hardships Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
7. Spiritual Descendants Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	281
8. University Teaching, Taiwan, and Literature Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	323
9. Confirmation of This Life 9. Confirmation of This Life Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	373
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	417

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: General/trade;

eBook

Published: September 24, 2018
ISBN: 9780231547819