I’ve never been one to read about the Chinese Cultural Revolution. I then read Red Scarf Girl and that sealed the deal. The horrible way people treated each other in the name of patriotism. The confusion and poverty. Leaders so power hungry and desperate that they would use any means to cover up the fact that their new, modern government was a failure. I never understood why people would let this happen. These stories frustrate me and make me angry so I choose to not read these sorts of books.

The Three Daughters of Madame Liang by Pearl S Buck turned out to be set against the back drop of the impending Cultural Revolution (no hint of this on the cover). I was disappointed in this book. This is a subject that needs high levels of passion to express the horrors and atrocities. Red Scarf Girl had that. This book still managed to evoke the frustration that this subject generally makes me feel and I learned things about the CR that I never knew before, but on a much subtler level. It was a very personal, intimate story of a single family affected by the new policies in the Chinese government. I don’t think that subtle is what this subject is looking for.