Dimensions
132 x 198 x 21mm
A unique modern memoir of growing up in rural China in the '60s and '70s, this is a powerful and moving story of supreme determination and extraordinary faith against the most impossible odds.
Da Chen was born in 1962 in a town over 50 hours' train journey from Beijing. Persecuted because of his family's landlord status, he tries to keep his head down at school and instead of studying spends time with a band of good-time thugs, while his older siblings work the land. Chen draws a wonderful picture of these rough times, of boyhood friendships, the beauty of the Chinese countryside and the madness of the cultural revolution.
Following the death of Mao, a meritocracy is again introduced and Da decides he will escape the village of Yellow Mountain, where there is no electricity and no future. He begins, with his brother, who has been working the land since boyhood, to study all day and night. His determination is staggering and inspiring. And it pays off. At the age of sixteen, for the first time in his life he takes a bus and a train and travels to the best English language college in Beijing.
A book about friendships, prejudice, familial love and academic striving, and of one man's escape from hunger, poverty and ignorance, 'Colours Of The Mountain' is an inspiring and eloquently recounted memoir.
