Message from egoebel

[Anonymous]

I just read Ching-ching Ni's memoir piece about growing up in China, leaving, and returning right before the Olympics. What she touches on -- the Communists' rule, the re-education of her mother and grandfather in the country because they were college grads and deemed "elite", her childhood experience of being trained as a potential athlete to bestow fame on the country (she dropped out), and how a teacher "tricked" her to snitch on her mother's anti-government behavior -- helps put the 20th century China story into place. On her return visit, Ni compares the block housing, only 1 outfit per year, limited food choices of her youth with the Starbucks, automobiles, Gymboree of present-day Beijing. She tells it all with truth but no bitterness. She promises to return frequently and share her heritage with her children.