Colours Of The Mountain

A unique modern memoir of growing up in rural China, Colours of the Mountain is a powerful and moving story of determination and faith against 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, Da was an easy target for farmer-teachers and bullying peasant boys. While his older siblings worked in the fields, Da tired of the chaotic schooling of the Cultural Revolution and found solace with a band of good-time thugs. Following Mao's death, an academic meritocracy was reintroduced. Da resolved to escape Ch'ing Mountain, where he grew up barefoot with no electricity and no future. With his brother Jin, he studied intensely, and in 1978, at age sixteen, Da traveled to Beijing to attend the best English language institute in China. This memoir explores friendships, prejudice, familial love, academic striving, and Da's escape from hunger, poverty, and ignorance.