Spider Eaters: A Memoir

Spider Eaters is at once a moving personal story, a fascinating family history, and a unique chronicle of political upheaval told by a Chinese woman who came of age during the turbulent years of the Cultural Revolution. With honesty and a lively, sly humor, Rae Yang records her life from her early years as the daughter of Chinese diplomats in Switzerland, to her girlhood at an elite middle school in Beijing, to her adolescent experience as a Red Guard and later as a laborer on a pig farm in the remote northern wilderness. She shares her disillusionment with the Maoist revolution, her struggles with remorse and despair, and her efforts to make sense of a complex world. The narrative offers a multi-generational, cross-class perspective, bringing to life the myths, legends, folklore, and local customs of her upbringing. Spanning from 1950 to 1980, Rae Yang's story provides an evocative and candid account of life in post-1949 China.