Annabel Annuo Liu

My Years as Chang Tsen Annabel Annuo Liu Second edition

Born in Shanghai in 1935, Annabel Annuo Liu was two years old when Japan invaded China. She spent six years in Japanese-occupied Shanghai, living under the assumed name of Chang Tsen and narrowly escaping the Japanese military police because of her father's role in the Resistance. Liu was fourteen when her family fled to Taiwan in the waning days of the subsequent Civil War, which ended with Mao Zedong's establishment of the People's Republic of China. The policies and actions of Mao's regime caused the deaths of an estimated 77 million. All told, 100 million Chinese-equivalent to one-third of the current U. S. population-were killed during the first forty years of Liu's life. My Years As Chang Tsen: Two Wars, One Childhood is Liu's haunting memoir of her childhood in war-torn China. Against this violent backdrop, the bloodiest chapter of all human history, she writes about her precarious early life and her coming-of-age in the distinct culture of a bygone era. This second edition provides additional historical details and insight into the tragic life of Liu's mother during and after the wars. Following eight volumes of literary essays and fiction in Chinese, Liu's My Years As Chang Tsen is the first of her trilogy of memoirs written in English.