Claire Chao (Books)

Claire Chao Books

Claire Chao crafts a compelling narrative that delves into her family history, intricately woven with the vibrant tapestry of Shanghai. Her literary endeavor stems from a decade of dedicated research and a profound personal connection to the stories and places she illuminates. Chao explores themes of identity, heritage, and the search for roots, employing a style that is both captivating and insightful. Her work stands as a testament to the enduring power of familial bonds and the profound ways in which the past shapes our present.

Remembering Shanghai

308 pages
11 hours of reading

4.2(14)Add rating

Winner of over 20 awards including Rubery Award BOOK OF THE YEAR and Writer’s Digest GRAND PRIZE ... An Extraordinary Multigenerational Saga.A high position bestowed by China's empress dowager grants power and wealth to the Sun family. For Isabel, growing up in glamorous 1930s and '40s Shanghai, it is a life of utmost privilege. But while her scholar father and fashionable mother shelter her from civil war and Japanese occupation, they cannot shield the family forever.When Mao comes to power, eighteen-year-old Isabel journeys to Hong Kong, not realizing that she will make it her home--and that she will never see her father again. Meanwhile, the family she has left behind struggles to survive, only to have their world shattered by the Cultural Revolution. Isabel returns to Shanghai fifty years later with her daughter, Claire, to confront their family's past--one they discover is filled with love and betrayal, kidnappers and concubines, glittering pleasure palaces and underworld crime bosses.Lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched, Remembering Shanghai follows five generations from a hardscrabble village to vibrant Shanghai to the bright lights of Hong Kong. By turns harrowing and heartwarming, this vivid memoir explores identity, loss and the unpredictable nature of life against the epic backdrop of a nation and a people in turmoil.