House of Exile

"House of Exile" by Nora Waln

I love to read about China. I really enjoyed "Life and Death in Shanghai" and "The Red Scarf Girl". I didn't enjoy "Chinese Cinderella" and "The Good Earth", however.

This "House of Exile" worked as a prequel to these for me. I have always wondered what China was like before Communism raised it's ugly head. This book answered a lot of those questions.

The author Nora Waln, is welcomed into a Chinese family, The House of Exile, and lives with them for several years. She tells of the ceremonies, celebrations, inter-working of home life, marriage, duties and honor...everything. I was amazed at her detail. There was also some wonderful quotes about family and home, from ancient Chinese teachings, that I noted down.

As the book goes on she illustrates how the communists slowly came to take hold and the fall of beauty in China.

The book gets a little tedious at times. You can almost divide it into 2 parts. The first, which is just a fascinating inside look at life in China; and the second part which gets quite political and intense. You could only read the first part if that's all you were interested in.

It does talk of green skirt wives and marriage relations in the perspective of the culture so it is for a more mature audience. Nothing exploitive, but rather explanatory. There is also the accompanying violence that comes with revolution.