Chinaland: Through a glass, darkly Through a glass, darkly

Chinaland: Through a Glass, Darkly is the memoir of a Chinese American woman that touches, with humor and irony, on issues of race, ethnicity, culture and faith. The writer's life takes her, often clueless and bumbling, across countries and continents, from Taiwan where she was born to Canada where she was raised, to England and Europe, to China, back to England and finally to America. It's a journey she hopes will lead to a clearly defined identity. It does not. But it does result in a unique, wide-eyed experience of life as a Chinese citizen in Red China in the 1970s and early 1980s, from the latter part of the Cultural Revolution steeped in Maoism to the beginnings of Deng Xiaoping's modernization and a shockingly ineluctable traditionalism. It is an intriguing journey that colors every aspect of her life even after she manages to circle back to the beginning of her journey in North America.