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As a child during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Jian Ping witnessed her father, a high-ranking government official, falsely accused of treason and publicly shamed and beaten, and her mother paraded in public, imprisoned, forbidden to see her children and pressured to divorce her husband. As an adult, she still struggles to understand why her parents to this day remain devoted Communist Party members.

In Mulberry Child: A Memoir of China, Jian Ping takes readers on a front row tour of history with the skill of a journalist and an historian’s eye for detail. Based on her childhood memories and extensive interviews and research, Mulberry Child is much more than the telling of the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution; amidst the tragedy are heartwarming and inspirational reflections on family love and loyalty.

“The hardship my family endured, and my coming of age in such turbulent times trained me to be independent, resilient, and strong,” says Jian Ping, now a highly educated and successful author living with her husband and daughter in Chicago. “The Communist philosophy demands conformity, but during a time of persecution, I realized what inner strength really means."

Jian Ping offers compelling insights into a complex family dynamic. Her parents are both loving yet steadfastly stoic and removed. Although bound together by a deep, abiding love, there are no outward expressions of affection or emotions. The fact that they remain dedicated Communists is something she still tries to comprehend.

“I don’t judge my parents’ continued devotion to the Party,” notes Jian Ping. “I may not understand it, but I also know that many families were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, and family members often betrayed one another. I’m lucky to be part of a family so closely bound, so loyal, and so strong.”

In Mulberry Child, Jian Ping’s family is pushed to the breaking point when they are forced to live in a mud house with no heat, water or indoor plumbing, with her aging grandmother hobbling on her bound feet. Despite unimaginable stress, all of them – Jian Ping, her mother, father, siblings, and indefatigable grandmother – remained loyal and devoted to each other. Ultimately the Party’s indoctrination and conformity were not as strong as the bonds of Jian Ping’s family.

Compelling themes in Mulberry Child include:

• The infinite resiliency of the human spirit, which can not be crushed by political persecution

• A rare insider’s view of the massive impact of the Cultural Revolution which devastated millions of lives and still shapes China today

• Coming of age in a time of complete societal upheaval

• The triumph of breaking the chains of conformity and embracing free thought and independence

• Loving her parents while still deeply troubled by their decisions

“With the Olympics coming to China, I think it’s important for the world to get to know and understand modern China,” adds Jian Ping. “To do that, you have to know its recent history, not simply stereotypical beliefs, but the real story.”

Jian Ping has a bachelor’s degree in English from Jilin University, Changchun, China and a master’s degree in Film and a master’s degree in International Affairs from Ohio University.

After graduation from college, she worked at China Film Distribution and Exhibition Company in Beijing for four years as a translator. Her publications in China include A Fool’s Paradise, a translation of a collection of short stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer, published by Xiwang Publishing. Her translations of articles on film theory appeared in Art of Film, a quarterly magazine. Her publications in the U.S. include The Chinese Film Theory, published by Praeger. She worked as co-editor and translator on that book.

Jian Ping has completed numerous writing programs, including Creative Nonfiction Writing at Northwestern University and Memoir Writing at the University of Chicago. She held a residency at Ragdale, the fourth largest artist retreat center in the US, and was the recipient of the Florence Bear Picker Fellowship from the Ragdale Foundation.   

Jian Ping plans to write a sequel to Mulberry Child.

Mulberry Child is available for purchase at Amazon.com and select bookstores.

For more information, please check www.mulberrychild.com