Wild swans: three daughters of China

"Three-inch golden lilies"-concubine to a warlord general (1909-1933)

"Even plain cold water is sweet"-my grandmother marries a Manchu doctor (1933-1938)

"They all say what a happy place Manchukuo is"-life under the Japanese (1938-1945)

"Slaves who have no country of your own"-ruled by different masters (1945-1947)

"Daughter for sale for 10 kilos of rice"-in battle for a new China (1947-1948)

"Talking about love"-a revolutionary marriage (1948-1949)

"Going through the five mountain passes"-my mother's long march (1949-1950)

"Returning home robed in embroidered silk"-to family and bandits (1949-1951)

"When a man gets power, even his chicken and dogs rise to heaven"-living with an incorruptible man (1951-1953)

"Suffering will make you a better Communist"-my mother falls under suspicion (1953-1956)

"After the anti-rightist campaign no one opens their mouth"-China silenced (1956-1958)

"Capable women can make a meal without food"-famine (1958-1962)

"Thousand-gold little precious"-in a privileged cocoon (1958-1965)

"Father is close, mother is close, but neither is as close as Chairman Mao"-the cult of Mao (1964-1965)

"Destroy first, and construction will look after itself"-the cultural revolution begins (1965-1966)

"Soar to heaven, and pierce the Earth"-Mao's red guards (June-August 1966)

"Do you want our children to become blacks?"-my parents' dilemma (August-October 1966)

"More than gigantic wonderful news"-pilgrimage to Peking (October-December 1966)

"Where there is a will to condemn, there is evidence"-my parents tormented (December 1966-1967)

"I will not sell my soul"-my father arrested (1967-1968)

"Giving charcoal in snow"-my siblings and my friends (1967-1968)

"Thought reform through labor"-to the edge of the Himalayas (January-June 1969)

"The more books you read, the more stupid you become"-I work as a peasant and a barefoot doctor (June 1969-1971)

"Please accept my apologies that come a lifetime too late"-my parents in camps (1969-1972)

"The fragrance of sweet wind"-a new life with the electricians' manual and six crises (1972-1973)

"Sniffing after foreigners farts and calling them sweet"-learning English in Mao's wake (1972-1974)

"If this is paradise, what then is hell?"-the death of my father (1974-1976)

Fighting to take wing (1976-1978).