num_pages: 464
description: When Yuan-tsung's husband, Jack Chen, was under Red Guard surveillance during the Cultural Revolution, Yuan-tsung served as translator during the interrogations. As Yuan-tsung began to delve into the family history, an incredible story emerged. Grandfather Chen (Ah Chen) was a landless peasant who participated in the second bloodiest battle in history and first major revolution of its kind: the Taiping Rebellion of 1850–64. Years later, his son, Eugene, was to work as a close aide to Sun Yat-sen. Yuan-tsung relates the fascinating story of how Eugene was the first foreign minister to take back land from colonial power and paved the way for China's “Russia-oriented” policy, and how, in turn, he played an intrinsic role in the 1920's alliance of the Koumitang and the Communist Party. She also tells the harrowing tale of how Jack, her husband, upheld his bold family legacy by sheltering persecuted Leftists during the break of the united front and acting as an ambassador of the Chinese Marxist Revolution to the West. Spanning a turbulent century of Chinese history, Return to the Middle Kingdom is the remarkable story of the evolution of modern China via three generations of revolutionaries.
language: English
title: Return to the Middle Kingdom: One Family, Three Revolutions, and the Birth of Modern China
titlecomplete: Return to the Middle Kingdom: One Family, Three Revolutions, and the Birth of Modern China
publisher: Basic Books