Ancestral Leaves follows one family through six hundred years of Chinese history and brings to life the epic narrative of the nation, from the fourteenth century through the Cultural Revolution. The lives of the Ye family—“Ye” means “leaf” in Chinese—reveal the human side of the large-scale events that shaped modern China: the vast and destructive rebellions of the nineteenth century, the economic growth and social transformation of the republican era, the Japanese invasion during World War II, and the Cultural Revolution under the Chinese Communists. Joseph W. Esherick draws from rare manuscripts and archival and oral history sources to provide an uncommonly personal and intimate glimpse into Chinese family history, illuminating the changing patterns of everyday life during rebellion, war, and revolution.
Joseph W. Esherick is Professor of Modern Chinese History at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of The Origins of the Boxer Uprising (UC Press) and co-editor of The Chinese Cultural Revolution as History, among many books.
"Esherick looks at familiar historical events and processes anew, enriching that history with great personal depth. There is really nothing like it."—William T. Rowe, author of China's Last Empire: The Great Qing
"A uniquely revealing and humanizing prism through which to view the fascinating human drama of modern Chinese history, replete with information for both longtime students of China and newcomers alike. An absolutely splendid book."—Elizabeth Perry, author of Patrolling the Revolution: Worker Militias, Citizenship and the Modern Chinese State
392 pp.6 x 9Illus: 17 b/w photographs, 3 line illustrations, 2 maps, 3 tables
9780520267008$29.95|£25.00Paper
Feb 2011