Dragonfly Eyes
In 1925, Chinese sailor Yeye meets the French girl Nainai in the port of Marseilles. They fall in love and marry, and Yeye takes Nainai home to Shanghai, where his family owns silk factories. There they live happily and raise four children. In 1953 their only granddaughter Ah-Mei is born. She is the one who looks most like her French grandmother, and she is Nainai’s favourite.
The People’s Republic of China, established in 1949, brings vast changes to the family. Once wealthy, their factories are expropriated, but poverty is not the worst problem. Nainai’s western appearance brings suspicion onto the whole family. Their home is searched and then raided and looted by gangs of thugs. They live in poverty and constant fear. And yet their love of family and their true friends carries them through.
This story intended for young people is going on my “top ten of all time” book list. The author, recipient of the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen award, writes with a piercing simplicity that carries both nuance and the overall theme of life in a time of social upheaval straight to the heart of the reader. Most of us in the West are not fully aware of how the events of the mid-20th century affected Chinese families. This book of authentically related family experiences fills that gap not only factually but emotionally. The author, a professor of Chinese literature in Peking, masterfully combines complex or difficult concepts with uncomplicated, unpretentious but pellucid prose.
Rather than a novel, this closely connected collection of stories about the growing depth and maturity of the relationship between grandmother and granddaughter gently illustrates the paradox of hard times creating deeper bonds. Highly recommended.
