Bestselling novelist Bette Bao Lord, author of Spring Moon, is connected by infinite threads of family & experience to China. Born in Shanghai in 1938, she emigrated to America at the age of 8. Returning to China as the wife of the U.S. ambassador, she stayed to witness the blossoming of the fragile 'China Spring' of 1989. Here she pieces together a half century of turbulent Chinese history -- through her own memories & the moving stories of men & women (many of necessity remain anonymous) from all strata of Chinese society. This beautifully written book evokes the tenderness & violence, traditions & iconoclasm of China & conveys the dignity of the Chinese people.