Last Boat Out of Shanghai

The dramatic, real life stories of four young people caught up in the mass exodus of Shanghai in the wake of China's 1949 Communist revolution—a precursor to the struggles faced by emigrants today. "A true page-turner. . . [Helen] Zia has proven once again that history is something that happens to real people."—New York Times bestselling author Lisa See Shanghai has historically been China's jewel, its richest, most modern and westernized city. The bustling metropolis was home to sophisticated intellectuals, entrepreneurs, and a thriving middle class when Mao's proletarian revolution emerged victorious from the long civil war. Terrified of the horrors the Communists would wreak upon their lives, citizens of Shanghai who could afford to fled in every direction. Seventy years later, members of the last generation to fully recall this massive exodus have revealed their stories to Chinese American journalist Helen Zia, who interviewed hundreds...