China’s Son

Da Chen recounts a childhood marked by his family’s classification as former landlords during the Cultural Revolution. Political stigma follows him into the classroom and village, where his father is sent to labour, his grandfather is publicly abused and academic success cannot protect Da from official discrimination. Angry at a future apparently fixed by inherited class labels, he abandons school for a time and finds belonging among a group of local boys.

Mao Zedong’s death and the return of national examinations reopen a path through education. Da begins an intense programme of study supported by relatives who work and borrow money to keep him in school, eventually earning one of the strongest examination results in his region and a place at university in Beijing. Adapted for younger readers from Colors of the Mountain, the memoir presents political persecution, family solidarity and intellectual ambition through a direct coming-of-age narrative.