Publisher's Synopsis
Whether recalling her early years in a tumultuous China or sharing her bittersweet days in America, Dream Variations presents a candid picture of one Chinese American woman's journey across two continents."Weihua Zhang takes us on her journey across two continents, 12,000 miles, and half a lifetime, as she charts what it is to be Chinese-American. She discovers that while she has made a new life for herself and her family in the States, this 'sojourner daughter' is never far from her Chinese roots. Her vignettes and photographs give a poignant sense of triumph, sacrifice, and homesickness. She allows the reader to develop a real appreciation for the immigrant experience and for the many meanings of 'home.'" Mary Doll"In Dream Variations, Weihua Zhang provides mesmerizing accounts of her experiences in two vastly different worlds. She vividly describes her tormented childhood in China amidst the tension of the deteriorating marriage of her parents and her harrowing experiences as a young girl caught in service of Mao's tyrannical Little Red Guard. Zhang's candid narratives provide insightful reflections of her often painful and awkward experiences as a 'Chinese in America, ' the difficult choice between her homeland and her adopted country, and her continuing transition and commitment to being an 'American of Chinese background.'"John Jung"The U.S. has inspired many stories of immigrants' struggles, adaptation, and success. But we've heard few stories of how someone who is now a U.S. citizen grew up in China in the 1960s during the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution. Dream Variations is a personal story about China and America that all Americans should know, and Weihua Zhang tells it vividly and well."Peter SchmidtReader reviews: Weihua has written a wonderful collection of essays, stories, and poems. Some brought tears to my eyes and all gave wonderful insight to her experience as a woman scholar, mother, immigrant, and daughter. Her piece on the Chinese countryside field work was especially poignant as was the time at Swarthmore College away from her beloved daughter back in China. Female readers will be empowered by Weihua's struggles and successes as a scholar who stays on her chosen path of African-American Literature. YvonneWeihua Zhang writes a very honest and at times wrenching story of being an immigrant, a stranger, a student, a teacher, a daughter, a mother, and finally, a citizen of America. One of her book's most compelling themes is its insistence that becoming comfortable in her American skin is an unfinished project that has rested upon a process of both leaving and returning to her mainland Chinese homeland and family. Weihua's non-chronological, circular method of storytelling and her photographs that seamlessly interweave pictures of family members with her own artistic shots documenting Chinese and American culture reinforce her theme that her journey is still evolving and unfolding. She is also very aware that her story is as historic as it is personal. She evokes the memory of early Chinese immigrants who laid railroads across the American continent, calling them bridge builders "that linked the future generations of Chinese immigrants to the country's infinite possibilities." Weihua reckons that she, her husband, and her daughter are participants in an ongoing task of construction and transformation, where the bridges they are building stand on pillars composed of heritage, literature, art, and culture. Barbara McCaskillWeihua Zhang's fine memoir tells the story of her "journey across two continents" and invokes poignant and painful memories of the people and nation she left behind. The chapters on China's Cultural Revolution are especially good. The writer owes it to herself and her readers to write a book-length autobiography of those years, when the private and the political intersected in new and strange ways.George Williams
