Baba: A Return to China Upon My Father's Shoulders

Although Baba is not the only book, of Belle Yang's, that I have read (and own), it is certainly among many penetrating descriptions of Chinese "beginnings" and the end and transition from adolescence to an unknown future: "One May morning in 1947, when the sorghum was just waist high, Baba began his journey upon a narrow wagon lane,winding through the dunes crowned by stubbles of willows." leads us to Belle's second volume, The Odyssey of a Manchurian,when Baba walks the length of China to end up in Taiwan. Belle Yang's literary/artistic approach gives us a perspective on the evolution of the Chinese approach to describing their "reality": a pictorial linerarity, (e.g., the Chinese "pictographs" of "written" language). This has recenly been brought to public attention via Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor's, My Stroke of Insight--they function in a left-brain/right-brain (bicameral) reality. Naren Jackson

This is a great book. I came across this book by accident and loved it. The book is written as a series of short stories from the perspective a small boy growing up in 1930's China. Yang provides the reader will a taste of life in China during the 1930's. The author painted the pictures in the book. The paintings add zest. Very talented.

The book garnered starred reviews in both the "Library Journal" and "Kirkus Review" and so I had to read it for myself. The author writes as well as she paints. A fresh voice. It is one of those rare creations that is hard to place. Is it fiction or non-fiction? History or literature? I'd say both. It is a fresh look at China from the eyes of country folks, those who disappeared without a murmur in the chaos of war. I would recommend it to lovers of literature and lovers of history.

I was really drawn to Ms. Yang's quiet and yet affecting way of conveying her experience in China. When I saw her classical art in the book, I want to buy them! Can anyone let me know where I can possibly own her paintings to put in my house! I am sure when my father comes visit me from SIngapore, he will be pleased to see such wonderful work too. Thank you

Wonderfully written and beautifully illustrated book about the lives of the Chinese in the Manchurian frontier land before the Communist revolution. This is a Chinese rural life set in the abundance of the newly opened Manchuria, a time and place very different from the rest of land hungry China. The lives of these pioneers reminds one of those of the American pioneers of the Midwest prairies. The people in the story are brought to life as they make a living in this land of freezing winters, wolves and endless landscapes.