Things That Must Not Be Forgotten: A Childhood in Wartime China

I was sent a copy of this book by my mum from Australia last year and only recently had the chance to finally read the book. It's no wonder that this book is an award winner (2000 Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize). Kwan keeps you rivetted to his story, told through eyes of a young boy growing up in very turbulent times. In spite of coming from a wealthy family, it cannot save him from the terrors and turmoil brought to Northern China in the 1930s and 1940s, nor from the racial judgement passed on him for being half-Chinese and half-White. How Kwan manages to survive is quite amazing. He is abandoned by his own mother and faces major abuses at school. Then, war begins and he begins to witness the atrocities committed by the Japanese in China. Finally, after the Japanese are defeated, he nearly loses his father to the KMT government that his father has faithfuly served through the resistance movement. He is not even safe from his own family, who try to use him as a means to extort his father for money that no longer exists. An absolute must read for anyone interested in China, the Japanese invasion of China, and a boy's coming of age.

I read a review and an excerpt of this book in Toronto last summer, and waited anxiously for it to be published here in the States. I read it in two days, gulping it down excitedly; then I re-read it slowly, informed of the story but savoring the beautiful prose. I wrote Mr. Kwan a "fan letter," only to learn today in this forum that he passed away. I was hoping for a sequel.

An extraordinary story told with well controlled language and subtle understatements. The book chronicles the lives in a previledged, but also marginalized, world where everyone is deeply enshrouded in his or her own loneliness : the western expatriates in China, the mixed-blood children like the author himself, the western women married to Chinese men but unable to summon any love for the country or its people, the well-cultured mem ostracized by the society for their marriages to western women. Each of them, making good-intentioned efforts to connect, failed miserably because of their own deep-rooted prejudice, social barriars imposed by other people, or simply the uncontrollable historical whirlwinds. Outside this walled-in existence, a war is raging on with unimaginable callousness. The wall would eventually crumble down and the fineness of the Legation Quarter be swallowed by the brutal and rancid humanities of that era. Reminding us at times of Proust and Graham Greene, this remembrance of things past documents, in a hushed voice, an extraordinary age and all the human efforts to stay emerged in the midst of sweeping torrents. Warmth and friendship flicker from time to time in this vast emotional void : the author's attachment to his down-to-earth and understanding nanny Shu Ma, his natural bonding with the reticent peasant Xiao Hu, and the unusual and quiet friendship between the boy and the Japanese Admiral. Language in the last couple chapters slips a little bit and becomes less disciplined. But overall this is a wonderfully written memoir. Saddened by the news of the author's death couple weeks ago, I was especially grateful for the gift he left with us in the form of this book.

I bought Michael David Kwan's "Things That Must Not Be Forgotten" after reading a glowing review in the Washington Post. I was not disappointed. It is a moving, understated memoir about Mr. Kwan's childhood years starting shortly before the outbreak of World War II and ending as the Kuomintang was breathing its last in mainland China. Although young David was fortunate enough to be born into a wealthy family as a "half-caste" child of a Chinese father and a Swiss mother (who abandoned the family very early in David's life), he was never considered to be a true part of either the white and Chinese communities. The editorial reviews give a good overview of the content of the book and the increasing difficulties that David and his family endured under the Japanese and even more so under the corrupt Nationalist Chinese government. The narrative is brisk and engaging; it is probably the best work of non-fiction that I have read in quite some time. Sadly, on May 20th of this year Mr. Kwan suffered a fatal heart attack just two weeks before the official U.S.-publication of this book. We are all very fortunate that he was able to give us such a memorable farewell gift."Things That Must Not Be Forgotten" won the 2000 Kirayama Prize for non-fiction, beating out such well-received books as Herbert Bix's "Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan," Helen Zia's "Asian American Dreams" and Chanrithy Him's "When Broken Glass Floats."