A Leaf in the Bitter Wind Ye, Ting-Xing

In 1958, Ting-Xing Ye was eight years old when Mao's Cultural Revolution tore her family apart. Her father, labeled a "capitalist roader," was sent to a labor camp. Her mother, deemed an enemy of the state, followed. Ting-Xing and her siblings were left to fend for themselves in Shanghai — children navigating starvation, propaganda, and the constant threat of denunciation. This memoir doesn't flinch. Ye writes with devastating clarity about what it meant to grow up during China's darkest decade, when ideology devoured innocence and survival required impossible choices. It's a story of resilience, yes, but also of loss — the kind that doesn't get wrapped up neatly. For readers drawn to firsthand accounts of history's ruptures, or anyone who wants to understand the human cost of totalitarianism beyond the textbooks.