Rating: 
Summary: Meihong just another intelligent selfish young woman
Review: After reading this book, I can summarize it this way: a poignant story of betrayal and false love revolving around contemporary Chinese history. Meihong's story about her family and her background are fascinating. It gave us a vivid picture of life under Mao's reign of terror. However, I think almost all readers including me feel the same way: Meihong is just another clever young woman using a foreigner to achieve her ambitions. There are countless young Chinese women in recent years using the same tactics as Meihong to get out of China. Meihong is so far the only person brazen enough to write a book about it. She is indeed very clever. I recall the San Jose Mercury News covered her story last year. She eventually got an MBA and started her own company - doing business with China nevertheless. I advise all foreigners who travel to China to be careful and learn from Larry's experiences.
Rating:
Summary: Meihong just another intelligent selfish young woman
Review: After reading this book, I can summarize it this way: a poignant story of betrayal and false love revolving around contemporary Chinese history. Meihong's story about her family and her background are fascinating. It gave us a vivid picture of life under Mao's reign of terror. However, I think almost all readers including me feel the same way: Meihong is just another clever young woman using a foreigner to achieve her ambitions. There are countless young Chinese women in recent years using the same tactics as Meihong to get out of China. Meihong is so far the only person brazen enough to write a book about it. She is indeed very clever. I recall the San Jose Mercury News covered her story last year. She eventually got an MBA and started her own company - doing business with China nevertheless. I advise all foreigners who travel to China to be careful and learn from Larry's experiences.
Rating: 
Summary: Wondrous
Review: As an author of six books, I must confess that what I find most wondrous here is the writing itself. "Daughter of China" is a fascinating story, no question. But of all the many fascinating stories, few ever make their way into print, and fewer still are told with such draw-you-in narration. Through the eyes of a young Chinese woman named Meihong Xu, professor Larry Engelmann must have used not only his imagination but his whole soul to recreate her world, her chemistry. A stunning read. Bravo.
Rating:
Summary: DISGARDED DAUGHTER RESCUED BY AMERICAN DREAMER
Review: DAUGHTER OF CHINA is a riveting cross between a John Le Carre thriller and a Danielle Steel romance. It is the true story of a forbidden love affair between a beautiful young People's Liberation Army lieutenant and a visiting American professor, the brutal attempt of the Chinese authorities to discredit the lovers and destroy their dreams, and their courageous and incredible struggle to escape from their communist tormentors and reunite in America. Seventeen-year-old peasant Meihong Xu, a dedicated "true Believer" in China and the Communist Party, is selected to be one of the first twelve women cadets admitted to the People's Liberation Army Institute for International Relations where the PLA elite intelligence officers are trained. "The Twelve Pandas" graduate from the Institute in 1985 and Meihong is assigned to work for the Institute's commanding general, one of the most influential senior officers in the PLA. In 1988, the General orders Meihong to enroll in the Center for Chinese and American Studies, a joint venture of Nanjing University and the Johns Hopkins University, to study American culture and language from American instructors and to observe the American students enrolled at the Center as a training exercise preliminary to assignment in the United States. Larry Engelmann is a respected American history professor at San Jose State University with a special interest in Asia when he is recruited to teach in China for two years. He is writing a book about Vietnam, is gathering material for another book about Cambodian boat people, is anxious to learn Chinese and understand Chinese culture so he jumps at this once in a lifetime opportunity. Meihong enrolls in two of his classes and they are immediately attracted to each other. Engelmann knows nothing about his student's position in the PLA. He is attracted to her intellectual curiosity and what he perceives to be a "great old soul" in an adorable container. Meihong is attracted to her teacher's openness, extraordinary kindness and generosity and childlike awe at the wonderful "ordinary" people he never tires of questioning through his guide, interpreter and kindred spirit. Then one fateful evening a few days before her twenty-fifth birthday, Meihong Xu is extracted from the Center and taken to a military installation where she is incarcerated under deplorable conditions and is charged with espionage and made to fear she will be executed at any moment. She is interrogated for over two months. Her captors want her to confess to being part of a great conspiracy involving Larry Engelmann, her dearest friend in the PLA and her commanding general. "It became clear that [the Colonel] imagined a nefarious U.S.-Nanjing-Beijing-Shanghai intelligence conspiracy and [Meihong] was in some way central to communication between the various conspirators." Unable to force a confession from her, Meihong is eventually released, discharged from the PLA and sent back to her village in disgrace. Engelmann is expelled from China as a criminal and spy and neither of the lovers is informed of the fate of the other. Engelmann leaves no stone unturned in Washington, Beijing or Nanjing and finally finds Meihong. They plot a brilliant coup beating the communist bureaucrats at their own game. They arrange to marry in China under the very noses of those who had attempted to destroy them. Applying political pressure from Washington, Engelmann arranges to have his bride join him in America. Engelmann is a gifted writer whose wit, romanticism and humanity infuse the narrative like a magic elixir. I could not put this book down. It is a wonderful read. It should be required reading for all those naive free traders that believe China is changing because of American "engagement" and that human rights violations are a thing of the past. Wang Wei is the right way in China and will always be as long as the communists run the country.
Rating: 
Summary: Decent..
Review: I read this book mainly for becoming better aquainted with my Dramatic Interpretation for this year. It was enjoyable read. It is very captivating and keeps you hooked into the story. I liked this book best because it truly reflected China's political atmosphere. Being from China, I found many incidents and event easy to understand and relate to. Plus I've always been fascinated by the ins and outs of the "communist" countries like China and Russia. This book, since it is autobiographical, really does a good job in giving an insider's view to the intolerance that existed at the time. It does a wonderful part of describing the location where Meihong was held and questioned for many months as a result of possibly leaking out valuable information. It gives an inside view to the politcal power struggles that affected China and quite possibly, other countries as well. As I said before, the book is suspenseful and easy to read. However, at the end, there wasn't much of a lasting impression. I was more interested in the sequence of the events instead of the characters. The style of the book is simple and narrative. The charm of the book was not in the love and romance between Larry and Meihong but rather in its depiction of the political and societal (is that a word) of a small, elite sector of communist China. My favourite parts of the book were mostly likely contained in the scenes that weren't directly related to the story. The story of Red Aunt and how she was always ostracized and the story of Meihong Xu's grandmother were very touching.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Irresistible
Review: I really enjoyed this book, I love good books that also teach..and this one was great...I was not very knowledgeable about the history of china and wow did this book open my eyes and to think it is all a true story...try it...
Rating:
Summary: You must read for yourself.....
Review: I started reading this book because my sister recommended it. By the time I finished it, I was deeply touched, and at some instances even felt like I was there. The story of survival, deception, betrayal, and of course love tangled many strong emotions through me as I read about the world of Communism, the strive to survive. Excellent book, compelling read to those who's been to China.
Rating:
Summary: You must read for yourself.....
Review: I started reading this book because my sister recommended it. By the time I finished it, I was deeply touched, and at some instances even felt like I was there. The story of survival, deception, betrayal, and of course love tangled many strong emotions through me as I read about the world of Communism, the strive to survive. Excellent book, compelling read to those who's been to China.
Rating:
Summary: The Spy who used me?
Review: Last week on a trip to Belgium I started to read a Tom Clancy book. I ventured into an English bookstore in Brussels and stumbled upon "Daughter of China." Being an American man recently married to a Chinese woman, I couldn't resist this read. Haven't been back to finish the Clancy book yet - this one was far more interesting and suspenseful. I found this a great account of Chinese culture as it truly contrasts with western culture - things I've learned through my own relationship. The accounts of pervasive curruption and political power plays for self-interest were amazing, and probably generally true. The way people were thrown off their land and left with nothing but to suffer during the early days of Mao Communism were fascinating. Unfortunately, I couldn't help but question Meihong's sincerety in her relationship with Larry. I think she must have used him to get to America. This feeling brings into question the truth of her account throughout. I also pity "The General." If still alive, this book can't be doing this interesting character any good. Meihong and Larry are obviously two very complex people. I find it hard to believe Larry, a traveled, well read and previously divorced man is really so naive. All of these thoughts have given me days of pondering, so I have to say this is the best book I've read in a long time. I'd like to meet both of the authors and share experiences.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Really a Love Story
Review: Ok, just what IS this? There's been a trend, starting from the nineties, of a bunch of dissident writers saying oh, I left my country and I was brainwashed, Chairman Mao stinks, blah blah blah, am grateful to be in the West...and targeted towards a Western audience. Everything from the flowery references to their new lives to all that stuff that sells books. Some of it wasn't bad. I'm not trying to badmouth Chinese lit, but the new wave dissident stuff (especially post-Tianammen) is truly awful (though there are exceptions), and "Daughter of China" is at the bottom of the pile. It reads like that Britney Spears song, "I'm not a girl, not yet a woman". Seduced by the lavish praises of its "stark eloquence" and "importance", I read it in one night. It was boring, with a prose that leaves one yawning and saccherine, cheesy descriptions of relationships, I nonetheless hung in there 'cause I thought, SURELY it's got to get better! It didn't, and I returned it, disgusted. For one, I never know what our "heroine" really wants to say. She loves the guy in her school. They marry. They divorce. She was brainwashed, no -she loved her country -no, wait, that COULDN'T be it, either. She met Mr, Engelmann. She loves him. Or does she? I won't spoil the ending. That is, if you even read up to there.
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