Ancestral Leaves ─ A Family Journey Through Chinese History

Ancestral Leaves follows one family through six hundred years of Chinese history and brings to life the epic narrative of the nation, from the fourteenth century through the Cultural Revolution. The lives of the Ye family---Ye means leaf in Chinese---reveal the human side of the large-scale events that shaped modern China: the vast and destructive rebellions of the nineteenth century, the economic growth and social transformation of the republican era, the Japanese invasion during World War II, and the Cultural Revolution under the Chinese Communists.

"Joseph Esherick uses his rich source base to give us countless insights into the ways in which the Ye family made their way through tumultuous times. We see them here as fugitives and administrators, schoolchildren and parents, business leaders and revolutionaries, political prisoners and spokesmen for democracy, lovers and enemies, research scientists and poets. This is a rich and original book." Jonathan D. Spence, author of The. Search for Modern China and Return to Dragon Mountain: Memories of a Late Ming Man

"Esherick looks at familiar historical events and processes them anew, enriching that history with great personal depth. There is really nothing like Ancestral Leaves." William T. Rowe, author of China's Last Empire: The Great Qing

"A uniquely revealing and humanizing prism through which to view the fascinating human drama of modern Chinese history, replete with information for both longtime students of China and newcomers alike. An absolutely splendid book." Elizabeth J. Perry, author of Patrolling the Revolution: Worker Militias, Citizenship, and the Modern Chinese State

Joseph W. Esherick is Professor of Modern Chinese History at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of The Origins of the Boxer Uprising (UC Press) and coeditor of The Chinese Cultural Revolution as History, among many books.