Dimensions
129 x 197 x 22mm
An unforgettable story of a young girl's passage to adulthood in modern China.
When six-year-old Taotao is sent away by her mother to live with her grandparents, her whole world seems to have fallen apart. What can she have done to deserve such punishment? Though she quickly settles into the warmth and bustle of her new home, still she yearns for her parents' love. Only in later years does she learn of her mother's secret pain - her own father's fall from grace in the Cultural Revolution - and the sacrifice she has made for the sake of her daughter.
'Startling Moon' follows Taotao on a journey of discovery as she comes to understand her mother's stark choice - and to look towards a very different China. Her first guides are her grandparents, who open her eyes to a rich tradition of folk tales, Peking Opera and classical poetry. Hungry to learn more, she travels to a distant university; to the timeless grasslands of Inner Mongolia; and finally to the city of Beijing, electric with the excitement of the democracy movement.
Above all, it is the story of her quest to know her own heart; of the joys and responsibilities of friendship, the pain of first love, and the full blossoming of passion for an older, western man, which will lead Taotao to risk her safety, and all that she holds dear.
