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The Secret Piano: From Mao's Labor Camps to Bach's Goldberg Variations Paperback – Unabridged, 6 March 2012
by Zhu Xiao-Mei (Author), Ellen Hinsey (Translator)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars (2,073)
Zhu Xiao-Mei was born to middle-class parents in post-war China, and her musical proficiency became clear at an early age. Taught to play the piano by her mother, she developed quickly into a prodigy, immersing herself in the work of classical masters like Bach and Brahms. She was just eleven years old when she began a rigorous course of study at the Beijing Conservatory, laying the groundwork for what was sure to be an extraordinary career. But in 1966, when Xiao-Mei was seventeen, the Cultural Revolution began, and life as she knew it changed forever. One by one, her family members were scattered, sentenced to prison or labor camps. By 1969, the art schools had closed, and Xiao-Mei was on her way to a work camp in Inner Mongolia, where she would spend the next five years. Life in the camp was nearly unbearable due to horrific living conditions and intensive brainwashing campaigns. Yet through it all Xiao-Mei clung to her passion for music. And when the Revolution ended, it was the piano that helped her to heal. Heartbreaking and heartwarming, The Secret Piano is the incredible true story of one woman’s survival in the face of unbelievable odds―and in pursuit of a powerful dream.
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From Australia
Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book
Reviewed in Australia on 10 June 2020
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
I learnt a lot about the situation in China during the cultural revolution. Zhu's story makes one grateful forclivingvin a Western democracy.
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Pam
4.0 out of 5 stars A very insightful glimpse into the China created by Mao Zedong
Reviewed in Australia on 19 August 2019
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This is not an easy book to read as the contents are rather challenging. That being said, I am very pleased to have read this survivor's account of her life, including the most awful years under Mao Zedong. It makes a Westerner wonder how a leader of a country could really think that what he was imposing upon his people was really the one and only way for the country to thrive and compete with the West. The millions of people who died, the countless millions of lives that were irretrievably destroyed. Yet the gutsy writer of this book and some of her family did survive, and more than that, the writer became a world-wide acclaimed pianist. Not only surviving Mao and his murderous cronies, but also the dreaded big 'C' (cancer).
One of the enlightening asides to this novel is the inclusion at the beginning of each Chapter, is some quotes by Laotse, a very well known Chinese philosopher. Also some quotes from the Tao de Ching.
This book is different from what I expected, though I do not really know what that was. I thoroughly enjoyed the simplicity of style of writing, the honesty of the Author, and the gutsy portrait she paints. A thoroughly good read, and one I can wholeheartedly recommend.
2 people found this helpful
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Rebecca
3.0 out of 5 stars fascinating
Reviewed in Australia on 17 December 2013
Format: Kindle
A truly amazing autobiography and still worth reading even though I would have liked something more literary - something with more of a voice and more complex language - less focus on getting the chronology right? Hard to explain, but even though there are moments of pathos
, it seems to need more colour for me to rate this a 4 or 5. However, such an extraordinary story needs to be heard. I can see this making a brilliant movie - and how I would love to see a movie which plays more Bach!
One person found this helpful
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Di Carroll
5.0 out of 5 stars heart warming
Reviewed in Australia on 1 February 2015
Format: Kindle
Amazing literature and amazing musician .. The tears flowed, the music played and definitely a standing ovation well worth the read
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars First book booked on Kindle good reading but some repetitions
Reviewed in Australia on 24 November 2015
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First book booked on Kindle good reading but some repetitions,translation from Chinese could be the primary problem being such a complex language !Such a life ,so many harrowing experiences !her inner strength what a wonderful person and pianist ,thank you .
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars A unique document
Reviewed in Australia on 17 April 2019
Format: Kindle
A harrowing account of the cultural revolution and a lesson for the smug west that imagines that cultural vandalism cannot happen again.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful story of life in China through the eyes of a concert pianist.
Reviewed in Australia on 7 November 2020
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
A very unusual story, very sad at times with all the suffering going on. A real eye opener and a different perspectivefrom those who endured this tragic time and all the things they had to go through. Very well written and full of interesting bits. Wonderful book if you also like Classical music. Excellent read.
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Patricia Filby
5.0 out of 5 stars What words are possible to describe this book? I will try.
Reviewed in Australia on 26 October 2019
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I feel so privileged to have had the opportunity to read Zhu Xiao-Mei’s life story. I thank her for writing it, for sharing the struggles, the highs and the lows of her extraordinary life. The gift, the beauty, of music, which sustained her throughout, she has so generously shared with the reader.
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From other countries
Madeleine Humphrys
5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful confirmation of the human spirit
Reviewed in Spain on 1 September 2014
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The inspiring and clear explanations of the effects of music. Sometimes the language was too technical for a lay reader. Good historical account of the Cultural Revolution
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C. E. Marshall
5.0 out of 5 stars Music and the human spirit
Reviewed in Canada on 1 February 2014
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The Secret Piano is deliberately written in 30 chapters--echoing the movements in the author's favourite music, Bach's Goldberg Variations. Like the music, there are many levels to Zhu's story: a social history of the Mao years in China; a record of a musician's drive and dedication; and how the human spirit, once inspired, will overcome hardship, indifference, frustration, tragedy and sheer impossibility to achieve its desires. Starting simply, with her life as a child, the story unfolds across the globe and time, in places describing unbelievable deprivation. It ends, again simply, with the mature reflections of an adult who has found her place in the world, through her beloved piano. Don't be put off by thinking that Chinese labour camps and classical music will be heavy going! This non-fiction book is as engrossing as any well-written novel.
2 people found this helpful
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Mamaliye
5.0 out of 5 stars The Secret Piano
Reviewed in Germany on 7 April 2013
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
This book showed me once again how much sorrow people cause one another, and that politic is used as a valid reason to harm. Zho despited her fate and somehow went on with her life, protecting her talent, and never lost her ability to love life and see things clearly. A very motivating and moving book. I loved every single page of it.
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Paola Z.
5.0 out of 5 stars Moving book with a deep message
Reviewed in Italy on 20 December 2024
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Everything
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The Elite Book Group
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it!!!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 June 2013
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
The Secret Piano: From Mao's Labor Camps to Bach's Goldberg Variations - Zhu Xiao-Mei
There are times in your life when you find a book and are not sure why you feel obliged to read it. Then you start and you're immediately sucked into the story, this may be because of what the story is, or maybe because of the words. In the case of "The Secret Piano" it was firstly because I'm fascinated about anyone who has managed to survive Mao's oppression and survive but once I got through the first page, I was totally hooked by Zhu's words, tales and life. The words are like listening to the most beautiful music ever written and you get so involved that you can't but help to just absorb each chapter and feel them washing over you.
Her early years were so traumatic, so inhumane, yet she survived, (like Li Cunxin who wrote Mao's Last Dancer and Jung Chang Wild Swans). We westerners have absolutely no concept of how brutal the labour camps were in China under Mao's Great Leap Forward. Even reading these stories and sharing their tales just can't bring the pain that they went can only be imagined by us.
I found these words of Zhu Xiao-Mei particularly moving:
"The Cultural Revolution scarred me for life. Each morning when I get up, I wonder how I can go on living, how I can find peace after what I have experienced. The legacy of that period has left me with a severe psychological handicap.
The Cultural Revolution was debasing; it turned me into a perpetrator. At one point, it even extinguished in me all sense of a moral life. I criticized my fellow human beings, accused them of grave misdeeds, investigated their pasts. I took an active part in a process of collective destruction. How can I ever be free of such things?"
But then she's entitled to feel this pain. She's survived it and unlike millions who died while Mao ravaged China, she's found some kind of peace by playing the piano. This was the one thing that kept her alive and with some kind of hope while being treated like a criminal for wanting to play and have an education.
A truly beautiful tale and I'm just so grateful that this extraordinary lady shared it with us.
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Mary C. Weiss
5.0 out of 5 stars A moving, honest and terrifying account of life as a young person during the Cultural Revolution.
Reviewed in France on 17 January 2013
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Zhu Xiao-Mei, a superb pianist, tells the story of her life, as a young person during the Culteral Revolution and survivor of forced re-education, as a struggling musician who suffers a late start, and a young adult attempting to find her place in the world while lacking the emotional stability of a normal childhood. A fascinating account. The translation by poet Ellen HInsey reads beautifully. This book has been my first choice as a present for my music-loving friends.
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Nairda.
5.0 out of 5 stars History, Chinese culture, musical insight, and autobiography of an extraordinary human being
Reviewed in the United States on 27 September 2012
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In July this year I was present at a piano recital given by Zhu Xiao-Mei in a small church near Herrisson in the Allier, France. Reading the short biographical programme note, as well as meeting her briefly after the concert inspired me to buy her autobiography. It is one of the most gripping, interesting and inspiring books I have ever read. This extraordinary musician and human being started playing the piano for Beijing radio at the age of 8 and later became a student at the prestigious Beijing Conservatoire. Then came the madness of the Cultural Revolution when Western music was forbidden and students were indoctrinated into the Maoist philosophy in which denunciations of fellow students, teachers and even ones own parents became part of everyday life. Those denounced then spent hours and days in self criticism sessions which often led to brutal beatings and sometimes death. Then she was deported to a labour camp in northern China where she spent 5 years in appalling conditions. But she somehow managed to get hold of a piano and continued to practice in freezing conditions. She even manufactured broken strings from wire, and tuned the piano herself. Then came the death of Mao and the prosecution of the Gang of Four. After this she managed to get to Hong Kong and then to America before finally settling in France where she gave her first professional concert at the age of 40.
But the book is not just about Zhu Xiao-Mei. Throughout, there are wonderful insights into Chinese philosophy, Chinese culture; the way musicians approach a piece of music when they are playing it for the first time; the days and even months of practice and analysis that can go into a major work before they perform it public for the first time. Towards the end, Xiao-Mei talks about the lasting psychological effects that the years of Maoist indoctrination, denunciations and self-criticism have had on her and her generation - another insight and something that I personally had not thought about before. This is a wonderful, heart warming and fascinating book.
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Dorothy2578
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, opens your eyes to what really happened in China
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 April 2013
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It's a very inspiring story about choosing music again all ods, and not giving up on your dreams. I really liked this book. It's something between a novel and an autobiography, very captivating. I read it on the metro most of the time and was so engrossed in the story that I nearly missed my stop. It gives you some historical perspective however it's nothing overwhelming with facts and data. I really liked the philosophical quotes in the book that opened the chapters.
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Alexandra
3.0 out of 5 stars Das hat man schon besser gelesen
Reviewed in Germany on 29 July 2014
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Das hat man schon besser gelesen: die schreckliche Verfolgung von Intellektuellen während der Kulturrevolution unter Mao. Aber hier ist es ein neuer Aspekt: eine Musikerin, die leiden muss unter den geradezu barbarischen Schrecknissen der Jugendhorden.
Leider wirkt die Autorin nicht sehr sympathisch und einiges ihres weiteren Lebensweges bleibt auch rätselhaft. Also: insgesamt interessant für den, der sich noch nicht mit dem Thema beschäftigt hatte, aber schriftstellerisch kein Wurf.
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Josie
5.0 out of 5 stars great read
Reviewed in Canada on 13 July 2012
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
I loved reading this book. The author's innovative ways to continue studying music and playing the piano are ingenious, especially during the Cultural Revolution. I cannot imagine living through the details she shares of living through the Cultural Revolution in China. She succeeds and moves on towards a good life in Paris.
This is worth reading...
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Witold
4.0 out of 5 stars definitely worth the time
Reviewed in the United States on 10 October 2016
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This is a memoir of a Chinese classical pianist who grew up during the Cultural Revolution and later moved to the US and France. It is written in a simple and honest style. This is a very good reading for all musicians, people who love classical music, or people interested in China and/or communism, or even stories of immigrants. It covers enough of a human experience that it should be a satisfying reading to many.
As the author is a pianist and this is not a detailed life memoir, the book is sometimes not as detailed as one would expect. For example, one feels that there are some prison experiences that she has no words to describe. I likes the fact that she didn't blame individuals too much. She certainly has had a fair share of bad experiences yet has never become bitter or cynical. Music was for her a huge help in life in the sense of healing, consolation and a source of hope. This is a remarkable book.
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mishmish
4.0 out of 5 stars If Music Be the Food of Love...
Reviewed in France on 19 May 2013
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A great read, interesting, informative and uplifting. The great love affair in this book is the love of music which is symbolized by the piano which the young girl and her mother own and which plays a role in the development of the story and of the character of Zhu, the protagonist. We also learn a lot about youthful attitudes and events during the Mao years, the camps, the hardships and the resilience of the young girl caught up in the brutalities of the regime. Maturity came with leaving the camp, facing the illusions she had lived with about the political situation and her continuing ambition to become an acclaimed musician.
We can only marvel at the strength of human nature and the ability to overcome physical and mental violence and reach peace within oneself.
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From other countries
- Carno PoloReviewed in Italy on 16 August 2014
absolutely captivating, the story of a girl understand China in the aftermath of the revolution of 1949
Compelling story about music, China and love. Music helped the author through terrible times in Mao's re-education camps and somehow kept her sanity in the face of protracted brain washing by the authorities. The figure of her mother is present as a fixed star that helped her steer her way amidst chaos and upheaval.
We learn curious tidbits about how the Chinese Communist musicians at the Conservatory saw Western classical music: Bach was too religious, Chopin a sentimentalist, Debussy an idealist and of course Beethoven was egoist, but somehow Mozart was OK (loc. 739 ebook)
More generally, the author takes us by the hand and shows how the Party saw the role of culture, the relationship of sons and daughters with their own parents, the deep mistrust that was instilled in their brain for anything that was not in Mao's red book.
All of the above takes part in the first part of the book, until the author leaves China. The second part is her life in the US and France as a pianist trying to make a living. This is interesting too, but it is really another book.
This is her recording of the Goldberg variations, which inspired her book more than any other piece of music. - beattheswissReviewed in Germany on 11 February 2015
Amazing artist's impressive life story!
Xiao Mei's writing is like classical music. It flows with such elegant ease, even when she recounts her darkest moments during the Cultural Revolution. She is so refreshingly honest, yet so philosophical. Her oriental roots and experiences in the West create a unique appeal that I haven't seen before. Wonderful book! - Flo_de_lallierReviewed in France on 7 February 2014
Preferably for musicians
More interested in History than in Art, I found this book just ok. There were too many references to works and musicians, the author lives for Music, breathes Music...I ended up skipping whole parts in the book. I wish the parts about the life in Mao's camps and prisons were more developed. - Alan GReviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 February 2015
intriguing!
An intriguing book! The first half deals with the revolution and the crazy way of 'life' endured by the Chinese. I learned a lot and it made me very sad to read details of this totalitarian regime. However, considering this book was written MANY years later, much of the musical detail was almost too detailed to ring true. That didn't detract from the book, just made it longer than need be.
The second half dealt with her life outside China, and it was all a bit jumbled, and musically repetitive. I am a musician, and could take a lot of things on board, non-musicians I feel might well have switched off earlier.
I have no regrets at buying this book, as it was very enlightening about China under Mao, but just feel a little abridging would have made it more enjoyable without losing anything. - Amazon CustomerReviewed in Canada on 11 February 2016
Amazing, but many errors in the text
Saw her play piano and needs to read her story! Amazing, but many errors in the text. - MarukoReviewed in Italy on 14 February 2013
Molto interessante
Letto l'edizione inglese (in italiano non esiste).
Molto interessante la storia, piacevole l'analisi dei brani musicali per chi, come me, ama le variazioni Goldberg e Bach in generale.
Un po' noioso alla fine. - John WilliamsonReviewed in the United States on 16 April 2012
The Secret Piano: Zhu Xiao-Mei's Aria
When one first thinks of pianist Zhu Xiao-Mei, those familiar with her works immediately jump to her exceptional interpretations and performances of J.S. Bach and the Goldberg Variations. Finding her autobiography, The Secret Piano: From Mao's Labor Camps to Bach's Goldberg Variations , was a pleasant surprise, yet autobiographies like this can sometimes be a disappointment to the reader. Happily this was not the case, as the author has presented her life in an interesting and fascinating chronological format, one that expresses the emotions that she felt along the way.
Born in Shanghai into a creative middle-class family during those turbulent years following WW-II, her family moved to Beijing when she was very young. Her first encounter with the instrument that was to shape her life is movingly remembered in her own words:
"I didn't know what it was, a piano. I was barely three years old, and I had never seen anything like it. I was fascinated. I wondered where it had come from, this object that spoke when you touched it. Strangely, my mother never played the piano. But every morning, she dusted it: her first act of housework. `Such dust! In Shanghai, there wasn't so much dust. Why did you bring me here?' she would add, turning towards my father."
And that curiosity sets the pace for this book in which she takes us on a journey in which we witness first hand a side that is usually veiled to most Westerners. Learning the piano during those young years, she was a prodigy who played the piano in radio and television in Beijing when she was only eight, and at ten, she entered into the Beijing Conservatory of Music in a program for unusually gifted children.
As a teenager her studies there were putting her on the path for a brilliant musical career, but that was stopped cold by Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution. As it took hold, even music at the Conservatory faced the consequences of the time, as we witness through her eyes:
"Everything was burning. Today it was the bodies; tomorrow it would be the spirit. I imagined the bonfire where the Red Guards were melting down our records and burning our scores...a thin veil of smoke lifted towards the sky. Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven vanished into the air. But in the end, the Red Guards were right: it had to be done. As Mao said: `The Revolution is not a dinner party. It is an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.'"
Through her eyes we see her family split apart by forced relocations. We observe the five years she spent in a work camp in Mongolia, her own political indecisions, the sometimes painful memories, yet where despite many difficulties she managed to practice the piano in hiding... the Secret Piano.
Zhu Xiao-Mei's story reads like a novel, with all of the color and dimension that keeps the reader glued to her words, page after page. She left the work camps in 1974, after being `assigned' there for five years. During her stay in Beijing, her life again changed as through her music she began to explore ways to get to America, a dream that she realized finally in February, 1980, thinking of Jonathan Livingston, "the seagull who wanted to fly higher than all the others."
It was during her flight to Los Angeles that she learned of the Chinese philosopher Laozi, and this from an American woman, a teacher in a university. This was the profound beginning of a new philosophy for her, and one that with her music would help to guide her. Xiao-Mei's sojourn to California resulted in her living with friends and relatives and working menial jobs to survive. She went to the New England Conservatory in Boston to complete her music education, then beyond, dealing as she went with problems with her English pronunciation. She paints a sometimes witty picture of her experiences, such as a waitress job in Boston's red light district. It's a fascinating tour of what the US looks like to someone from China, and the adversities that one must overcome to just survive, right down to a marriage of convenience just to stay in the country.
And in December 1984, Xiao-Mei's odyssey led her to Paris, starting over again, with a diploma from the New England Conservatory that meant little in France. Yet it was during a return trip to Boston that she truly blossomed with her first attempts to tackle what she became so well known for: her interpretations of the Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach, the musical encounter of her life:
"Buddhists always depict Buddha smiling. There are always two aspects to everything, to every being. There is no single truth--everything depends on the way in which one wants to see reality. That is life, and that is the Goldberg Variations. Through it, I also now understand why polyphony, Bach's in particular, affects me more deeply than any other type of music. By means of its various voices, it alone is capable of simultaneously expressing multiple and contradictory emotions, without one necessarily taking precedence over another."
And Xiao-Mei lives those words, as can be heard in her J.S. Bach: Variations Goldberg . She teaches at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in France, and has performed for appreciative audiences on six continents. She is one of the world's most renowned interpreters of Bach's "Goldberg Variations" as one can hear on this album.
Zhu Xiao-Mei is also the inspiration behind and subject of Andre Leblanc's book for children, The Red Piano , a touching work of fiction in which a young girl stuck in a Chinese Cultural Revolution Camp where the Communist Party conducts "learning through labor and self-criticism."
It's also worth mention that the translation was beautifully done by Ellen Hinsey, whose own works as a poet and author include The White Fire of Time . Her expertise shows through in this beautifully-formatted Kindle edition.
This book is more than an autobiography; it's a moving story of the human spirit prevailing over incredible odds. It's highly recommended not just as a beautiful autobiography, but as a background to those who enjoy Xiao-Mei's interpretations of the Goldberg Variations.
4/16/2012 - Book kidReviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 January 2013
Inspiring
This is an inspiring book about a talented pianist growing up in Mao's China. It is reminiscent of 'Wild Swans' and gives an excellent insight into the destruction of a vast amount of China's culture during that time, and the impact it had on a young girl and her family. We hear, as in 'Wild Swans', of how families were separated, and how the children were sent to labour camps. It was at this time that I was also growing up in a very different world, and I am eternally grateful for our democratic society.
Zhu managed to keep her interest and desire to play music going throughout the long struggle, and came out triumphant. Through her tenacity, she eventually escaped from China, but struggled for many years because her early years of training had been so disrupted. I wish her every happiness.
The book inspired me in my very amateur piano playing, in giving tips about her attitude to practice (though I can't confess that I practice for 8 hours at a time!) - and I have downloaded her Goldberg Variations, as I wanted to hear her playing. It's brilliant. - M BrudnickiReviewed in the United States on 17 September 2021
Wonderful book, terrible binding.
I purchased this book for a book club, as this was the only place I could find it. The story was well written and amazing. (5 stars on that part!)
Unfortunately, my copy of The Secret Piano was less than impressive. As I read, pages began coming out of the book. I wasn’t unusually rough with the book or binding. All in all, around 50 pages came loose. I was very careful to keep them in place and when I finished the book I had to carefully glue each page that had come out back into the book.
I’ve never read a book that came apart like this (especially one that was brand new) and was not impressed by the AmazonCrossing publishing of this literary work. - CloverReviewed in Germany on 15 February 2018
Faszinierendes Buch - gut geschrieben
Zunächst hatte ich mir dieses Buch auf den Kindle geladen, weil ich gerade "Lesefutter" suchte. Das Buch fand ich so spannend und interessant, dass inzwischen die gedruckte Version meiner Mutter geschenkt habe. Sie mag es auch. From other countries
- Gloria LavioletteReviewed in Canada on 27 May 2021
Fantastic Story
I’m so glad to have found this book to read. Such a brave and talented woman. Love her music and listen to it all the time. - VeronicaReviewed in France on 12 December 2016
A voice from the lost generation
The great pianist Zhu Xiao-Mei recounts with painful and inspiring honesty her life as part of the lost generation of Mao's cultural revolution and Great Leap Forward. Brainwashed, imprisoned, deprived of music, learning and dignity, she nonetheless follows a fragile thread of instinct and luck to achieve her freedom and her art. Her book is a tribute to Laozi and Bach, as well as to Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Mozart -- and to the healing power of music itself. - JULIE DUBOSTReviewed in France on 19 April 2013
Un roman depaysant
Tres joli livre sur un sujet difficile. Une belle lecon de vie qui peut triompher de tout si on essaie - DaveCReviewed in the United States on 22 June 2014
Unique story, best for music lovers
I enjoyed this book because it mixed the personal experiences of the author as a girl growing up in Maoist China and after leaving it for the West with a deep, almost religious, appreciation for classical music. Xiao-Mei's autobiography is very candid in describing how she was permanently scarred by both her treatment and complicity in the cultural revolution. She movingly shares with the reader how much music helped her to carry on in life by not only describing her own feelings but also explaining what aspects of her favorite compositions made them so meaningful. Although the latter discussions of the brilliance and emotivity of Bach and Beethoven's scores may cause some readers to lose interest, I found they helped me to better appreciate the dichotomy of her life which was a mixture of hardship and pure joy beyond the range of anything in my own comfortable life.
I only give 4 stars because, despite the frankness with which she depicts her angst over lost youth, constant self-doubt, and passion for music the narrative still seems to hold something back, giving the feeling that there may be other parts of her life that she preferred to keep private (for example, she never mentions a single romantic interest or explains the lack thereof). Of course she has the right to do that, and it lends some typically Chinese emotional distance to the story, but seems incongruous for a book that often feels like a confessional. - JuschkaReviewed in Germany on 13 September 2014
Die Goldberg Variationen
Ein wunderbares Buch über familiäre Verzweigungen vor einem historischen Hintergrund auf weltweiter Ebene, wobei die Goldberg Variationen immer mitklingen. Wieder so ein Lieblingsbuch, das man nicht aus der Hand legen mag, weil einen die zum Teil poetische Sprache in den Bann nimmt. Für Leute, die auf der ganzen Welt zuhause sind. - John HopperReviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 April 2013
Moving story about the positive impact of music
This is a memoir by a Chinese classical pianist who defected to the West in 1980. It is a moving and affecting work divided into two sections. The first covers her youth in China and in particular the devastating impact of the Cultural Revolution in the Beijing Music Conservatory where she was a student, when western classical music was denounced as bourgeois, and eventually all educational activity superseded by blind following of Mao's Little Red Book. Most repellent was the denouncing by young Red Guards of the professors, who were forced to clean the buildings instead of being educators and, in some cases, subject to extreme physical violence, and even executed or driven to suicide in the case of "Mama" Zheng who founded the conservatory. Xiao-Mei is suspect due to her family's social origins but then temporarily becomes a loyal Maoist and spends five years in a labour camp, supposedly helping the peasantry but in reality having the spirit and her love for music and the piano crushed out of her.
After Xiao-Mei leaves China in 1980 for Hong Kong then America, her story centres around her struggles to get used to a very different way of life and philosophical outlook, before trying to re-establish her identity as a musical performer. This was somewhat less interesting for me, but she writes very movingly of what music and traditional Chinese philosophical approaches mean to her, and how they have enabled her to reach a state of spiritual calm and inner peace and kept her going during the oppression of her youth and the doubts of uncertainties of her adult life. 4/5 - Mette KristiansenReviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 November 2012
A fantastic read
I really enjoyed this book, at times I was close to tears and but mostely I was amazed about the authors ability to survive. The book clearly shows how authority when used wrongly affects people and how easily it is to become brainwashed.
- To hear about her life when she got to America and then later to Europe is really inspirational. After reading this book I purchased her recordings of J.S. Bach: Variations Goldberg by Zhu Xiao-Mei, and when listening to it you can hear all the emotions she has described in the book.
- also the book opened my eyes into Chinese history and I certainly would like to find out more about what happened in China under the revolution etc. - Jenny ZhangReviewed in the United States on 26 April 2012
Rare and beautiful story about life during Mao
My parents both lived through the era of Mao, though they left China in the late eighties when I was born. They never talk about it to me, and I get the sense that their suffering is still to this day unspeakable to them. That is why I was grateful to find this book and share it with my mother. It was easy enough to read, but an elegant and lyrical story at the same time. She manages to capture the tensions and confusion in the government without going into politics. She manages to capture the breaking down of social ties through fear and humiliation perfectly as well.
The was a moving and educational book for me. There were times when I got a little irritated with the main character, for what I perceived to be her selfishness - for example, during the death of her grandmother, asking her mother to take all those risks for her to get a piano in the camps, and later, when she finally moved to the US, and didn't consider sending her parents any money back. But my mom explained that that was the nature of the time - that the most loving people can be "turned" by the oppression of the communist regime and the fanaticism of the red guards.
I played around with the idea of giving this book a 4, because I wasn't that fond of the main character at certain points, but overall I think it truly deserves a 5. - Pammy D.Reviewed in Germany on 15 August 2014
Should have ended in China
The first half of the book was interesting but I quickly became tired of the whinny tone in the second half - every chapter seems to begin with 'after all I have been through'. This women goes to the US, always finds someone to house and sponsor her, marries uniquely for a green card, goes to to France to carry on the same way. She cannot stay in France so returns to the States long enough to get a US citizenship uniquely to make it easier for her to apply for French citizenship! Ethics? None. Gratitude? Some. A parasitic life at best. Listen to her Goldberg Variations on You Tube... fine but cannot compare to Glenn Gould.
Sorry. Cannot recommend this book. - M. LivreReviewed in France on 27 September 2013
The Secret Piano: From Mao's Labor Camps to Bach's Goldberg Variations
Really very instructive and as I heard the pianist in concert, we better understand her shyness despite her immense talent.
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