Last Boat Out of Shanghai by Helen Zia focuses on four personal stories whose lives were affected by the liberation of Mao Zedong’s Red Army in Shanghai and other regions of China from around the 1930s to 1960s. The four stories selected gives us a broad range of perspective in that each story and life is different from the other. However, it won’t be long until the reader begin to realize how there really are no winners in a civil war and that regardless of background and privilege, everyone is impacted in some way or form. Having read Frank Dikotter’s trilogy on the Cultural Liberation, Last Boat Out of Shanghai takes it a step back, and we learn of how things were in Shanghai, considered one of the jeweled cities of China to even being labelled as the Paris of Asia, prior to the invasion of the Red Army.

There are a lot of insights and lessons to be learned here. Having parents who also made the journey from China to Hong Kong and finally to the United States really put things on a different level for myself personally. While they themselves were not impacted as much as the stories told here would suggest, their grandparents were, and it was thrilling to learn more about it from them as they told me stories that they never thought I’d ask about. In fact, due to reading this book, I’ve also learned that one of my great, great-grandparents did indeed get persecuted for being a factory owner in China and was killed during a struggle session. This makes reading Last Boat Out of Shanghai so special because their lives could have been anyone chronicled here, especially Benny’s or Annuo’s.

Although it was tough at times remember each of the four stories, I eventually came to label each individual like so to help me better remember: Benny is the son of ‘zhou gou’ parents, Annuo is girl considered to be the ugly duckling of the family and with the most to prove, Ho is the smart one that ‘escaped’ and Bing is the neglected child with a ‘hai pai’ elder sister. Each individual’s story presented a great read and highlights how each were impacted by not just the war and civil strife but China and Chinese culture in general. I personally felt the worst for Benny’s story, especially towards the end. It was very sad how he was never really able to shed his parent’s guilt, shame and traitorous behavior in the end.

Shame. The one word that creeps into my mind every time I study this difficult period of China after the dynasty era. Things are made even worst knowing what came after the liberation, starting with Mao Zedong’s great famine leading up to the Cultural Revolution. Last Boat Out of Shanghai does want me to put some research into reading about the Generalissimo himself, Chiang Kai-shek. What might have happened if things were reversed and the American continued to pour in money and effort into helping the Nationalists? Last Boat Out of Shanghai is a great read for anyone wanting to quickly pick up and learn of an era that paved the way for modern China today.