Although this is a work of fiction, many of the scenes and characters in the book are based on or inspired by real places, actual events, and people from my childhood.
I grew up in the compound of City Hospital Number 4 in Wuhan, where my parents worked. My father graduated from a medical school taught by American missionaries before the Communist Revolution. He was a well-known general surgeon. He taught me English and dancing, and together we listened to the BBC and took trips to a pastry shop.
During the Cultural Revolution, he openly disagreed with Mao and was accused of being an American spy and antirevolutionary. He was forced to work as a janitor in the hospital and later arrested and imprisoned in the city jail after refusing to collaborate with the officials to persecute one of his friends. Through those years, he treated antirevolutionary patients in secret and performed surgery on jail guards and Communist officials. On many occasions, I went to look for him when he was working late at the hospital, treating patients in his janitor’s uniform.
After Mao’s death, my father became the director of the surgical
department and the executive editor of the prestigious Modern China Surgical Journal. He came to the United States in 1990 with my mother, but missed his practice and patients and went back to Wuhan a year later. He worked at the hospital until he died on May 9, 1996, surrounded by his family, patients, friends, and colleagues.
My mother was a traditional Chinese medicine doctor. During the Cultural Revolution, she was forced to work the night shift as a nurse in the emergency room because she refused to draw a class line and divorce my father.
I have two brothers. Niu was inspired by one, as well as by a neighbor boy who lived upstairs. My brothers avoided being sent to the countryside for re-education, but were never allowed to attend high school and university. Both were factory workers for many years and still live in Wuhan with their families.
I started this book shortly after my parents passed away. It was then that I realized how much I miss China—the country I love so deeply.