So interesting, engaging, and informative. I learned more about modern Chinese history than from any textbook. Little Li is the son of a Chinese man and an American woman who was the daughter of missionaries. The father is an accomplished pianist and a scholar of JS Bach. When the Cultural Revolution begins, Li is a young boy whose mother has left for America. His father naively believes that the rising tide against the educated (the elites) will not get worse, but he is soon "sent down." Li is left pretty much in the care of an old woman in their hutong and he and his friend roam the streets and become enamored by the young Red Guards. Li also loves music especially his flute. Soon, he too, is "sent down" and winds up in a remote province of China where he is sent to make gravel. Here he also encounters the Goluks, a native nomad tribe with no understanding of Mao and the Communist system. Li is about as far from his home as he can be but yearns to return to music and to go to the United States.

After the Cultural Revolution and with the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, Li is able to return to Bejing only to find much destruction but his father has returned but in extremely poor condition. Li cares for his father as much as he can and meets Hong, a young woman at the music school. He has a relationship with her, but always is thinking about going to America which he soon does.

When he gets to America, he has no money and is only goal is to get into a music school. He takes a job as a janitor at a fitness gym where he meets Juliette, a beautiful, but totally free spirit sexually. They move in together, but it is a purely sexual experience. He later meets a young musician named Lisa who falls desperately in love with Li. (Juliette and Lisa could be described as symbols of what is shallow and what is good about American). Now Li finds himself yearning to return home which he does. He looks up his childhood friend who is deeply involved in the resistance movement. He also finds Hong only to discover that she has had his child.

The book ends with the revolution at Tinnamon Square. This is a beautifully written book (in spite of all the Chinese letters that are interspersed through the narrative. It's long, believable, and memorable. Does an excellent job of showing the many different complications of life in China. ( )