I Always Wanted To Be A Writer.

My Grandmother's Feet Had Been Bound When She Was Two Years Old. Her Mother...first Wound A Piece Of White Cloth About Twenty Feet Long Round Her Feet, Bending All The Toes Except The Big Toe Inward And Under The Sole. Then She Placed A Large Stone On Top To Crush The Arch.

I Remember When My Mother Pointed To A Stone, And She Said This Was The Kind Of Stone People Used To Place On The Feet Of The Baby Girls To Stop Them Trying To Climb Away And Unbind Their Feet.

When He Asked My Grandmother If She Would Mind Being Poor, She Said She Would Be Happy Just To Have Her Daughter And Himself: 'if You Have Love, Even Plain Water Is Sweet.

I No Longer Have The Terrible Nightmares That I Used To Have. Mao Had Just Died In 1976, And China Began To Open Up. For The First Time Scholarships To Go To The West To Study Were Awarded On Academic Merit.

I Like To Have Chinese Furniture In My Home As A Constant And Painful Reminder Of How Much Has Been Destroyed In China. The Contrast Between The Beauty Of The Past And The Ugliness Of The Modern Is Nowhere Sharper Than In China.