LETTERS FROM CHINA

“Letters From China” is not fiction. It is the actual letters written from China to friends and family by a homesick woman struggling in an alien world with culture shock, incredibly harsh living conditions, tenuous links with home (no email then!), and a lack of communication with those around her. She had volunteered to teach oral English to 300 Chinese students whose names were impossible to pronounce, let alone remember.

While it was hard for Nicolette, it was equally hard for her students. To them she was the alien and they could not understand a word she said. They had learned to read and write English in school, but not to speak it. Trust was built up gradually on both sides until they were no longer strangers but friends. Once trust had been established the students were willing to recount the often tragic stories of their grandparents in feudal days, their parents during the Cultural Revolution or in the war against Japan. These were horrific stories. Hard to believe but simply told by a generation of survivors.

As stated in one of the many reviews in praise of it, “Letters From China” is certainly a very remarkable book, and the author an astounding woman.