Jacksonville Public Library

The porcelain thief, searching the Middle Kingdom for buried China, Huan Hsu

eng

contains biographical information

mapsillustrationsplates

index present

non fiction

The porcelain thief

858366322

Huan Hsu

searching the Middle Kingdom for buried China

" In 1938, when the Japanese arrived in Huan Hsu's great-great-grandfather Liu's Yangtze River hometown of Xingang, Liu was forced to bury his valuables, including a vast collection of prized antique porcelain, and undertake a decades-long trek that would splinter the family over thousands of miles. Many years and upheavals later, Hsu, raised in Salt Lake City and armed only with curiosity, moves to China to work in his uncle's semiconductor chip business. Once there, a conversation with his grandmother, his last living link to dynastic China, ignites a desire to learn more about not only his lost ancestral heirlooms but also porcelain itself. Mastering the language enough to venture into the countryside, Hsu sets out to separate the layers of fact and fiction that have obscured both China and his heritage and finally complete his family's long march back home."

Map #1 (China and Taiwan) -- Map #2 (Liu's Journey) -- Map #3 (Huan's Journey) -- Prologue -- 1. This is China -- 2. A Chicken Talking A Duck -- 3. Liu Feng Su -- 4. Panda Chinese -- 5. The Orphan -- 6. Street Fight -- 7. Journey to the West -- 8. The Real China -- 9. End of Paradise -- 10. From Far Formosa -- 11. City on Fire 12. Falling Leaves Return to Their Roots -- 13. All Death is a Homecoming -- 14. Nanjing -- 15. Northern Expedition -- 16. A Stumble From Which There Is No Recovering -- 17. The Nine Rivers -- 18. The Long Valley -- 19. Xingang Marks The Spot -- 20. Chasing the Moon from the Bottom of the Sea