In 1951, Wu Ningkun, who was educated in America, answered the call of his homeland, China, to serve as a professor for the new Communist government. Leaving behind a promising academic career in the States in order to put his training to work in his native country, Wu Ningkun returned home full of hope. A Single Tear is the story of what he found. It is a firsthand account of life in China from the early days of communism in the 1950s, through the cultural revolution of the late '60s and '70s, and into the '80s.
Two short years after returning to China, Wu Ningkun was labeled a dangerous counter-revolutionary and an "ultrarightist" for his Western teaching methods and curriculum, which included such books as Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. His colleagues denounced him, and within five years of his return Wu was sent to a government farm, where he was subjected to "thought reform" through hard labor. During his first prison term, which lasted over three years, he was nearly starved to death in the famine that resulted from Mao's political campaign known as the Great Leap Forward. Over the next two decades Wu Ningkun and his wife, Li Yikai, who has collaborated with him on this extraordinary memoir, were labeled enemies of their country and separated, reunited, and relocated at the whim of an often paranoid and ever-changing Communist regime.
Their will to survive and keep their family together, as well as a determination to find happiness in their homeland, remained constant throughout these difficult years. In the words of the author, this memoir was written to answer one question: "Have I suffered and survived in vain?" His answer is this intensely personal and beautifully written story that succeeds in giving a comprehensive account of the first four turbulent decades of Communist rule and offers important insights into understanding life in contemporary China. A Single Tear not only foretells such tragedies as the Tiananmen Square massacre but persists as a protest against the mistreatment of a people by its government. It is a story of suffering, but also of endurance and love. A Single Tear is an important contribution to the literature of dissident voices all over the world.
