A Single Tear: A Family's Persecution, Love, and Endurance in Communist China

English literature professor Wu affectingly recalls 30 years of repression as a Chinese intellectual. Seeking ``a meaningful life in a brave new world,'' Wu left a graduate program at the University of Chicago in 1951 to teach in his homeland, only to discover that ``thought reform'' (brainwashing) had enveloped his new university. Quoting FDR and Patrick Henry, he found himself denounced as a reactionary and sent in 1958 to a state labor farm and prison, where several inmates starved to death. Wu's account is laced with irony and leavened by his frequent recourse to use of literature--including works by Steinbeck, Shakespeare, Eliot and the Chinese poet Du Fu--to gain inspiration and perspective. Wu was granted parole in 1961, but was swept up in the Cultural Revolution and in 1968 sent to the countryside, where he witnessed the peasants' suffering under the despotic local cadres. He returned to teaching in 1974 and was ultimately rehabilitated in 1979. Yikai, Wu's wife, narrates three chapters on how living apart from Wu affected her and her children. The family now lives in the United States. (Jan.)