The following review of my book, Farewell, My Beijing: The long journey from China to Tucson, was written and published on February 14, 2009 by John Hoyle, the Senior Editor of JustOneOpinion.com. He has agreed to let me include it on my website for my readers to enjoy. -- Chi Newman
Last fall I had the pleasure of visiting my old friend Dick Kelly, the co-editor of JustOneOpinion.com, at his home in Tucson, Arizona. While we were having coffee and catching up on our personal lives over the previous year, our conversation turned to the subject of books we’d read over the past few months.
We’d both read The God Delusion and enjoyed it very much. Other than that one book, we hadn’t read anything else in common. Dick got up from the table and went to his office to get his copy of Farewell, My Beijing: The long journey from China to Tucson, a paperback book written by a lady he had met during a bridge match. He was clearly very excited about the book and the story it told.
“You have to read this book,” Dick said as he handed me his copy. “You’ll find the story fascinating and spellbinding. I guarantee that you will be impressed.”
In fact, he was so enthused that he wanted me to actually meet the author, Chi Newman, and her husband, Richard, in person if a visit could be arranged while I was in Tucson. Later that afternoon, while Dick ran some errands, I retired to the guest bedroom to relax and started reading Chi’s book.
Farewell, My Beijing might be considered two books under one cover. The two main sections of Chi’s story could easily be expanded into separate books because their themes are so different as they cover two major periods in her life.
The first section is called “Pre-Communist Days in Beijing.” It’s a rather short group of nine chapters that describe her childhood growing up as a member of a privileged and influential family. She tells of her relationships with her twin sister, her mother, and her father. She speaks well of the excellent education she received at a Catholic school that served the children of diplomats and other important people.
Chi’s description of her life in China, while brief, is quite vivid as she shares her memories and experiences as a child growing up in affluence, while being surrounded by poverty within a society hamstrung by its own traditions.
The last chapter in the first section, “Good-bye, Beijing,” describes her harrowing experiences during the early stages of the Communist takeover of China. Her parents made hasty arrangements to have Chi and her twin sister Lu transferred out of the country to Taiwan to live with their older sister. Taiwan was still under the control of the Nationalist Chinese government, so it offered some safety from the Communists and their atrocities against all of the mainland Chinese that could not escape.
History Lesson -- Chi Newman lived through these events
After eight pages of photographs covering most of her life, Chi begins the second part of her story. Stories about her travels around the world in this section could easily fill another substantial book.
Few of us could brag that we had been to practically every continent. To have lived and worked in cities as diverse as Taipei, Brasilia, Pretoria, Athens and Washington D.C. would be unimaginable. Yet Chi has “been there, and done that” in all of those far-flung places and more.
As I read the 160 pages of Chi’s book, I was not only hooked on her story, but I was craving more. To her credit, she is able to briefly describe the major events of her life -- but perhaps in some cases just a bit too briefly. There are a places in her book where I wished that she had taken more time to expand, especially on the major incidents and experiences in her life, as well as describing in more detail the people she met and lived with.
One chapter describes the kidnapping of her husband, Richard, by Guatemalan rebels. While his kidnapping was apparently for propaganda purposes, it was no less harrowing for him or less stressful for Chi. In a mere eight pages, Chi manages to describe not only how Richard was captured, but also his experiences, his feelings, and how the final outcome was arranged. In the same chapter, she also shares her own feelings during the incident, and tells how some of the other women in the community came to her aid and comfort.
Although the book ends with Chi and Richard Newman in active retirement in Tucson, Arizona, my story continues. While I was busy reading her book, Dick Kelly managed to set up a meeting at their lovely home. I would meet them in person. I thought I might be a little out of my element meeting the Newmans, both veterans of years of diplomatic service throughout the world, and especially Chi, a published writer, artist and contract bridge player.
I realized immediately why Chi had so many friends not only in Tucson, but throughout the world. She had not only lived a life that most of us could only dream about and had survived one of the major political upheavals in all of human history, but had also faced the dangers associated with diplomatic service. Yet there I was in her home and she was as warm and welcoming to Dick and me as if we had been close friends for years.
Get the book, whether you purchase it from Amazon.com, at your local bookstore, or through Chi’s website at Chi-Newman.com. You’ll find it an easy and exciting read. I’m sure that it will be one of those books that you will want to share with your friends and family.
My hope is that Chi will return to her computer and write another book that expands on the stories she has shared in Farewell, My Beijing. As Senior Editor of Just One Opinion, I am grateful that Chi has agreed to share her insight about modern China and is willing to educate us about the history and culture of her ancestors. We are very privileged. -- John Hoyle, Senior Editor