The House of Yan: A Family at the Heart of a Century in Chinese History
Written by Lan Yan
Narrated by Angela Lin
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Through the sweeping cultural and historical transformations of China, entrepreneur Lan Yan traces her family’s history through early 20th Century to present day.
The history of the Yan family is inseparable from the history of China over the last century. One of the most influential businesswomen of China today, Lan Yan grew up in the company of the country's powerful elite, including Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, and other top leaders. Her grandfather, Yan Baohang, originally a nationalist and close to Chiang Kai-shek and his wife, Soong May-ling, later joined the communists and worked as a secret agent for Zhou Enlai during World War II. Lan's parents were diplomats, and her father, Yan Mingfu, was Mao's personal Russian translator.
Inspite of their elevated status, the Yan's family life was turned upside down by the Cultural Revolution. One night in 1967, in front of a terrified ten-year-old Lan, Red Guards burst into the family home and arrested her grandfather. Days later, her father was arrested, accused of spying for the Soviet Union. Her mother, Wu Keliang, was branded a counter-revolutionary and forced to go with her daughter to a re-education camp for more than seven years, where Lan came of age as a high school student.
In recounting her family history, Lan Yan brings to life a century of Chinese history from the last emperor to present day, including the Cultural Revolution which tore her childhood apart. The little girl who was crushed by the Cultural Revolution has become one of the most active businesswomen in her country. In telling her and her family's story, she serves up an intimate account of the history of contemporary China.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Lan Yan
Lan Yan was not allowed to enter higher education because her Communist family had been designated as counter-revolutionaries. In 1969, she was sent to a re-education camp in Henan, where her mother had been for a year. In 1977, the year after the Cultural Revolution ended, she enrolled at university. Exceptionally motivated, she was awarded grants to study at the most prestigious universities in Europe and the United States. In 1991, she joined the Gide Loyrette Nouel law firm based in Paris and became the first foreign woman to make partner. In 1998, she returned to China to run the firm's Beijing office. In 2011, Lan Yan joined Lazard as managing director to lead its Chinese activities. Today, she is the vice chairman of investment banking of Lazard and the chairman and CEO of Lazard Greater China (Beijing, Hong Kong, Taiwan).
Related to The House of Yan
Related audiobooks
The Secret Piano: From Mao's Labor Camps to Bach's Goldberg Variations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remembering Shanghai: A Memoir of Socialites, Scholars and Scoundrels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao's Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great State: China and the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bullets and Opium: Real-Life Stories of China After the Tiananmen Square Massacre Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5China in Ten Words Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Out of the Gobi: My Story of China and America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Water Kingdom: A Secret History of China Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5China and Japan: Facing History Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5End of an Era: How China's Authoritarian Revival is Undermining Its Rise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5China's Leaders: From Mao to Now Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden: Two Sisters Separated by China’s Civil War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Young China: How the Restless Generation Will Change Their Country and the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Leftover in China: The Women Shaping the World's Next Superpower Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When the Red Gates Opened: A Memoir of China's Reawakening Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Emperor's New Road: China and the Project of the Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brothers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pearl of China Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When Can We Go Back to America?: Voices of Japanese American Incarceration during WWII Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Embassy: The Dutch Mission of 1795 and the Forgotten History of Western Encounters with China Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Hundred Flowers: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ask a North Korean: Defectors Talk About Their Lives Inside the World's Most Secretive Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Opium War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Personal Memoirs For You
The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Woman in Me Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Counting the Cost Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Enough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Night: New translation by Marion Wiesel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finding Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wishful Drinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Making It So: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: My Year of Psychedelics: Lessons on Better Living Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Summer of Fall: Gravity is a bitch, but I'm still standing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pageboy: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bad Mormon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love, Pamela: A Memoir of Prose, Poetry, and Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writing into the Wound: Understanding trauma, truth, and language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love, Lucy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: Built for This: The Quiet Strength of Powerlifting Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5While Time Remains: A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The House of Yan
5 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A very well told and enjoyable Chinese biography during the late 19th & 20th century China.