Lynn Pan, to me, is arguably the second most famous female Chinese writer in Chinese history and culture after Han Suyin.
Her most popular work is Sons of the Yellow Emperor (1990), which won the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize. This book narrates and traces the history of the Chinese diaspora. I read it in 1990, and it really opened my eyes to the sufferings of these migrants in foreign lands.
Tracing it Home is her memoir. It is poignant and a coming to terms with her heritage.
Old Shanghai is an evocative history of Shanghai from 1931 to 1952.
The New Chinese Revolution, written in 1988, is a brilliant distillation of the Chinese society from 1976 to 1988 under Deng. She narrates a society shaking off the shackles of Mao and marching forward with confidence.
China’s Sorrow is a story of her travels in 1982 and 1983 along the length of the Yellow River from source to estuary. This book is worth reading as she narrates a China that has now long disappeared.
