Donkey Baby

Carried by a donkey during the Peoples Liberation Armys triumphant march to Beijing in 1948-49, a newborn at the birth of New China.

Spent her formative years in an idyllic showcase boarding kindergarten, sometimes sitting on the lap of frequent visitor Ho Chi Minh.

Daughter of a cabinet minister and member of the communist elite, she saw up-close the power struggles as the turbulent years unfolded: purges, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and reform attempts. Marched with Che Guevara through Tiananmen Square while in middle school.

Faced a crowd of thousands calling her names during the Cultural Revolution. She was forced to watch her mother being tortured by Red Guards. Treated ailing villagers as a barefoot doctor in a commune.

Swam across the Yangtze with a rifle on her back when she was a soldier in the Peoples Liberation Army. Defied the commissars by folk dancing in England when she was a government exchange student and under tight control. Trekked the roof of the world in Tibet, Nepal as a tour guide, and savored a high-altitude romance with her mountaineering French lover. Interpreted for Chinese delegations in UN and private meetings with George H. W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Ferdinand Marcos, and Pope John Paul II.