Where Tigers Flew

Where Tigers Flew is an emotional journey and dramatic story of escape, love, disappointment, survival, courage, and sacrifice through these autobiographical memoirs. This story is different from the majority of most stories out of China. It is a story that is not told through Chinese eyes but through the eyes of a Eurasian girl (English Chinese), with English as her first language, being brought up in China and being discriminated against from both Eastern and Western cultures. The family survives the Japanese occupation of Shanghai and the establishment of the Chinese communist government of the People’s Republic of China under Mao Zedong.

She has named her manuscript Where Tigers Flew because of her admiration of and gratitude to a group of American pilots, originally volunteers flying for China, known as the Flying Tigers. They played a big part in China against the Japanese in World War II and were eventually recognized and accepted by the United States and became part of the American Air Force in 1943.

The Yangtze Incident in 1949 is also included in Rebecca’s story because she met a young British lieutenant from HMS Amethyst who was recuperating after being treated for his wounds sustained in the incident with the Chinese communists. He told her about a brave cat named Simon, who posthumously received a medal of honour for animals in war.

Where Tigers Flew also contains a heartbreaking love story involving young Rebecca, who, during the days of transition from the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek to the Communist government of Mao Zedong, finds out almost too late that the man she loves is too closely related to her and that they can never be together.