L'arbre blessé
Han Suyin1972

I wanted to write a book about my father and mother and about China, and one day the idea took shape in action, and then it grew, as such seeds do, sprouting and then straightening into a distant shape, a tree of many branches; and as I too lived through years full of change and revolution, I too had to look back, look homeward, and write about that earth-changing time which took place in our generation. I did not know where to begin, how to start. China to me was of course my father and mother, and all I myself knew of China. To separate them from me would be to denude my story. Inextricably, the tree of my book grew, an old growth, yet more true than all the ideal books written about China.

Titre original : The crippled tree (1972)