Written in a literary, narrative style, the book gives readers a picture of Chinese society and the country as it evolved beyond recognition in one lifetime. A few details suffice to give the flavor of life under Japanese rule in Shanghai prior to World War II. With Japan's surrender in 1945, Chiang Kai-shek ruled over China. In that period private business flourished and some people prospered. But when Chiang Kai-shek was defeated by the Communist Party and fled to Taiwan in 1949, property owners and intellectuals suffered through all the subsequent turmoil and all the great leaps forward — and backward — under Chairman Mao. Data is included that indicate the number of deaths in the various upheavals. After Mao and the arrest of so-called the Gang of Four, Deng Xiaoping adopted a more open policy and started on the capitalist road financially, but he failed to make significant revisions politically. Meanwhile, the Chinese people had been allured by the ideals of democracy and freedom of speech as promoted by the West, and longed for the chimera of a life of ease and abundance, while corruption grew. A wave of emigration followed as many took the first opportunity to go to the West and taste a different world.