By: Gerry Brenner

Gerry Brenner — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:25:21 +0000

Chi Newman’s memoir, Farewell, My Beijing: The Long Journey from China to Tucson, is an interesting account of one woman’s well-traveled life experiences. Born into a world of privilege and power, she and her sisters had the best of everything: well-to-do parents, chefs, maids, tutors, objets d’art, and a huge home with courtyards and gardens aplenty—even an opium room. Newman deftly sprinkles anecdotes of those early years, bringing to life the childhood pranks, sheltered ease, and disciplined rigors of a powerful, upper-crust family which insisted upon well-schooled children. Little wonder, then, that Newman became multilingual and continues to choose which language she’ll think in every day: French, Chinese, Spanish, or Portuguese. With the rise of Communism and Mao’s regime, Newman’s parents vanished into hiding. Newman and her twin sister, scarcely teenagers, were whisked off to their older, married sister in Taiwan, where tutors completed the girls’ schooling.
From that point on, Newman’s memoir reads somewhat like a traveler’s dream, marred only by two nightmares: early by a plane crash and her seven-month body cast, later by the kidnapping of her husband by Guatemalan guerillas. Her first job as secretary to the military attaché of the French Embassy in Taipei led, circuitously, to marriage to the man whose assignments with the State Department—and, later, the World Health Organization—would take them to Paraguay, Uganda, Bolivia, Vietnam, Chile, Brazil, Barbados, South Africa, and Santa Domingo before retirement in Tucson. Newman’s accounts of all of those assignments—and of her two children—left me wanting amplification rather than brevity spiked with anecdotes. But perhaps the life-style of the diplomatic service—replete with maids, gardeners, high-society wives, bridge games, and elegant dinners—leaves one with little time to mix with common folk and saturate oneself with the surrounding culture. In a word, I would have liked a memoir at least twice the size so that I could have gotten a richer sense of this charming, vibrant woman.

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By: Richard Newman

Richard Newman — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 20:46:01 +0000

Terrific article by the Editor-In-Chief of Just One Opinion. We are very flattered by his comments and very happy to be included on this website. He has persuaded my wife to write about various subjects, not only about China, but about other events taking place in this tumultuous world. She hopes that others will enjoy what she has to offer.

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By: Formosa Daily » Farewell, My Beijing

Formosa Daily » Farewell, My Beijing — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:41:30 +0000

[...] more here: Farewell, My Beijing Tags: beijing, chi-newman, chiang-kai-shek, current-events, diplomatic-corp, friends, life, movie, [...]

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Comments on: Farewell, My Beijing

By: Gerry Brenner

By: Richard Newman

By: Formosa Daily » Farewell, My Beijing