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A review by lauren_endnotes
Our Story: A Memoir of Love and Life in China by Rao Pingru
▫️ OUR STORY: A Memoir of Love and Life in China by Rao Pingru, tr. Nicky Harman, 2013.
OUR STORY is quite a special artifact in itself, beautifully bound with a simple and elegant cover design. The story and art inside continues this careful and simplistic form.
Written when Rao was 93 years old, this is a love letter to his deceased wife and graphic memoir of their life during much of the 20th century in China. The writing is detailed and mundane - in the best possible way. The small moments that lead to a full life: first date, wedding, how the sun comes in the window of their first apartment... Rao's art graces nearly every page alongside the translated text.
Much detail is spent in their early years together, but very little in the 20 years of separation, when Rao was sent to a re-education camp in the Cultural Revolution. Reunited in 1979, and with a full family, they move into later life, recording till the end of his wife's life in 2008 with kidney failure. Rao Pingru passed away in Shanghai in 2020 at the age of 99.
OUR STORY is quite a special artifact in itself, beautifully bound with a simple and elegant cover design. The story and art inside continues this careful and simplistic form.
Written when Rao was 93 years old, this is a love letter to his deceased wife and graphic memoir of their life during much of the 20th century in China. The writing is detailed and mundane - in the best possible way. The small moments that lead to a full life: first date, wedding, how the sun comes in the window of their first apartment... Rao's art graces nearly every page alongside the translated text.
Much detail is spent in their early years together, but very little in the 20 years of separation, when Rao was sent to a re-education camp in the Cultural Revolution. Reunited in 1979, and with a full family, they move into later life, recording till the end of his wife's life in 2008 with kidney failure. Rao Pingru passed away in Shanghai in 2020 at the age of 99.