The Tao of Life Stories

The Author: Xin Li is Associate Professor in the Department of Teacher Education, College of Education, California State University, Long Beach. She received her Ph.D. in education from the University of Toronto, Canada. She is a teacher, educational researcher, and frequent presenter at international conferences. Before migrating to North America, Li experienced the Chinese Cultural Revolution and taught at universities in China. Her translation helped to introduce John Updike's works to the Chinese reader.

"A poet, a theorist, a life historian, Xin Li has produced an important work of beauty and power. With its 'splicings' and 'knots,' this remarkable book creates a hybrid discourse that enriches and complicates our understandings of curriculum as autobiographical and international text." (William F. Pinar, St. Bernard Parish Alumni Endowed Professor, AERA 2000 Life Achievement Award Winner, Louisiana State University)
"'The Tao of Life Stories' provides a remarkably intimate portrait of a number of Chinese women who have struggled through the webs and snares of immigration to find new lives for themselves in America. We are led through the modern history of China, and especially the Cultural Revolution under Mao, to see how the dream of going 'abroad' is constructed as an emancipatory space for the resolution of personal oppression on the home front. Living abroad brings its own tensions as old currencies of identity have no value in the new reality. This book is a powerful testimony to the courage of a group of women determined not to be subdued by difficulty. Its central themes are universal and enduring: the value of friendship, the problem of understanding across cultures, the quest for home after leaving home, and intergenerational conflict. Of special importance is the way the author articulates the ancient wisdom of Tao as an interpretive frame for understanding a 'way' of living in the midst of perplexity and contradiction. The book is also woven through the experience of teaching English as a second language and so will be of special interest to teachers who work with immigrant students. I highly recommend this book for its human interest and its pedagogical address." (David Geoffrey Smith, International Forum on Education and Society, Department of Secondary Education, University of Alberta)
"'The Tao of Life Stories' is part of a new wave of literature on identity in a world of shortened distances and frequent cultural border crossings. This is an