Ting-Xing Ye,
My Name is Number 4: A True Story
Random House of Canada, 2008.

Gr 7 and up
Rating: E*

Born on an unusually hot and dry day in the month of June, Ting-Xing Ye was prophesied to live a life of adversity and misfortune. Surely, no one could have predicted the wide-spread social, political, and economic chaos that would engulf the country of China with Mao Zedong at the helm; however, it was this dictator’s controversial campaign for a cultural revolution that would, indeed, shake the country to its core - and in doing so, confirm Ting-Xing’s ill-fated prophesy.

A harrowing and inspirational story about a young girl’s true experiences during this devastating period in Chinese history, Ting-Xing Ye offers an intimate portrayal of her own childhood as a so-called "counter-revolutionary." Having been born into the capitalist class, Ting-Xing is branded as having "the blood of a traitor" in her veins, and in the midst of poverty, hunger, and hostile riots, she is sent to a prison farm where she is forced to engage in back-breaking labour.

Ye’s description of her own emotional turmoil is beautifully written and strikingly human. Her feelings are incredibly multi-dimensional, and oftentimes, Ting-Xing is torn between a multitude of hopes, fears, desires, and expectations. Ye’s writing is also rich with detail and description, providing fascinating insight into little-known facts of the revolution itself, including the Red Guards’ desire to alter traffic lights so that red meant go and green meant stop.

My Name is Number 4 is an abridged version of Ye’s much acclaimed A Leaf in the Bitter Wind published in 1998. This latest edition provides several helpful "extras" including a "Note on Chinese Pronunciation," two maps of the People’s Republic of China, several helpful footnotes providing key historical and political information, and a number of pictures, which although at times are dark and blurred, ultimately serve to bring the story to life.

The perfect book for the high-school classroom, and an essential title for any library bookshelf.

Thematic Links: China; History; Autobiography

Lindsay Schluter
Vol. 13, number 5
June 2008

*Rating System:
E - Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
G - Good, even great at times, generally useful!
A - Average, all right, has its applications.
P - Problematic, puzzling, poorly presented.