Personal testimonies coming out of China have become something of a cottage industry. But this reprint of Andrew Tu's traumatic experiences growing up in Inner Mongolia, first published in 1987, is coolly descriptive and its emotional balance and potent imagery makes for an uncomplicated, genuine account of a confused child desperate to make sense of a cruel, harsh world.

His young life, dominated by an almost feudal family structure was steeped in sadness, cruelty and injustice. The death of his mother left him at the mercy of family happenstance as well as historical forces. Economic difficulties and the opium-induced detachment of several of his carers allied to rampaging warlords and then the invasion of Japanese forces cast Tu adrift on a sea of uncertainty, loneliness and hardship. His ultimate survival and salvation later in Hong Kong (where he married legislator Elsie Tu) was testimony to his inner courage and determination to find his own place in a world complicated by political and emotional turmoil.

A sickly child, Tu's intellectual abilities (mostly evidenced in writing poems, some of which were published) went largely disregarded as he was shuffled from pillar to post with various family members. That is until he borrowed a graduation certificate to become a rural teacher for a short while. When a benefactor facilitated his secondary education at the Baotou branch of the Kuomintang Political University of China, the die was cast for a turbulent future he shared with many of his compatriots.

As the Japanese threatened once again in 1937, Tu fled with seventy students and a group of teachers on their own long march across plains and the Tenggu desert often using camels, and their bells referred to in the title, to help share the load. Conditions were cold and miserable and further ill-health added to the difficulties. Eventually further Japanese harassment saw him finish up in Chongqing at a new school before his move to Hong Kong via Shanghai in 1945.

This is more than a touching memoir. It paints a lyrical picture of the social costs of war between nations and within families as the young battle their own demons.

Paul McGuire
June 2006

Paul McGuire is a freelance author, writer and reviewer. He is also Deputy Principal of Sha Tin Junior School.