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Customer Reviews for Tyndale House A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest
Tyndale House A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest
* Commander-in-chief of protestors during the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations, Chai Ling was one of the Chinese government's most wanted "criminals." Now a successful entrepreneur living in the United States, she has found real freedom in a formerly forbidden path---and God's purpose for her life in fighting for the rights of young girls in her homeland. 370 pages, softcover from Tyndale.
Average Customer Rating:
(14 Reviews) 14
Rating Snapshot (14 reviews)
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14 out of 14100%customers would recommend this product to a friend.
Customer Reviews for A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest
Review 1 for A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest
Overall Rating:
Fascinating Account of Tiananmen Square Demonstrat
Date:July 10, 2012
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Chai Ling was the leader of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989. Her book tells the story of how she came to be involved in the demonstrations, what it was like living in the square, and the aftermath which changed her life.
Part memoir, part analysis of China's history and modern politics, this book held me riveted.
I highly recommend this book, especially for those interested in modern China.
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Review 2 for A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest
Overall Rating:
A Beautiful Memoir of an Ugly Time
Date:June 6, 2012
The Little Man in China
Age:25-34
Gender:male
Quality:
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As amazing as it seems, very few Chinese people today have heard of the "Tienanmen Square Massacre" as we know it here in the West. They certainly know the place, and they know that something awful occurred in the early summer of 1989, but their recollection of the events are nothing more than implanted memories, their knowledge nothing more than tainted history. The government has turned the massacre on its head, and all information about the atrocities from within her own controlled borders has been sanitized of governmental fault, and the liberators and revolutionaries, the peaceful, murdered individuals, have become both the instigators and the enemies. Tienanmen Square has essentially become to her newest generations a boring fable of China's past, yet some who know the truth, some who were even there, continue to share their stories and to remind the world that only a few short years ago, the Chinese government massacred thousands of her own children.
In A Heart for Freedom, author and former student leader and revolutionary, Chai Ling, shares her own story of growing up as a prime candidate for Communist leadership and thought, even attending the greatest university the nation had to offer, but then learning that such an ideology was truly incapable of serving the people it promised to protect. This autobiography takes the reader from Chai Ling's own childhood where her parents, both faithful Communist soldiers and physicians, trained her to love her government really more than life itself. But once she arrived at school and met thinkers of different breeds, her doubts began to rise and her passions for new ideologies began to fester. At one point during her college years, Chai Ling acknowledged that she had doubts about the Party's being the servant of the people, and so began her long, exciting yet painful journey from simple Communist-in-training to student leader, revolutionary, and wanted criminal.
Throughout her memoir, Chai Ling develops the unknown and unfelt emotions of the oppressed in China, emotions that are all but foreign to those born and raised in the freedom of the United States, and emotions that essentially fueled the fire that drove millions of Chinamen to take a stand against the same government that had starved to death a large percentage of the previous generation during the Cultural Revolution. As she develops these emotions, a reader can feel as if he is standing side-by-side Chai Ling during the most desperate hours of lat May, 1989, in Tienanmen Square. While the entire book is written in matter-of-fact past tense, as if Chai Ling is recounting the events as a witness during a trial, the events are real and the sensations are palpable. Through this book, one can learn much about the bitter realities of a government that "serves" its innumerable, ignorant, and expendable people by silencing their voices, denying their freedom, and attacking their ideals of equality and human rights.
This book may be one of many on the atrocities of Communist nations the world over during the 20th Century, but Chai Ling also brings a special air to her work by including her journey to faith in Jesus Christ. As such, this book is a fitting read for those interested in history, Communism, revolutions, and Christian biographies.
©2011 E.T.
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Review 3 for A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest
Overall Rating:
A tremendous autobiography
Date:February 10, 2012
Andrew Gackle
Location:Sugar Land, TX
Age:45-54
Gender:male
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It is no coincidence that many of the student leaders of the Tiananmen Square student movement have become Christians. Chai Ling's moving story stands as a prime example of that. This is a great book for anyone wanting to know more about the Tiananmen Square student movement of 1989, and the timeless story of one person's journey to find meaning in life, when their previous hopes for meaning have been dashed.
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Review 4 for A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest
Overall Rating:
Great insight into the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
Date:November 28, 2011
ChristianDroid
Age:45-54
Gender:male
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This is the story of Chai Ling, a leader of the student movement in Tiananmen Square. However, it is much more than that. It is the story of many people who grew up in China during the seventies and eighties. In A Heart for Freedom, Chai Ling recounts her life story from her earliest recollections through those tragic days in Beijing leading up to her eventual escape and life in the United States. This account from one of the students who was involved in the movement from the beginning brings insight into the thoughts and actions of the students who were protesting.
The audio book is well written and goes into extreme details that you don’t find in most accounts of the massacre. But what makes this book stand out is the way the author gives you details of her childhood years leading up to her becoming one of China’s most wanted enemies of the state. By the time you arrive at the events in Tiananmen you, the reader, are involved in the life of this young woman. Chai Ling is so open and honest about her not so upright past, that you can not help but sympathize with her. The in-depth chapters revolving around the student protests will give you a new-found respect for those who suffered so much to try to obtain a little freedom.
The audio book is narrated by Karen White, who does an excellent job with a very difficult work. Seeming to handle all of the hard Chinese pronunciations with ease the narrator becomes the voice of Chai Ling. Her voice is so calming and soothing that it made the audio book a pleasure to listen to.
The only negative that I can say about this book is that it is that the story is so detailed it does seem too long at times. However, looking back over the entire work, I would be hard pressed to edit this book down to any shorter length. The facts and thoughts are so important to the feelings of those who were involved with this massacre that the end result would not be the same if there were less detail given.
Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about what took place at Tiananmen Square in Beijing China on June 4th 1989. If you read A Heart for Freedom you can not help but be touched by the extraordinary life of Chai Ling and the lives of those students that participated in the protests. You will gain new insights on what really happened on those fateful days in China. And you will be moved by the work of Jesus Christ in the life of this young woman, who after having four abortions, leading the student protest, and eventually escaping to the United States via Hong Kong and France, became a strong Christian benefactor for young females in China.
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Review 5 for A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest
Overall Rating:
great story
Date:November 18, 2011
boshky
Location:Ohio
Age:55-65
Gender:male
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This story captured my memories of that time 22 years ago but even more compelling was her account of her comming to know Christ. I would recommend this book to everyone.
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Review 6 for A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest
Overall Rating:
amazing story of a brave woman
Date:October 4, 2011
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Chai was one of the student leaders in Tiananmen Square June 4, 1989. She became the second most wanted person in China. After months in hiding, she escaped through Hong Kong to France. In the U.S. For twenty years, Chai tried to write her account of that fateful day. It was not until December of 2009 that Chai found what she was looking for in Jesus. Now, mother of three and wife of a loving American husband, her pen flowed.
Chai begins with the story of her family. Her father born in 1935, the Japanese invading the village in 1937, civil war after the Japanese left in 1945, Communist victory by 1949, joining the PLA, becoming an army doctor. Her mother, peasant born but finishing high school, then medical school, becoming an army doctor, marriage, children (Mao encouraged big families in the 60s). Their family, an army family, was mostly unaffected by the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution.
Chai went to Beijing the first time in 1983 as a seventeen year old, to attend Peking University. There were only fifty spots allowed for her province, with millions applying. She was accepted. She fought for and was able to major in psychology.
China was shaking off the effects of the Cultural Revolution. She witnessed some of the fledgling democracy demonstrations, asking for continued reform. She tells of her pregnancies (and abortions), her mother's nervous breakdown, and her own marriage. She and her husband got involved in the student democracy movement.
Chai takes us through the students meetings, the hunger strike, martial law, being the commander of the Defend Tiananmen Square Headquarters, the speech she made ( snippets used later in a documentary to discredit her), not foreseeing the massacre, then the gunshots and the tanks rolling.
Chai and her husband escaped, traveling south, hearing official reports denying the massacre. They stopped at a Wuhan University and she made a recorded statement, telling the truth of the massacre, later heard on Voice of America. After ten months of hiding, an underground student movement helped them get to France. In Paris her husband separated from her, intoxicated with freedom. She was asked to go to the U.S. for a democracy ceremony and was celebrated. She was awarded a visiting scholarship to Princeton. Upon graduation she managed to find a consulting position and the Clinton administration arranged for her family to come to America. When her consulting position ended she went to graduate school, obtaining an MBA from Harvard in 1998, and founded an internet company. She became a Christian in December of 2009. She founded All Girls Allowed, an organization to help girls in China, in 2010. She has been nominated twice for the Noble Peace Prize.
She ends her book with her struggle to reveal all of her abortions and receive God's forgiveness.
Chai begins with the story of her family. Her father born in 1935, the Japanese invading the village in 1937, civil war after the Japanese left in 1945, Communist victory by 1949, joining the PLA, becoming an army doctor. Her mother, peasant born but finishing high school, then medical school, becoming an army doctor, marriage, children (Mao encouraged big families in the 60s). Their family, an army family, was mostly unaffected by the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution.
Chai went to Beijing the first time in 1983 as a seventeen year old, to attend Peking University. There were only fifty spots allowed for her province, with millions applying. She was accepted. She fought for and was able to major in psychology.
China was shaking off the effects of the Cultural Revolution. She witnessed some of the fledgling democracy demonstrations, asking for continued reform. She tells of her pregnancies (and abortions), her mother's nervous breakdown, and her own marriage. She and her husband got involved in the student democracy movement.
Chai takes us through the students meetings, the hunger strike, martial law, being the commander of the Defend Tiananmen Square Headquarters, the speech she made ( snippets used later in a documentary to discredit her), not foreseeing the massacre, then the gunshots and the tanks rolling.
Chai and her husband escaped, traveling south, hearing official reports denying the massacre. They stopped at a Wuhan University and she made a recorded statement, telling the truth of the massacre, later heard on Voice of America. After ten months of hiding, an underground student movement helped them get to France. In Paris her husband separated from her, intoxicated with freedom. She was asked to go to the U.S. for a democracy ceremony and was celebrated. She was awarded a visiting scholarship to Princeton. Upon graduation she managed to find a consulting position and the Clinton administration arranged for her family to come to America. When her consulting position ended she went to graduate school, obtaining an MBA from Harvard in 1998, and founded an internet company. She became a Christian in December of 2009. She founded All Girls Allowed, an organization to help girls in China, in 2010. She has been nominated twice for the Noble Peace Prize.
She ends her book with her struggle to reveal all of her abortions and receive God's forgiveness.
This is a compelling biography. I remember the news broadcasts and the horror of that day. It was very interesting to read of the feelings and actions of the students involved. A couple of times the narrative bogged down but certainly not enough to keep me from highly recommending this book. You will gain insight into China and be encouraged to pray for those there.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of this review.
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Review 7 for A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest
Overall Rating:
a wonderful book that will stay with you
Date:October 4, 2011
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I remember in 1989 what happened at Tianammen Square I was young but it made such a impact on me and I was devastated watching the news coverage about the horrible things that were happening over there to the protesters. This book will stay with you long after reading it. I loved reading her first hand account about what was happening there that the news stations and papers could never have known. This book is a must read for anyone who likes history, human interest or just a great book about a women who experienced so much tragedy and came out of it wanting to help girls who are still in China.
This book should be on a reading list for high school and college history or international studies classes. I think the insight would be wonderful for people to read.
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Review 8 for A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest
Overall Rating:
A Story of God's Love For a Young Woman From China
Date:September 28, 2011
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Growing-up in America it is hard for me to imagine the things that the people of China have experienced. I have read books about missionaries who have ministered to the people who live there, I know that missionaries have a love for the people they are called to serve. They wouldn’t go if they didn’t. Chai Ling, grew-up in China and has a love for her homeland, as well as, for the people that live there that grew out of her personal experiences of being raised and schooled in China.
Chai Ling’s involvement and leadership in the Tiananmen Square protests were because of her love for China. She was forced to leave her homeland after the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and eventually came to America. She could have turned her back, not taken part in the protests, and then she would probably still be living the life her parents pictured for her, but God had other plans. After she came to America she continued her education, and obtained the work experience that prepared her for the work that God had created her for: helping Chinese women and girls, through her work with All Girls Allowed. The most compelling part of Chai Ling’s story is how God drew Chai Ling to HIM and her journey to her belief in Jesus as her Lord and Savior.
I would recommend this book for older teens and adults, because some of Chai Ling’s story could be troubling to younger teens and children.
**A Heart For Freedom: The Remarkable Journey Of A Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest To Free China’s Daughters by Chai Ling was provided for me free by Tyndale House Publishers in exchange for my honest review.
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Review 9 for A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest
Overall Rating:
Eye-Opening Behind the Scenes Look
Date:September 28, 2011
jasjs0825
Location:Gloucester, VA
Age:25-34
Gender:female
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A Heart For Freedom (The remarkable journey of a young dissident her daring escape and her quest to free China's daughters) by: Chai Ling is a amazing first hand look at the massacre of Tiananmen Square in 1989. Ling starts the book with her background of growing up the first born daughter of two solider parents. Her hard work to get into the university, all to make her father proud of her. The book leads into all the behind the scenes leading to the massacre. The students of Chine wanted discussion with government officials. Ling, in great detail, describes how wanting discussion led to the death of over 3,000 students. After the massacre Ling was a wanted woman for her part in leading the students of the Square. The book chronicles to her run to freedom in America. Her life in America leads her to Christianity and from there to wanting to continue her work in China. Chai Ling is now in charge of All Girls Allowed, an organization that is trying to end China's one child policy and forced abortions.
This book is full of details that most of the public probably has never heard about. It is an amazing journey, especially bearing in mind that a woman was in charge of much of the Tiananmen Square protests. There are particularly gory parts in the book when the deaths are discussed. Ling also describes in detail her forced abortion. It is an eye opening journey from the farmlands in China to speaking on Capitol Hill. Join Ling in her story and her current fight with this great book.
Tyndale House Publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for the reason of review
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Review 10 for A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest
Overall Rating:
An important reminder of a tragic time
Date:September 27, 2011
Gently Mad
Location:Longview TX
Age:45-54
Gender:female
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It's been many years since the tragic events at Tienanmen Square transpired and I doubt many people in the Western hemisphere think much about it anymore. That's why I think I think A Heart for Freedom by Chai Ling is an important book to read.
"I was born at the beginning of China's Cultural Revolution. Like all Chinese children, I was taught to love my country, sacrifice my own needs, and be ready to give up my life for a greater good. We were not allowed to know God.
In 1989, I became a leader of a student hunger strike in Tienanmen Square, a peaceful movement for a better, freer, and more loving China. There I discovered the truth about the government I had been taught to love. In the early morning hours of June 4, I stood with my friends and watched in horror as the tanks rolled in. During the crackdown, thousands were wounded or killed.
I survived." (From the inside front cover)
In this fascinating account, Ling chronicles her life as the child of Army Doctors, her desire to bring honor and pride to her family through high grades and going to prestigious Peking University. She describes her shame at getting unexpectedly pregnant in college, undergoing an abortion, and working and striving still harder to prove to her parents that she was worthy of their respect.
As time went on she realized she could not follow in her parents footsteps as ardent believers in the State. She began to see serious flaws in the system. Ling gives a thorough, step by step account of the events that led up to the student protest, how she became one of China's most wanted political criminals and how she escaped and eventually moved to the United States.
One of the things that especially struck me was how hard she and the other students were working toward governmental reform in China yet because they, the students, were just as godless as the government they were protesting, there was no moral paradigm that they could hold on to. Ling vividly and honestly portrays her fellow students and herself as people seeking to work toward good but without an instruction manual.
Consequently, though they could see the big picture (i.e. government should not be oppressive) they couldn't see their own individual portraits as selfish, sinful humans that made up a part of the larger landscape.
Consequently, though they could see the big picture (i.e. government should not be oppressive) they couldn't see their own individual portraits as selfish, sinful humans that made up a part of the larger landscape.
Frankly it was depressing to read about the attempts of these students fighting against an outward system while being blind to the tyrannical inward system of their own self absorbed souls.
After coming to America, Ling graduated from Princeton and became a successful business woman. She was nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize. She married and had three children. It is interesting to note here that at first she had difficulty in getting a job because many international businesses were afraid hiring her would damage their relationship with China.
Even though Ling was now successful and free from government oppression she was still enslaved to her feelings of guilt and emptiness. What was if all for? China hadn't changed. She poignantly describes the suffering especially of women, most of whom have undergone at least one abortion due to China's enforced one child per family policy. By this time, Ling herself had had four abortions.
But something else happens that Ling was not expecting. The last chapters of the book bring Chai Ling to the end of a very long journey. She discovers the One who truly sets her free: Jesus Christ. Through fellow Chinese who had become Christians as well as other Christian friends, Chai Ling came to experience full freedom in Jesus Christ, the one who wipes away every tear and took our burden of guilt and shame upon himself when He died on the cross. She finally understood what they, the Chinese students, were doing wrong at Tienanmen Square. In the last chapter she states:
"....The Holy Spirit is working overtime in China. In 1983, when I started at Beida, people had to talk in whispers about secret gatherings in the countryside to worship God. Today, at that same university alone, more than two hundred Bible study groups meet on campus, and an official class on Jesus is offered to seven hundred students.
The Chinese government seems to recognize this spiritual hunger. They even erected a giant statue of Confucius in Tienanmen Square in January 2011. But their efforts to find something to hold the country together will inevitably be undermined by the massive amount of corruption, violence, and crime that results from the people's lack of transformative belief system." (pg. 326)
The final chapters of Ling's story describes work with All Girls Allowed, an organization that she founded. It is dedicated to “restoring life, value, and dignity to girls and mothers and revealing the injustice of China's one-child policy.” (From the inside back cover.)
I think this is an invaluable book because it brings to light that there are many injustices and violations of human rights going on in our world today. It also shows the hope we have in Jesus Christ which turns every trial to ultimate joy and meaning. I can't help but compare the outcome of Chai Ling to Ji Li Jiang's in "Red Scarf Girl."
We Americans are insulated to so much of what is happening in other countries. If you would like more information on All Girls Allowed you can go to Chai Ling's website: www.allgirlsallowed.org.
We Americans are insulated to so much of what is happening in other countries. If you would like more information on All Girls Allowed you can go to Chai Ling's website: www.allgirlsallowed.org.
I received a free copy of this book from Tyndale Publishers in exchange for my honest review.
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Review 11 for A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest
Overall Rating:
A Look At A History Whose Future Is Not Yet Known
Date:September 25, 2011
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It was the Spring of 1989 and a group of students were beginning to explore how to bring democracy to mainland China. In the midst of the protests that would define much of that Spring in Beijing, a number of students rose to positions of leadership that neither they nor their world would have expected. Chai Ling was one of those students. And A Heart for Freedom is her story.
In 1989, the events on Tiananmen Square, seemed far away. But in those days, God was shaping the heart of a young lady – not only to provide leadership to the students of China, but also to serve Him.
A Heart for Freedom provides a look at the students, the leaders, the history, that defined much of the world's attitude toward China for the last 20 plus years. We see the fear, the frustration, and the concerned that defined the student leadership of those events.
But A Heart for Freedom is more – it is also the story of a young woman growing up in a traditional Chinese home who matures as a student leader, completes her education in the United States, and starts a highly successful business. As the book ends, we find that she has also come to understand what it means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. That journey is just starting for Chai Ling, but it may be just as exciting as the first 40 years of her life. For the answer to that, we will have to wait for Part II of her memoirs.
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Review 12 for A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest
Overall Rating:
Eye opening and heart-breaking
Date:September 23, 2011
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I recently received a copy of A Heart for Freedom by Chai Ling to review. A Heart for Freedom follows the life of Chai Ling, one of the students who led a government reform movement in China, which culminated in the horrifying Tienanmen Square massacre in 1989 - the result was death for many of Ling's friends and fellow students and no government reform.
A Heart for Freedom is truly a heart-wrenching book that chronicles not only what Chai Ling has been through, but the state of China. Readers of this book will learn not only of the events that led up the massacre, but they will also be very enlightened on the horrific one-child policy and gendercide that is a reality in China today.
Chai Ling has since found hope and peace in Jesus Christ and now lives in America with her family. I pray that her book would touch at least a handful of the millions of women affected by the abortion policy of China. She has set up an organization to promote awareness and help for those interested in and affected by this terrible policy called "All Girls Allowed".
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and was not required to write a positive review.
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Review 13 for A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest
Overall Rating:
An Excellent Read
Date:September 22, 2011
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This was a book I had a hard time putting down. Chai Ling, the author of A Heart For Freedom documents her life and involvement in the Tienanmen Square movement.
I was 16 years old at the time of these happenings; half-way across the world. I was far from this incredible world disaster; both physically and mentally. I am about the same age at Chai Ling and am amazed at the strength she had to endure what she did.
Her writings in this book are clear and concise. As you read it you feel as if you are right there in the middle of the happenings. But this book is also a memoir of the horrific political and social unrest that continues in China. Chai Ling takes us through the most recent years of her life and the healing that had to take place due to the atrocities she endured.
The most exciting event that took place in Chai Ling's life is her salvation. After being raised in a typical Chinese home and embracing Buddhism, she arrived in America still full of emptiness and hurt. The Lord did some amazing things to bring her to Himself. Her story is one that will captivate you and inspire you to make a difference in the world around us.
Chai Ling, Thank you for sharing your incredible journey with us.
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Review 14 for A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest
Overall Rating:
God's Grace in a True Story
Date:September 19, 2011
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Whatever you think you know about what happened on Tiananmen Square in 1989 is incomplete until you read the words Chai Ling shares about her role as the unintentional leader of that student protest turned massacre by the Chinese government. Her story is powerful and provocative and she tells it unflinchingly – honestly giving a picture of her role, her friends, and how that summer changed everything for her.
Today, Chai Ling lives in America, but she is still working on freedom for her homeland. Although the China of today is different in many ways, the Chinese people are still oppressed. They are not free to worship openly, they are not free to live where they want, they are not free to have as many children as they want, and they are imprisoned, kept impoverished, and even executed when they do not meet the government requirements.
The amazing story of Chai Ling does not end only with her activism, but includes the magnificent story of God’s grace to her. God has shown her the breadth and width and depth and height of his love and given Chai Ling the power to tell her story, including all of the truly hard and uncomfortable and terrible pieces of it. God knows Chai Ling, just as he knows each of us, and through the tragedies and triumphs of her life, he has been revealing his providence and mercy to her, and now to all of us. He scripted the sweetness and the sadness in just such a way as to draw her to him, and to give her the opportunity to let us all share it with her.
Read this book and marvel – at the incredible dichotomy of China, at the immense love and mercy of God, and at the healing and grace that can be found in leaving your burdens at the foot of the cross.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255
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