Overview

The staggering story of the most influential Chinese political dissident of the Mao era, a devout Christian who was imprisoned, tortured, and executed by the regime BLOOD LETTERS tells the astonishing tale of Lin Zhao, a Chinese poet and journalist arrested by the regime in 1960 and executed eight years later, at the height of the Cultural Revolution. Alone among the victims of Mao's dictatorship, she maintained a stubborn and open opposition during the years she was imprisoned. She rooted her dissent in her Christian faith--and expressed it in long, prophetic writings done in her own blood, and at times on her clothes and on cloth torn from her bedsheets. Miraculously, Lin Zhao's prison writings survived, though they have only recently come to light. Drawing on these works and others from the years before her arrest, as well as interviews with friends, family, and classmates, Lian Xi paints an indelible portrait of courage and faith in the face of unrelenting evil.

Full Product Details

9781541644236

Table of Contents

Reviews

Blood Letters, carefully researched and timely, reveals the trajectory of a privileged girl who went from Christian to communist comrade to a Christian resister whose crime was being an 'impenitent counterrevolutionary.' Even told poorly, this would be a remarkable story. Xi tells it in memorable fashion. --Christian Century A moving account of astonishing human courage in the leering face of human cruelty. --Kirkus Reviews Blood Letters is an unsparing, meticulously researched, moving but unsentimental look at a complex and heroic figure. Without shying away from the realities of Lin Zhao's personal flaws and inner torment, Lian Xi's work also recognizes her important legacy, making it widely accessible for the first time to an English-speaking audience... an important-even vital-book. --Christianity Today [Lin Zhao's] story is grippingly related... her fate was inevitable: death by a firing squad. But thanks to scholar Lian Xi, her words survive. --Washington Times Blood Letters tells the story of Lin Zhao's martyrdom with the elegance her life demands.... Lian Xi's book will surely become a classic not only as we come to understand the struggle of Christians in China but also for how the story he tells helps us understand China. --Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law at Duke University A few courageous Chinese dissidents--Wei Jingsheng, Liu Binyan, Fang Lizhi, Liu Xiaobo, and others--have become known to the world. Their actions and their stories were able to emerge once Mao Zedong was gone. Others, who fought back while Mao was still alive, received bullets in the back of the head and immaculate erasure of their stories. They included Lin Zhao, Yu Luoke, Zhang Zhixin, and uncountable others whose names we do not know. Blood Letters, the rescued story of Lin Zhao, shows us an indomitable woman who was both a martyr and true pioneer. --Perry Link, author of Liu Xiaobo's Empty Chair: Chronicling the Reform Movement Beijing Fears Most This book deeply moved me: it is the story of the most harrowing and heroic martyrdom in the history of faith in modern China. Lian Xi's work of witness is groundbreaking.--Liao Yiwu, exiled writer and author of God Is Red, The Corpse Walker, and For a Song and a Hundred Songs Blood Letters is a genuinely exciting book. Lian Xi sheds a whole new light on an extraordinarily important Christian figure (and martyr) who has hitherto been utterly unknown outside a narrow band of specialists.... A masterpiece. --Philip Jenkins, author of Crucible of Faith: The Ancient Revolution That Made Our Modern Religious World China's achievements and failures are usually celebrated or condemned on the mass scale. The vivid individuality of the men and women who have fought bravely to change their nation can fade from view. Blood Letters is the most powerful antidote to that amnesia. Lin Zhao's story, nearly erased or forgotten, will live as an example of civic and personal courage to inspire people in her country and elsewhere. --James Fallows, Atlantic Lin Zhao is a great hero of the faith, a brilliant and courageous figure no less than Bonhoeffer and Solzhenitsyn, willing to give her life for the truth of God. May a thousand flowers like Lin Zhao bloom in the China of today! --Eric Metaxas, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Bonhoeffer, If You Can Keep It, and Martin Luther

Blood Letters is a genuinely exciting book. Lian Xi sheds a whole new light on an extraordinarily important Christian figure (and martyr) who has hitherto been utterly unknown outside a narrow band of specialists. Beyond writing an enthralling account of the story of this heroic woman, the author provides a rich historical and international context, and he thoroughly justifies the daring analogy he draws between Lin Zhao and legendary figures like Dietrich Bonhoeffer. A masterpiece. --Philip Jenkins, author of Crucible of Faith: The Ancient Revolution That Made Our Modern Religious World Anyone believing leftist political ideologies can be reconciled with Christian faith may read this extraordinary and searing book as a cautionary tale. Lin Zhao is a great hero of the faith, a brilliant and courageous figure no less than Bonhoeffer and Solzhenitsyn, willing to give her life for the truth of God. May a thousand flowers like Lin Zhao bloom in the China of today! --- Eric Metaxas, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Bonhoeffer, If You Can Keep It, and Martin Luther China's achievements and failures are usually celebrated or condemned on the mass scale. The vivid individuality of the men and women who have fought bravely to change their nation can fade from view. Blood Letters is the most powerful antidote to that amnesia. Lin Zhao's story, nearly erased or forgotten, will live as an example of civic and personal courage to inspire people in her country and elsewhere. Lian Xi's narrative also shows how intertwined Chinese people's aspirations for liberty have been with ideals from around the world. ---James Fallows, The Atlantic Blood Letters tells the story of Lin Zhao's martyrdom with the elegance her life demands. Those that tortured her could not prevent the beauty of her life and poetry from testifying to her faith in God. We are in Lian Xi's debt for making Lin Zhao's life and witness available to Christians in the West like myself because we can barely imagine from where a life like that of Lin Zhao comes. Lian Xi's book will surely become a classic not only as we come to understand the struggle of Christians in China but also for how the story he tells helps us understand China. --Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T Rowe emeritus of Theological Ethics in Duke Divinity School

Blood Letters tells the story of Lin Zhao's martyrdom with the elegance her life demands. Those that tortured her could not prevent the beauty of her life and poetry from testifying to her faith in God. We are in Lian Xi's debt for making Lin Zhao's life and witness available to Christians in the West like myself because we can barely imagine from where a life like that of Lin Zhao comes. Lian Xi's book will surely become a classic not only as we come to understand the struggle of Christians in China but also for how the story he tells helps us understand China. --Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T Rowe emeritus of Theological Ethics in Duke Divinity School Blood Letters is a genuinely exciting book. Lian Xi sheds a whole new light on an extraordinarily important Christian leader (and martyr) who has hitherto been utterly unknown outside a narrow band of specialists. Beyond writing an enthralling account of the story of this heroic woman, the author provides a rich historical and international context, and he thoroughly justifies the daring analogy he draws between Lin Zhao and legendary figures like Dietrich Bonhoeffer. A masterpiece. --Philip Jenkins, author of Crucible of Faith: The Ancient Revolution That Made Our Modern Religious World

Author Information

Lian Xi is a professor of world Christianity at Duke Divinity School. The author Redeemed by Fire and The Conversion of Missionaries, he lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available