A Year in Upper Felicity

A Year In Upper Felicity: Life in a Chinese Village During the Cultural Revolution is a book written and illustrated by journalist and author Jack Chen. Published in May 1973, the book chronicles a year spent in a rural Chinese village (Upper Felicity) during the Cultural Revolution. It was based upon the author's stay in the village during 1969-1970. A Year in Upper Felicity is not a work of fiction as the original entry erroneously stated.

The book is organized around the four seasons. It describes the day-to-day life of rural Chinese peasants, and how city dwellers (such as the author) were sent to live and work with peasants to further the supposed imminent socialist revolution that dominated Chinese politics in the 1960s.

Jack Chen has written a number of other books about life in China, including:

  • Chen, Jack (1957). New earth. Southern Illinois University Press. – "Until now, very little firsthand informa­tion about Communist China has been available in this country. Of extraordinary importance, therefore, is this story of an early collective farm in East China’s Chekiang Province in the 1949–56 period."
  • Chen, Jack (1975). Inside the cultural revolution. Macmillan. – "Here he gives a favorable recapitulation of the Cultural Revolution, written in a mixture of dry academese and Maoist jargon."
  • Chen, Jack (1990). The Chinese of America. Harper & Row. – "Examines the events that led to the Tian'anmen Square massacre, discusses religious freedom in China, and speculates on whether a Chinese democracy could survive."

Famous quotes containing the words year, upper and/or felicity:

    “We are finding out that what looked like a neglected house a year ago is in fact a ruin.”
    —Václav Havel (b. 1936)

    “When my old wife lived, upon
    This day she was both pantler, butler, cook,
    Both dame and servant, welcomed all, served all,
    Would sing her song and dance her turn, now here
    At upper end o’the table, now i’the middle,
    On his shoulder, and his, her face afire
    With labor, and the thing she took to quench it
    She would to each one sip.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “How many young hearts have revealed the fact that what they had been trained to imagine the highest earthly felicity was but the beginning of care, disappointment, and sorrow, and often led to the extremity of mental and physical suffering.”
    —Catherine E. Beecher (1800–1878)