Da Chen, author of 'Colors of the Mountain,' dead at 57

Associated Press

Da Chen, the brilliant storyteller who drew from the hardships he suffered as a persecuted child growing up in the midst of China’s cultural revolution to create the critically acclaimed memoir “Colors of the Mountain,” has died at age 57.

Chen died of lung cancer on Dec. 17, his wife, Dr. Sun-Ling Chen, told The Associated Press on Tuesday from the family’s home in Temecula, California.

His most recent book, “Girl Under a Red Moon,” was published just three months ago.

Chen’s breakthrough came in 1999 with the critically acclaimed, best-selling “Colors of the Mountain,” in which he recounted the abuses he and his family suffered during the latter years of the country’s Cultural Revolution.

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It was a time when the Communist Party and its leader, Mao Zedong, were cementing their grip on power following the country’s 1949 revolution and Chen’s family, who had been prosperous landowners, became pariahs, as did many others.

Chen was bullied in school and eventually kicked out to work in farm fields as a pre-teen while his father and grandfather, college-educated intellectuals, were tortured and sent to reeducation camps.