Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden: Two Sisters Separated by China's Civil War
(W.W. Norton & Co., 2023)

Saturday, September 30
10:30 a.m.
Rollins Community Center and Lewes History Museum

About the book
This is the remarkable true story of two Chinese sisters, inseparable as children, whose lives were irrevocably disrupted when the “bamboo curtain” dropped between Communist mainland China and Nationalist Taiwan in 1949. At the end of the Chinese Civil War, Jun was on an island under Nationalist control. She became a model capitalist, founded a successful trading company, and eventually immigrated to the U.S. Her sister Hong on the mainland became a doctor and model Communist who survived two waves of “re-education” and internal exile. For decades the sisters had no contact.

About the author
Zhuqing Li is a professor of East Asia Studies at Brown University and the author of four scholarly books on Chinese linguistics. Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden is based on the lives of her two aunts.

Li will be in conversation with Ed Ruggero at the event.

Ed Ruggero is a West Point graduate and former Army officer who has written 12 books  — fiction (including two mystery novels featuring World War II military policeman Eddie Harkins); military history; and titles on leadership.

Purchase the book
Please help support local independent bookstores by purchasing this book at Browseabout Books, official bookseller of the History Book Festival. Online sources and digital versions are tempting; however, supporting local brick and mortar shops helps to preserve our vibrant main streets. Drop by Browseabout, order books online, or call the store at 302-226-2665. You also may purchase a copy at biblion in Lewes.

About the Festival
The History Book Festival is the first and only book festival in the United States devoted exclusively to history. With the help of our presenting funding partners — Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I PenFed Realty — as well as our program and community partners, volunteers, and donors, the 2023 History Book Festival will be full of great discussions with authors of newly published narrative nonfiction and historical fiction. Our Keynote Address is presented by Sally Mott Freeman and John K. Freeman, and our Closing Address is presented by Dogfish Head Beer & Benevolence.

Special thanks to our program partners for their continuing support: the Lewes Public Library for event promotion and venue; Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, official bookseller of the History Book Festival; Lewes Chamber of Commerce for event promotion, and the Cape Gazette and Delmarva Public Media, our media partners.

Additional thanks to our community partners: ACLU Delaware, Beebe Healthcare, CAMP Rehoboth, Historic Lewes Farmers Market, Lewes Historical Society, Rehoboth Art League, Rehoboth Beach Historical Society & Museum, Seaside Jewish Community, and Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice (SDARJ).