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The Red Piano

Where in the world are pianos and pianists criminal?…in 1966 during the Cultural Revolution started by Chinese leader Mao Tsetung.  The Red Piano was inspired by the incredible true story of the international concert pianist, Zhu Xiao-Mei.  Art, literature, music, were out…hard manual labor in the fields, and the studying of Chairman Mao’s sayings and commands found in his “Little Red Book”…was in.  Zhu Xiao-Mei spent nearly ten years in a dismal “re-education” camp.  Before entering the camp, she was a gifted child pianist playing concerts on Beijing radio.  Her mother, sent to Beijing for illness, managed to smuggle a piano into her daughter’s neighboring village, where she sneaks out each night for practice.  Of course, she is discovered and publicly shamed…her beloved piano cut up for firewood.  Eventually Mao dies and the camp is emptied.  She is the last person to leave.  What a powerful human rights story told in a sparse, succinct styled prose.  Also, appropriate to the pervasive bleakness of the situation, the illustrator did an outstanding job using black and grey watercolor illustrations punctuated by only one color…red.