Review: Under Red Skies by Karoline Kan

I have been reading a lot of memoirs and stories told over several generations recently, and they all happen to take place in Asia, as I try to branch out beyond American and European authors. Some favorites include The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai (that I read with The FBC Paris), Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (that I read with The Immigrant Book Club), and finally Under Red Skies by Karoline Kan. 

In an effort to expand my reading scope beyond where I was born and where I’m now living, I have discovered that the female experience is a lot more similar than you would think. Across countries and continents and borders and oceans, women feel, wonder, think, experience, regret, worry, and are faced with issues that feel all too familiar. Under Red Skies, told across three generations in China, touches on this (among other things), which is comforting and disheartening all at once. 

Before I jump into all of that feminist goodness, I’ll share a bit more about Under Red Skies and author Karoline Kan. I’ll be honest - this is the first book I’ve read with a Chinese narrator that takes place in China. I did read Mona in the promised land by Gish Jen (another great read) a few years ago - but that book focused much more on the Chinese diaspora in the United States. 

I’ve been looking to read something about the millennial experience in China for a while now. Under Red Skies does that - and more. The first hundred pages or so does an excellent job at setting the scene - filling in the reader on important events that help put the main character, the author Karoline, and her family’s experience into perspective. 

The story begins with Kan’s grandmother, who survived the Great Famine in China which forced people to eat grass and bark. We move onto Kan’s great-uncle, who was forced to be a Red Guard for the Communist Party and saw unthinkable things. Finally, Kan introduces her mother, who ignored the famous One-Child Policy so that she could have Kan. The reader is taken through the family history while also learning more about the political and social climate in China as the years go on. 

Kan takes the reader by the hand as she shows us her family history. We are also introduced to the concept of the Chinese hukou - a system designed to keep internal migration “under control.” In other words, to keep people who grew up in rural villages out of towns and cities like Beijing. The hukou system is extremely limiting for those who want to get better-paying jobs, send their children to better schools, and get themselves out of poverty. 

Kan’s parents beat the odds and moved from their small village to a larger town, although it meant distancing themselves from their family. They also had to deal with the judgment and criticism that came with striving for a better life for their children. 

The second half of the book is truly dedicated to Kan’s personal journey. Here is where the reader truly understands just how quickly China has evolved and shifted over the past twenty or so years. It is a country where traditions are valued and yet also rejected (the Communist Party believed that certain Chinese traditions are bourgeois and got rid of them). It is a country that has advanced quickly and yet has stayed stagnant. One of the more powerful lines in the book appears on page 116:

“As I then understood it, the government was the only judge of right or wrong. As a Chinese person, my individuality and beliefs did not matter, and I would always lose in any fight with the government...My generation had more in common with my parents than I thought. It was evident to me that, although our dictator Mao has been dead for decades, China was far from being a free country.”

There are several moments throughout the book where this juxtaposition - the modern, global power China vs. the restricted, archaic China that controls nearly every movement of its people - is presented in a poignant and heartwrenching way. Kan tells us that nearly every young Chinese person dreamed of leaving the country and moving abroad, something that the reader can clearly understand.

There are also several points in which Kan speaks specifically on the female experience in China over the past few decades, whether through her grandmother, mother, cousin, or herself. These moments were my favorite in the book. Kan had so much more opportunity than her elders and yet not as much opportunity as should have been granted to her. This is another reminder of why feminism is still so important - no matter how much progress we’ve made over the past 40-50 years.

Without going too much into Karoline Kan’s story, this is what you can expect when you read Under Red Skies. Kan wrote the book in English - impressive as English is not her first language. I’m always fascinated by writers who write entire books in their learned tongue, most likely because I speak two languages myself and struggle to imagine myself writing a novel in French.

If you’re looking to understand the female millennial experience in China, Under Red Skies is your best bet. 

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