Abstract: Ye Duzhuang’ memoir follows his family from the Republican period to the Cultural Revolution. The author sets the narrator’s story against the context of family and other general relationships and processes awareness of self through relative narrations. Drawing on family stories and personal experience, the author provides an intimate glimpse into social transformation of the nation. Family memoir records historical events in personal lives and also promotes a critical interpretation of history.

Key Words: Family memoir; relative narrative; history

Shen Chen is a Ph.D student in School of Humanities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.