Growing Up Under a Red Flag
A stirring and magnificently illustrated picture-book memoir of the author’s childhood during the Chinese Cultural Revolution

Ying Chang Compestine was a young girl in 1966 when Mao launched his Cultural Revolution to reclaim power and eliminate non-communist values in the country. His army began punishing and arresting people who didn’t agree with him, foreign reading material was banned, and children were all required to dress in uniform and carry the Little Red Book of Mao’s teachings. It was a time of fear, mayhem, and scarcity that lasted until Mao’s death ten years later, when Ying was thirteen. Through those ten harrowing years, Ying’s parents found ways to secretly educate her and allow her dreams of visiting America to stay vibrant. Now she brings her childhood story and China’s history to life in this absorbing and beautiful picture book.
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Book Trailer

Kirkus Review's FullyBooked Interview
Best Picture Book 


​Praise for Growing Up Under a Red Flag

★"A fascinating memoir of living during a tumultuous time...matched with rich illustrations and will engage readers...Strong first buy."
— School Library Journal
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★"Illustrating events in an appropriately Socialist Realist style, Liu depicts human figures standing and gesturing in broad, dramatic poses, with exaggerated expressions of fear or fervor to reflect the tenor of the moment, against backgrounds marked with revolutionary posters and other exactly drawn details. An intense and account of life in an authoritarian regime, relevant to our times."
— Booklist

★ "Debut illustrator Xinmei Liu gives the ink and digitally colored artwork the feel of vintage Chinese art and design, strengthening an already gripping historical narrative."
—  Publisher’s Weekly

2024 Gold Standard Selection by the Junior Library Guild​

"...draws readers...into the vortex of suspicion..."
— The Wall Street Journal

“The author uses simple, clear language to make complex political ideas more accessible to young audiences. Liu’s artwork helps add depth with nuanced facial expressions, thoughtful details, and eye-catching visual compositions. The vibrant palette and the style of the illustrations are fittingly reminiscent of vintage Chinese propaganda posters. A vivid glimpse into a childhood under communist rule."
— ​Kirkus Reviews


Featured article with The Mercury News

Stage your own play!

Students can produce their own play with this Reader's Theater script from CYRM.
revolution_readers_theater.pdf
File Size: 336 kb
File Type: pdf
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Find more classroom resources at TeachingBooks.net.

Resource Guide

Teachers can use this resource guide from California Young Reader's Medal to help teach Revolution.
pdfresizer.com-pdf-resize__1_.pdf
File Size: 425 kb
File Type: pdf
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Find more classroom resources at TeachingBooks.net.

Teacher Notes from Amnesty International

Teachers can use this guide from Amnesty International UK to help classrooms learns about human rights.
Revolution Amnesty International
File Size: 576 kb
File Type: pdf
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Find more classroom resources at TeachingBooks.net.

A Conversation with Ying

This book is based on your childhood in Wuhan, China, during the 1960s and 70s. Is Ling in many ways a fair representation of you growing up? What are some of the similarities and differences?

Ling’s childhood experiences are similar to my own. I was about Ling’s age when my family got caught up in the events of the Cultural Revolution. Ling’s personality is a lot like mine. Many of her emotions and reactions to events draw on my own experiences during the Cultural Revolution, and her way of thinking reflects the way I saw the world as a child. For this reason, developing Ling’s character was the easiest part of writing this book. I was a little spoiled, but I also had a fighting spirit. And like Ling, I yearned for freedom and dreamed about going to America.

Click here to read more.
Follow Ying on social media!