From law and order to sports and celebrities, They Said That! provides an entertaining look at "the wit and wisdom of modern celebrity culture." Engelmann's compilation of verbal slips and and insights from people like Dennis Rodman, Shirley Maclaine, Madonna, Monica Lewinsky, Bill Gates, Wayne Gretzky, and President Clinton will amuse and entertain you. Carefully researched and meticuloulsy organized, They Said That! is a pop-culture reference book and chronicle of our times. Guaranteed to make you laugh and ponder the absurdity of today's superstars.

A hilarious laugh riot, They Said That! exposes celebrities who choose to speak when their publicists aren't around to help them.

Could Carmen Electra be any dumber? Yes! With pages upon pages devoted to the verbally challenged who make up Hollywood's elite (in addition to dozens of atheletes, politicians, etc), They Said That! is sure to amuse. I recommend this book to all lovers of popculture.

Engelmann's They Said That! includes insights and verbal slips that will incite a "laughfest." This is a hilarious compilation that sheds light on more than two thousand celebrities. I highly recommend this book. They Said That! is a refreshing reference of pop-culture...a comical treasure of our times.

This is a somewhat tedious book that does not really break any new ground in its descripion of people's experiences with the events surrounding the fall of South Vietnam. The tediousness in the book comes from the fact that there is so much similarity in the experiences related: South Vietnam was worth fighting for, America let us down, it was hard to get out of Saigon, Thai pirates preyed on boat people, Americans who'd shed sweat or blood in Vietnam were terribly disappointed with how things turned out, etc. I would have appreciated some more diversity in people's experience (as Studs Terkel did in "The Good War" where we read not only about 18 year old combat soldiers, but also WW II draft dodgers, etc.). I also found myself getting weary of reading that America let the South Vietnamese down. ...

I've read a fair amount about Vietnam (Fire In the Lake, Karnow's Vietnam, Chickenhawk, etc.), all definitely worth reading, but this book ... the many stories and experiences, is the most memorable. It's rare to find a singular event remembered and retold from so many different perspectives. Well balanced and presented.

I shed many tears while reading this beautifully written collection of stories about the fall of Saigon. They are stories of tragedy inflicted by human beings upon each other. They are stories of human spirits surviving, triumphing over the most horrible situations. You will never be able to forget the people, the stories once you read the book. I highly recommend it.

The subtitle may cause confusion. Many readers have complained about this book not being a love story the title claims. Reviewers question Xu Meihong's motive in marrying Professor Larry Engelmann. "She loves him, or does she?" Comments like this flood the reviews. Love and romance aside, *Daughter of China* tells of all the oppressive, threatening, secretive, manipulative practices of the Communist Party. Much of what happened to Meihong and her family, as she has noted, is what foreigners don't see and beyond their imagination. "It doesn't mean it's not there just because you don't see it."

Xu Meihong grew up during the upheaval of the Proletarian Cultural Revolution and was admitted into the PLA (People's Liberation Army) at the age of 17. Selected as one of the 12 Pandas, she was among the country's sharpest women matriculated at the Institute of Interational Relations in Nanjing. She became a member of the elite intelligence corps and was told to spy on visiting American professor Larry Engelmann. As Meihong got to know the professor, she realized "this man has nothing to do with breaching Chinese national security" and Meihong's old loyalties to the Red party began to shake. She started to "have compunction" for Larry and tried to protect him from being pursued or possibly arrested by the Chinese government. When their friendship was discovered, Meihong was arrested, beaten, interrogated, and imprisoned by PLA Colonel. She decided that she would not sacrifice Larry in exchange for her own life. When told to sign a forged petition that falsely accused Larry of raping her, Meihong firmly took her ground and refused. Professor Engelmann was asked to leave the country. Upon expulsion from the Institute and thus the PLA, Xu Meihong was sent back to her village in Lishi in Jiangsu province. She was forevered marked by the government and that "there will never be a normal life for her in China again." Her dossier will forever her everywhere she settles down.

This book is stunning in the way how Meihong Xu has disclosed some of the darkest PLA practices. She recalled the warning given to all incoming cadets about keeping everything confidential: the Institute's location, phone number, contents of the courses, modes of training, etc. Yet in this book she has gone through even the details of their rifle practice, how the cadets were required to work the AK-47 blindfolded because enemies could spew an attack at night. She talks about her interrogation by PLA colonel in gory details. "The truth, is what [the PLA colonel] say it is. It is not for you to decide or to judge." Therefore, if one proclaims innocence upon his arrest, it will only compound the seriousness of one's wrongdoing.

The book also depicts power struggle wintin the Communist Party. The country finds itself at a point where the old conservatives, those who disfavor party reforms, conflict with the younger party reformists. When Meihong was arrested for her association with a foreigner (which affects national security as the PLA claims), the colonel wanted desperately to use her and her relationship with Larry to unmask, discredit and purge a clique of PLA officers who had been working quietly for broad reforms in the military.

If Anchee Min's *Red Azalea* has been a joltingly honest account of life under Mao China, *Daughter of China* is an extraordinary tale of how a PLA officer with a bright, promising future battles turns herself into an enemy of the PLA and battles for her love and freedom. Meihong had seen firsthand how the Party and the PLA used deception and lies to confound its own and to turn friend against friend and lover against lover, even family member against family member. In a sense, *Daughter of China* is more realistic than *Red Azalea*. The tales about Meihong's aunt Lingdi being purged, her mother working far northeast during the famine to support the family, her great-grandfather being dropped in boiling oil again testify to the austere, oppressed lives of common people under Mao China. 4.3 stars.

Last week on a trip to Belgium I started to read a Tom Clancy book. I ventured into an English bookstore in Brussels and stumbled upon "Daughter of China." Being an American man recently married to a Chinese woman, I couldn't resist this read. Haven't been back to finish the Clancy book yet - this one was far more interesting and suspenseful.

I found this a great account of Chinese culture as it truly contrasts with western culture - things I've learned through my own relationship. The accounts of pervasive curruption and political power plays for self-interest were amazing, and probably generally true. The way people were thrown off their land and left with nothing but to suffer during the early days of Mao Communism were fascinating.

Unfortunately, I couldn't help but question Meihong's sincerety in her relationship with Larry. I think she must have used him to get to America. This feeling brings into question the truth of her account throughout. I also pity "The General." If still alive, this book can't be doing this interesting character any good. Meihong and Larry are obviously two very complex people. I find it hard to believe Larry, a traveled, well read and previously divorced man is really so naive. All of these thoughts have given me days of pondering, so I have to say this is the best book I've read in a long time. I'd like to meet both of the authors and share experiences.

DAUGHTER OF CHINA is a riveting cross between a John Le Carre thriller and a Danielle Steel romance. It is the true story of a forbidden love affair between a beautiful young People's Liberation Army lieutenant and a visiting American professor, the brutal attempt of the Chinese authorities to discredit the lovers and destroy their dreams, and their courageous and incredible struggle to escape from their communist tormentors and reunite in America.

Seventeen-year-old peasant Meihong Xu, a dedicated "true Believer" in China and the Communist Party, is selected to be one of the first twelve women cadets admitted to the People's Liberation Army Institute for International Relations where the PLA elite intelligence officers are trained.

"The Twelve Pandas" graduate from the Institute in 1985 and Meihong is assigned to work for the Institute's commanding general, one of the most influential senior officers in the PLA.

In 1988, the General orders Meihong to enroll in the Center for Chinese and American Studies, a joint venture of Nanjing University and the Johns Hopkins University, to study American culture and language from American instructors and to observe the American students enrolled at the Center as a training exercise preliminary to assignment in the United States.

Larry Engelmann is a respected American history professor at San Jose State University with a special interest in Asia when he is recruited to teach in China for two years. He is writing a book about Vietnam, is gathering material for another book about Cambodian boat people, is anxious to learn Chinese and understand Chinese culture so he jumps at this once in a lifetime opportunity.

Meihong enrolls in two of his classes and they are immediately attracted to each other. Engelmann knows nothing about his student's position in the PLA. He is attracted to her intellectual curiosity and what he perceives to be a "great old soul" in an adorable container.

Meihong is attracted to her teacher's openness, extraordinary kindness and generosity and childlike awe at the wonderful "ordinary" people he never tires of questioning through his guide, interpreter and kindred spirit.

Then one fateful evening a few days before her twenty-fifth birthday, Meihong Xu is extracted from the Center and taken to a military installation where she is incarcerated under deplorable conditions and is charged with espionage and made to fear she will be executed at any moment.

She is interrogated for over two months. Her captors want her to confess to being part of a great conspiracy involving Larry Engelmann, her dearest friend in the PLA and her commanding general. "It became clear that [the Colonel] imagined a nefarious U.S.-Nanjing-Beijing-Shanghai intelligence conspiracy and [Meihong] was in some way central to communication between the various conspirators."

Unable to force a confession from her, Meihong is eventually released, discharged from the PLA and sent back to her village in disgrace. Engelmann is expelled from China as a criminal and spy and neither of the lovers is informed of the fate of the other.

Engelmann leaves no stone unturned in Washington, Beijing or Nanjing and finally finds Meihong. They plot a brilliant coup beating the communist bureaucrats at their own game. They arrange to marry in China under the very noses of those who had attempted to destroy them. Applying political pressure from Washington, Engelmann arranges to have his bride join him in America.

Engelmann is a gifted writer whose wit, romanticism and humanity infuse the narrative like a magic elixir. I could not put this book down. It is a wonderful read.

It should be required reading for all those naive free traders that believe China is changing because of American "engagement" and that human rights violations are a thing of the past. Wang Wei is the right way in China and will always be as long as the communists run the country.