Opening China's Bamboo Curtain (Paperback) | Released: 30 Jun 2020

This book is much more than a memoir of my Dad who was one of the first ordinary American citizens to enter Red China after Mao opened the bamboo curtain in 1972. More than one third of the book is devoted to all aspects of China from its early beginnings to the worldwide pandemic that started in China in 2019.Dad's grew up on a small truck farm in Indiana and was told that he would never amount to anything after his father died at the age of 15. He went from a one room schoolhouse in the early 1900s to graduating from Purdue University with a Bachelor's Degree in mechanical engineering just before the stock market crash of 1929. After his father died, he was totally responsible for bringing in the cash crop of onions until he got a job for year upon graduating from high school to pay for his first year of college. This early responsibility affected him for the rest of his life. After a great deal of struggle and hardship, he made it through college in six years. He joined the ROTC, the Army Reserves and served in the 95th Infantry Division throughout World War II, but did not see combat for the reasons set forth in this book. He was able to survive the depression by being very economically conservative. After graduation, Chicago's Commonwealth Edison was his only employer except for the United States Army. He started as a trainee going from job to job until he was assigned to an electrical generating power plant. During the depths of the depression, he was demoted to working as an operator in a power plant for three years. In the middle of this period, he got married to my mother and they had me as their first child in 1935. Dad did not feel secure in his job so he entered the University of Chicago and obtained a Master's Degree in education with the goal of becoming a teacher in case the engineering career did not last. When the economy began to improve, he got his old job back as a mechanical engineer. Parts of this book are based on his autobiography he wrote in 1970s, which were distributed to relatives. I edited his autobiography and had it self-published under two titles: Captain Richard Dannells 95th Infantry Division World War II and My Nostalgic Life. This memoir contains intimate details of his frustrating experiences during World War II based on the meticulous records he kept while in the Army. The book includes photos he took during the 1920s and 1930s of his ROTC and Army Reserves' encampments. He was a man who really loved his wife, two sons and a daughter. He also loved traveling and camping with his family throughout the United States in many of the national and state parks. The high point of his life was traveling to Red China in 1974 after Pres. Nixon established relations with China. He was an avid stamp collector. He spent most of his retirement in Tucson, Arizona, where he volunteered as an archaeological assistant on University of Tucson digs, the treasurer of the local Indian tribe, and took part in many other civic activities. This book spans a time when he first saw Haley's Comet in 1910 and then again in 1995. This book will be of interest to those who ever struggled to get a college education, served in the military, and are interested in early American history. It will also be of interest to anyone who would like to learn more about China.