Letters in the Jade Dragon Box

Author: Gale Sears
Published: 2011
Genre: LDS Fiction
Rating: 3

Summary
Truth. In mainland China from 1949 to 1976, truth is all but eradicated--suppressed and supplanted by the iron will of Mao Tse-tung. Millions of people suffer untold anguish as their history, their culture, and their lives are brought under communist rule. Many flee to Taiwan and Hong Kong.

As a child, Chen Wen-shan was taken from her family home in mainland China and sent to live with her great-uncle — a former general in the Nationalist Chinese army who had become one of the first converts to the LDS Church in Hong Kong. For ten years, Wen-shan has carried the sorrow of abandonment in her heart, with few memories of her life before. But at the death of Chairman Mao, fifteen-year-old Wen-shan receives a mysterious wooden box that holds a series of beautiful paintings and secret letters that reveal the fate of the family she has not heard from in more than a decade.

As Wen-shan and her great-uncle read the letters in the jade dragon box, they discover an unbreakable bond between each other, their family, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Review
The historical background was intriguing, but the story line itself was flat. It feels like the author is trying to "educate" her audience about the cultural revolution--and that she created a story to further that agenda. The result is a tale that is awkward in places and characters who are not very engaging.