CLAUDIA DEVAUX Bamboo Swaying in the Wind: A Survivors Story of Faith and Imprisonment in Communist China by Claudia Devaux and George Bernard Wong, S. J. See the review below to get an idea of what this book is about. All copies for sale are 1st printing (the book is now in its second printing). Copies are signed by Claudia Devaux and stamped with Father Wong's Chinese chop. A single copy is $25, additional copies shipped to the same address in a single shipment are $22. Two checks should be made out for the purchase, the first at $10 per copy make out to the 'California Jesuit Missionaries', the second make out to 'Claudia Devaux' for the remainder of the purchase amount. The check made out to the California Jesuit Missionaries should have the notation 'In memory of Father George B. Wong, S. J.'. Send both checks along with the address you want the books shipped to to: Bamboo Swaying in the Wind c/o Claudia Devaux 1019 Peach Street San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 USA REVIEW: From Catholic San Francisco September 29, 2000 Review by Maureen E. Daly associate editor in Special Projects department of the Catholic News Service Headline - 'Bamboo Swaying' belongs in unique class Book: 'Bamboo Swaying in the Wind: A Survivors Story of Faith and Imprisonment in Communist China' Loyola Press (Chicago, 2000) 214 pages $21.95 Authors: Claudia Devaux & George Bernard Wong, S. J. ISBN: 0829414584 'Bamboo Swaying in the Wind' deserves to be ranked with Thomas Merton's 'The Seven Story Mountain' and St. Theresa of the Little Flower's 'Story of a Soul' as a record of a conversion, discovery of a vocation and an account of how a religious life is lived. But it is also a prison narrative. Most of Father George Bernard Wong's vocation as a Jesuit has been lived in detention in Chinese prisons and labor camps and in restricted conditions of a released ex-convict. The Chinese government arrested Father Wong in 1955. He was 34. Chinese by birth, he had been ordained a priest in Shanghai four years before. From 1955 to 1962 he was held prisoner, without charges, often in solitary confinement. In 1962 he was finally tried and convicted as a counterrevolutionary and s supporter of a subversive organization, the Legion of Mary. He was sentenced to complete a 15-year term by serving another eight years of hard labor on a prison farm. But he would not be released even then. In all, he spent more than 25 years as a convict or forced laborer. Not until 1991, at the age of 70, was he permitted to emigrate to California. Yet his portrait today shows a man with a broad sincere smile, a "man entirely without rancor" as a friend today described him. The Chinese character for the word "laugh" is a picture of bamboo because , "It is said a person rocking with laughter looks like bamboo swaying in the wind," Father Wong writes. "Laughing makes us happy, healthy, and strong like bamboo. I am grateful that I have been strong like bamboo for these 80 years." Father Wong was the first Chinese Jesuit of the California Province. His spirituality is truly East and West, grounded in the Ignatian exercises and enriched by his Chinese heritage. His prayer life in prison included silent daily Mass (which he called "a dry Mass" without bread or wine), a daily examination of conscience, often four rosaries a day, keeping up with the seasons of the Church and occasionally completing an Ignatian retreat with four weeks of spiritual exercises. Father Wong's fellow Jesuits thought he had been too traumatized by his experiences to set them down in writing after he was permitted to emigrate. But his co-author, Claudia Devaux, has given voice to an extraordinary narrative of suffering and triumph from a little- known period. This portrait glows with Father Wong's gentle optimism, sincere faith, humble kindness. "The world needs thousands of books like this one," said the famous Chinese human rights activist Harry Wu, who also spent years on Chinese prison labor farms for thought crimes. UPDATE: As an update to the biographical information on the book dust jacket, Father Wong died at the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos, California on January 15, 2001. Claudia has left Hewlett Packard to devote her life to educational and cultural research programs and projects. See www.guligroup.com for further information including e-mail address.