''Along the Roaring River: My Wild Ride from Mao to the Met'' (2008) is an autobiography by Hao Jiang Tian, a

Chinese-American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from m ...

opera singer Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libretti ...

for the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...

. The book was published in May 2008 by

John Wiley & Sons John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American multinational publishing company founded in 1807 that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company produces books, journals, and encyclopedias, ...

Overview

This book is the personal memoir of Hao Jiang Tian, an internationally renowned opera singer with the

. Hao Jiang Tian seemed an unlikely candidate for Western classical musical stardom. He was a wild child living on his own during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...

, forced to labor in a factory for seven years, and was nearly thrown out of a music program for wiggling his hips like Elvis in performance. This book shares his operatic tales of love, art, and survival that lead fatefully to the

, and on to the world's musical capitals, often alongside

Plácido Domingo José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French ...

and Luciano Pavarotti, where he forged the way for Asian singers in the often reluctant opera world. Born in 1954, Tian was forced to study piano by his People's Liberation Army musician parents, but won a reprieve when his piano teacher was arrested during the

. After his parents were themselves sent away and he was on his own, he taught himself to play accordion and entertained schoolmates and then his often-illiterate factory mates in the

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

Thought Propaganda Team. Just before Mao's death, he tricked his way into a voice training program, and ultimately left China during the Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign of the mid-80s, to earn a master's degree at the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...

. Not until Tian was 38 and had found his one true love did he first gain a footing in the opera world; his first job was at the Met, where he has sung every year since 1991. Inevitably the book draws the reader back to China, where Tian, now an American citizen, attempts to rescue young artists from today's gritty realities there and to understand for himself the baffling changes that have taken place since he departed. Tian, a basso cantante, is well known for his role as General Wang in the ''

First Emperor Qin Shi Huang (, ; 259–210 BC) was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of a unified China. Rather than maintain the title of "king" ( ''wáng'') borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he ruled as the First Emperor ...

'', which premiered at The Met in December 2006, opposite

, and for the role of Chang the Coffin Maker in the opera '' The Bonesetter's Daughter'' which premiered at the

San Francisco Opera San Francisco Opera (SFO) is an American opera company founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola (1881–1953) based in San Francisco, California. History Gaetano Merola (1923–1953) Merola's road to prominence in the Bay Area began in 1906 when h ...

in September 2008.

References

Official Website Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Along The Roaring River 2008 non-fiction books American memoirs Chinese memoirs Books about opera