Zvia Bowman’s In the Shadow of Revolutions

Posted: November 10th, 2026 | No Comments »

Zvia Bowman has published her amazing family memoir – In the Shadow of Revolutions: My Jewish-Chinese Family Saga (Resource Publications).

“A remarkable family memoir that brings to life the great upheavals of twentieth-century China–from the Russian and Chinese Revolutions to the Second World War and Mao’s extraordinary political campaigns. To have experienced such chaos and upheaval at close quarters, as eyewitnesses, is both extraordinary and deeply illuminating.”

Paul French, author of Midnight in Peking

In 1917, Zvia Bowman’s paternal grandparents fled the Bolshevik Revolution, escaping from Odessa on the Black Sea to Harbin in Manchuria. Their son, Isaac, grew up between Jewish and Catholic traditions before establishing a successful business in Beijing. During the Japanese occupation of China, he met Dr. Bowman’s Chinese mother, from a westernized Christian family from Hong Kong. In 1945, both were imprisoned by the Japanese and released only days before Japan’s surrender.

After the Communist victory in 1949, the family faced renewed persecution and uncertainty. Zvia Bowman recounts her childhood in Beijing as China was transformed by revolution, culminating in their dangerous escape during the Cultural Revolution in 1967. Set against the backdrop of revolution, war, occupation, and political upheaval, In the Shadow of Revolutions is a rich, deeply personal story of love, loss, identity, and the resilience of a family that refused to be broken by the forces of history.

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