Lord, Bette Bao (1938–)

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Lord, Bette Bao (1938–)

Chinese-American novelist. Born Nov 3, 1938, in Shanghai, China; dau. of Dora and Sandys Bao (British-trained engineer); grew up in New Jersey; Tufts University, BA, and Tuft's Fletcher School of Law, MA; m. Winston Lord (former ambassador to China), 1962.

At 8, came to US, when father was sent by Chinese nationalist government to purchase equipment (1946); with family, was stranded in US when Communists won civil war in China (1949); wrote of her painful childhood experiences as a Chinese immigrant in the autobiographical, The Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson (1984); also wrote Eighth Moon (1964), about her sister's escape from Communist China, followed by the bestselling Spring Moon: A Novel of China (1981), as well as Legacies: A Chinese Mosaic (1989) and The Middle Heart (1996); was chair of Freedom House; served as director of Council on Foreign Relations (1998–2003).