The House Arrest of Zhang Xueliang

A personal account of living with Chinese General Zhang Xueliang during the first twenty-five years of his house arrest in China and Taiwan.

When Chinese General Zhang Xueliang kidnapped Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in the Xi'an Incident of 1931 and forced a truce between the Communists and the Nationalists to join forces to fight the Japanese, he changed the course of Chinese history. For his actions, Zhang Xueliang was placed under house arrest for fifty years, where he remained secluded from public view. Chief Special Agent Liu Yiguang of the Guomindang Intelligence Agency was charged with the day-to-day supervision of Zhang Xueliang for the first twenty-five years of that house arrest.

In this memoir, Bernard Liu shares his story of growing up as the third of six children of Liu Yiguang. Between 1936 and 1962, Zhang Xueliang lived in the Liu family compound-ten locations in ten years in mainland China and two locations in fifteen years in Taiwan. The author ate meals with Zhang Xueliang, heard his stories and jokes, played poker and card games with him, and witnessed twenty-five years of his life that were largely unknown to the public.