In the chaos of the closing days of World WarⅡ, a Japanese boy in China becomes separated from his fleeing family. After several misadventures, fortune turns in his favor and he is taken in by a compassionate Chinese couple and raised as their own son. Through their support and his own diligence, the boy, now known as Lu Yixin, grows up to become an engineer. But this son of two cultures is not destined to lead a normal life. Yixin is haunted by uncertainty over the fate of his younger sister. To make matters worse, he is falsely denounced as a Japanese spy and sent to a labor reform camp at the height of China’s Cultural Revolution.
Yixin’s Chinese father stands by him throughout, and manages to convince the authorities that Yixin is innocent. Fate then intervenes again as Yixin, restored to his post as engineer, meets his real father while working on a cooperative project between China and Japan, construction of the Hua Bao Steel Plant. Caught between two worlds and two families to whom he owes his life, which side will he take?
An engrossing drama that brings a human scale to sweeping historical changes and larger questions of human nature, A Son of the Good Earth is already being recognized as a classic.