Qin Sun Stubis is a Chinese-American writer, newspaper columnist, and author of the award-winning book, “Once Our Lives,” the true story of four generations of Chinese women who struggle to survive war, revolution, and the seemingly unshakeable power of an ancient Chinese superstition. The book, which has won the Nellie Bly Award for Journalistic Non-Fiction and been named a best read by Ms. Magazine and Glamour Magazine UK, takes the reader on a dramatic journey filled with real stories of luxurious banquets, lost jewels, babies sold in opium dens, kidnappings by pirates, gender oppression, and political persecution – seen through the eyes of a man for whom the truth would spell disaster and a lonely, beautiful girl with three identities.

Qin was born amidst the rubble of a Shanghai shantytown during the Great Chinese Famine, which killed some 50 million people. She was left alone in her crude bamboo crib for two years while her parents worked to scrape together a few coins each day for their daily handful of rice. Growing up, she and her sisters were at first ignored by the rest of the family for being “worthless” girls, and later shunned as political pariahs when their honest father was imprisoned for speaking out against the injustice he saw around them.

Despite extreme poverty, Qin pulled herself up by reading forbidden books and winning admission to one of China’s most prestigious universities, graduating with a degree in English and English Literature. With the help of a powerful U.S. Senator, she emigrated to the United States to further her studies and became the first foreign student ever to graduate from her university’s ...