Cartoonist Emi Burell‘s forthcoming graphic novel, We Served The People: My Mother’s Stories, features stories of China’s decade-long Cultural Revolution, as told by someone who lived through it: Burell’s mother, Yuan Ye Ping. The stories are told via a combination of sequential art, text pages, and photographs from Burell’s mother’s childhood, and are framed as a mother recounting stories of her past to her young children.
Here’s how publisher BOOM! Studios describes We Served The People:
In China, an entire generation’s most formative years took place in remote rural areas when city kids were sent to the countryside to become rusticated youth and partake in Mao’s mandated Great Leap Forward. Emei’s mother, Yuan Ye Ping, recounts how she ended up as one of the few truck-driving women during the Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside Movement, which sought to increase agricultural outreach and spur social and ideological change amongst youth.
The Beat has already been fortunate enough to present an early look at the first story in the book; now we’re proud to present an exclusive look at another tale from the release. Burell’s mother’s story is one of perseverance and the desire for more in the face of completely uncontrollable circumstances, and Burell tells it beautifully.
Check out the exclusive preview for We Served The People: My Mother’s Stories below. Published under BOOM! Studios’ Archaia imprint, the graphic novel goes on sale in comic shops on Wednesday, April 22nd, with a wide release the following Tuesday, April 28th.
