Essay on "Bitter Winds" by Harry Wu

In the book 'Bitter Wind' Harry Wu tells us about his time while imprisoned in China, for a crime he did not commit. But he did not write the book, his collaborator, Carolyn Wakeman, was the one that wrote it. Harry Wu was dictating all the fact and his experiences to Carolyn Wakeman, which put all the information together, did all the writing. Why would Harry Wu let someone else write his autobiography? Even if his English skills were not the best, is that reason enough for not writing your something so personal as your own memoirs? And would the book been better if he wrote it self?

Harry Wu might not have been very good in English. He had spent his entire life in China and although he had learned English during his early childhood and even taught some English in China, one can presume he was not a very good writer. His writings would perhaps been grammatically correct and people would understand what he was writing about, but the way he would be writing in, might have be questionable. Living in United States only a few years, Harry Wu would not have learned all the idiomatic expressions and the deeper sense for the language native speakers have. The text would have been filled with Chinese expressions translated word for word to English making the language very mechanical. He would have stated his meanings and points understandable, but not in a very delicate way.

This would have most likely have affected how many books he would have sold. People do not spend their money on books written in 'bad' English, no matter what the content is. By letting Carolyn Wakeman do the writing Harry Wu might have believed his book would sell better. Not only because of the language,