The Extra Bite: Four Generations from Shanghai to California

By Cynthia Liu

One family. Four generations. A century of history.

In 1945, Ji Ronggui went to work for the United Nations relief agency in Shanghai, helping resettle Jewish refugees. Paid in U.S. dollars, he gave his family a comfortable life: an apartment near West Nanjing Road, two cars, and a piano.

Twenty years later, Red Guards called him a foreign spy. They raided his home three times and took everything except one bed. He spent eight years starving in Tilanqiao Prison while his wife survived by saying nothing at all. When he came home, he left his family one rule: leave, because only abroad can you truly be safe.

His granddaughter flew to Ohio in 1998. His great-granddaughter, a California high school student, recorded the family's story for a world history project.

Illustrated with more than forty family photographs and the author's own drawings, The Extra Bite is a short, true story about what history takes from a family, and what the family keeps.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HNSG4JXB
• ISBN13: 9798163610716
• Release Date: October 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 60 Pages
• Weight: 0.21 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"