This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.
Gang Luo was an associate professor in a technical college in SiChuan, China before his retirement. He started his career as a political lecturer. Due to government defunding, his new job took him into the heart of industrious enterprises. Only in his early twenties, he reinvented himself and turned into a rising star among his peers at the allied state-owned enterprises and was put in charge of starting up and running the technical school.
During China’s Cultural Revolution, disheartened and disillusioned at his setback from his early success, and with a sharp decline in personal health, he took a break and returned to his birthplace but was alarmed at the disbelief of family and friends who were shocked at his ghostlike appearance and expressed their genuine concern about his state of health. There and then, he made up his mind to save himself, and went on to search for natural herbal remedies in the hope of finding a panacea for all his ills, and since then, developed his lifelong love affair with Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Now a tireless pensioner at 79 years old, blessed with unprecedented good health and an agile mind, Gang Luo frequents ballroom dance halls and karaoke clubs, enlightens his admiring audiences with his newly-found love - ballroom and Latin dancing, and willingly reveals his real age to the shock of listeners. Gregarious and outgoing, he loves meeting people, travelling, and reading, understandably, with a keen eye on all subjects related to natural medicine and TCM.
Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite
Second Chance is a nonfiction health and wellness memoir written by Gang Luo with Lee Stone as a translator and contributor. Gang Luo was born during the Second Sino-Japanese War, in 1939. The Sichuan province where he grew up was a lush and fertile mountain environment, where a variety of fruits, grains and vegetables were cultivated. Families tended their fields, brought the excess to farmers' markets and started cottage industries to help make ends meet. Gang Luo would go on to attend college at the Chong Qing Agricultural Mechanical College. The family’s well-being and health, including that of Gang Luo, was greatly impacted by the political upheavals in China that took place throughout the twentieth century, and while they always had access to medical care and medicine, their health suffered. Gang Luo had actually prepared a burial place for himself in his home village when he was still a middle-aged man. Now, thirty years later, his family loves to tease him about that plot.
Second Chance is a fascinating look at the political and historical events of the 20th century in China and the impact they had on the population, especially those who, like the author, were part of the educated class. He eloquently describes the excessive mandatory work loads and the inevitable associated stress, and he precisely catalogues the strains they put on his health and well-being -- strains that led doctors to warn him of an early death from illness. Gang Luo’s glowing health at the age of 79 is testament indeed to the efficacy of his take-charge attitude about health and wellness. His descriptions of traditional Chinese medicine and the use of both herbs and foods as medicines make for some compelling reading. Gang Luo’s decision to use the best of both Western and traditional Chinese medicines seems to have worked quite well for him. His discussions of his fitness protocols are also well worth considering for anyone interested in enhancing the quality of their life. Second Chance is most highly recommended.
