Memoirs of a Chinese Dream follows the struggles of Han-sheng over the course of his life. Japan's bombing of Hainan turned his family into refugees to Mainland China. There, he was twice captured by the Japanese, lost members of his family, and ultimately became a child soldier in the Chinese warlord army. After the Sino-Japanese war, Lin followed his brother and the Nationalist army to Taiwan. Soon after, he immigrated to the US to pursue his academic studies. In the US he studied and experienced the contrast between the civil rights struggles in the American South and the Eastern establishment. Lin became a professor, eventually playing an active role in the normalization of relations between the US and China. At times poignant and heartbreaking, his story is one of endurance, struggle and an extraordinary journey through life.