Dreams of Joy by Lisa See

Joy, daughter of May Chin, raised by her aunt Pearl Chin, is 17 and sure she knows what she is doing when she runs away from her safe home in California to travel to China. Seeking her birth father and determined to to help with China's reconstruction, she is oblivious to the dangers in the Communist regime. Giving up her passport upon entering Shanghai, Joy has romanticized life in the country with the peasants, and for a while things are going pretty well. Pearl, concerned for Joy, travels to Shanghai, and tries to persuade her to come home. Needless to say, things just get worse. Lee has done a great job of researching the history of this period in China and the story she weaves keeps the reader spell-bound and anxious for Joy. A very good read.