THE TRUE, POLITICALLY-UNCOMPROMISED STORY OF A CHINESE NATIONAL MUSICAL TREASURE

Child-prodigy Ma Sicong composed his first concerto at the age of 12. During his career, this gentle, dignified, patriotic man composed 57 of the world's best-known symphonies and concertos, and performed in front of hundreds of sold-out audiences across the globe.

His music also raised millions of dollars for China’s World War II defense against military invasion by the Germans and Japanese. Chairman Mao Zedong declared Ma Sicong "a national treasure" and nicknamed him "the King of Violins.”

A few years later, Chairman Mao's brutal Cultural Revolution distorted the truth of Ma’s music, calling it a "a vile product of bourgeois excess.“ Ma was forced to wear a dunce cap and was publicly humiliated and physically abused by cadres of Red Guards.

Despite his love of country, Ma and his family were forced to make a dangerous escape in darkness to America. Once his family was safe, he wrote an embarrassing front page story for Life Magazine, which further infuriated Mao and his minions.

After Mao died in 1976, the real events of Ma's poignant, bittersweet life were buried in the pages of history by an embarrassed Chinese government.

Eleven years later, Ma died at the age of 76 in Philadelphia.

Ten years after that, the Chinese Communist Party offered the world an olive branch by opening a Ma Sicong Museum of Musical Arts in Guangzhou.

The King of Violins, written in cooperation with Ma's remaining direct family members. The book contains over 60 rare photographs from Ma’s scrapbook of memories.