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In 1973, twelve-year-old Karen Boutilier was invited by Shirley MacLaine to become the youngest member of the First American Women’s Friendship Delegation to China. The delegation consisted of eleven women, a four-woman film crew and Karen. The resulting Oscar nominated documentary, “The Other Half of the Sky: a China Memoir” aired in 1975. This extraordinary life altering experience was preceded by a most unusual childhood.
She lived, breathed, and experienced history in a way that exposed her to amazing, fascinating, and sometimes frightening situations. She was a preacher’s kid raised during the sixties. But, her father was not the stereotypical minister.
While other kids drew in coloring books, she made picket signs. While other kids played with dolls, she took care of her brothers and sister. While other kids reveled in the innocence of childhood, she obsessively worried about the social and political problems of the day.
Karen had grown up living in communal strike houses, walking United Farm Worker picket lines, working on political campaigns, surviving the violence of Washington, D.C. and the Poor People’s Campaign, as well as attending marches and protest rallies for civil rights and the anti-war movement all before the age of twelve.
The stories in Berkeley to Beijing will lead you on an amazing journey through a remarkable and exciting childhood.
Shirley MacLaine, Terry & Karen share their books in Santa Fe.
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