Aaron Avshalomov and his son Jacob Avshalomov in Portland in 1961.

Aaron Avshalomov's son, Jacob, was born in Qingdao, Shandong province, in 1919, but spent most of his childhood in Shanghai. He returned to the US with his mother in December 1937. Jacob Avshalomov studied composition and became a composer in the US.

However, his most important work was with the Portland Youth Philharmonic, which he conducted for 44 years, teaching youngsters to play like professionals. The orchestra was "for a long time the best youth orchestra in the US, maybe in the world", David Avshalomov said about his late father, who died in 2013.

Jacob Avshalomov compiled the correspondence with his father while he was in China, and wrote a family biography, Avshalomovs' Winding Way: Composers out of China — A Chronicle, published in 2008.

Friends familiar with Jacob Avshalomov's career described him as a person "speaking Chinese with standard Beijing accent" and "a pillar of the city's cultural life". The city here refers to Portland, Oregon.

"This double autobiography assembles the letters of Aaron with a narrative by Jacob to tell in their own words how two very different people overcame daunting obstacles and brought great music to appreciative audiences in China and America," reads a review by George Alderson, who used to perform in the Portland Youth Philharmonic, on Amazon.

Through music, now the family linage with China has extended to David Avshalomov, an American classical composer and conductor. This is his second visit to China. The last time was in 1982, when he visited Beijing, Xi'an, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Shanghai.