1 comments about Letters Between Two: Correspondence Between Lu Xun and Xu Guangping.

1. One of modern China's most moving love stories can be read between the lines of Letters Between Two, the correspondence between Lu Xun, China's greatest modern writer, and Xu Guangping, who lived with him from 1927 to the end of his life in 1936. Dating from 1925 to 1929, the letters were editied by Lu Xun and first published in 1933. Readers can trace in them the gradual change in their relationship: from student and teacher, they became lovers uncertain of their future together, and then a couple expecting their first child. The letter also reveal their thoughts on literature, education, politics and their outlook on life. -- from book's back cover

5 comments about TEA THAT BURNS: A Family Memoir of Chinatown.

1. Tea That Burns was an unexpected pleasure to read. Not only is the writing fresh and engrossing, but the overall account of his family history back several generations is fascinating and rings of authencity. I have read numerous interesting Chinese-American memoirs, and what makes this one especially unique, is the ability of the author to connect the events occurring in U. S. History with concurrent events in China's history. This interweaving informs the reader in ways that are absent when the China context is not provided.
   As a second generation Chinese whose father was a paper son, and whose parents had an arranged marriage, I already knew many of the factual aspects of the book. However, I never could entirely understand the 'process' underlying the facts until I read Tea That Burns. The author filled in many of these gaps with his eye for detail. The documentation at the back of the book reveals that the author knows his Chinese immigration history thoroughly, but fortunately he does not bog the reader down by inserting an abundance of citations within the body of the text.
   I felt invigorated and refreshed after reading this excellent book.



2. Yes, it is a great book! I finish in one afternoon. I couldn't down the book once I started reading.... Mr. Hall provides a very rich history of the Chinatown in New York City during the mid-1800s period. He is succeeded to "enable the reader to smell history." In the book, Mr. Hall describes his father "denied" his identity of Chinese which shows the typical dilemma of the new generation of Chinese immigrants in the United States. However, I was "confused" by the subtitle, "a family memoir of chinatwon". I expect that the book mainly describes the author's family history, rather than concerns on the hisotry of Chinatown history.



3. Yes, it is a great book! I finish in one afternoon. I couldn't down the book once I started reading.... Mr. Hall provides a very rich history of the Chinatown in New York City during the mid-1800s period. He is succeeded to "enable the reader to smell history." In the book, Mr. Hall describes his father "denied" his identity of Chinese which shows the typical dilemma of the new generation of Chinese immigrants in the United States. However, I was "confused" by the subtitle, "a family memoir of chinatwon". I expect that the book mainly describes the author's family history, rather than concerns on the hisotry of Chinatown history.



4. My mother grew up in the mining camps at the turn of the century, (1900) - it would be wonderful if more of the Chinese descendents would write their stories - it was surely a life of great hardship, and a history that needs to be shared. This is a wonderful story of family and life, societal views, prejudice and pain. Many expressions I heard throughout my childhood referred to the Chinese..."...didn't have a Chinaman's chance."..."...the rule was that the sun was not to set on any Chinese in town..." - what torment these people had to endure - yet we have very little literature on this subject. Mr. Hall has provided us with a wonderful, informative read and some true-life views that U.S.History certainly needs.



5. I read Mr. Hall's narration and found it simultaneously interesting and dissapointing. Interesting because he cleverly portrayed the historical side of the story from an angle I could relate to, with credible detail that in and of itself made for the price of the book (Great Photos!). Disappointing because the individuals contained within were only briefly portrayed and therefore the personal aspect, that in my respectful opinion lends dimension to all historical fact, was somewhat disjointed. I look forward to Mr. Hall's next work to fill in the gaps and continue what he began.

2 comments about Memories in Two Nations: China and the U.S.A.

1. Dr. Shao puts the reader in his mind and on his back as he carries you through a war torn China and across the ocean in a steamship to America, over obstacles worthy of an epic Hollywood film. His unique experience, perspective, and love for both countries and cultures is effectively communicated through his concise, from the heart presentation of his "Memories in Two Nations" that makes you feel not like you're reading a story, but sitting in a comfortable chair and listening to the words coming directly from the mouth of the author himself. A truly remarkable journey. Thank you for the ride.



2. Dr. Shao candidly shares his remarkable and awe inspiring life stories in his autobiography. It's hard to believe that one man could endure and rise above such a wide range of harrowing experiences. You will be inspired to follow your dreams by Dr. Shao's courage.

No comments about 100 Celebrated Chinese Women.

No comments about My View From a Bridge, The Autobiography of Hong Sit.

No comments about Pan Chao: Foremost Woman Scholar of China (Michigan Classics in Chinese Studies).

1 comments about Market Street: A Chinese Woman in Harbin.

1. What I liked best about this autobiographical novel was translator Howard Goldblatt's introduction and description of Xiao Hong's life.
   She was born in 1911 to an abusive father who was also a ruthless landlord. He pulls her out of school at the age of 20 in order to force her into an arranged marriage. She refuses and is left on her own, not a good thing for a woman in China in the 1930s. Read Madame Mao: The White-Boned Demon by Ross Terrill. In her struggle for independence novelist Xiao Hong ends up depending on various men for support and has a child out of wedlock, which was considered scandalous back then. She dies of a respiratory infection at the age of 30 or 31 in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation.
   
   Market Street reads like a series of tenuous vignettes. Xiao Hong and her lover Langhua live in dire poverty in Harbin, a city that sometimes experiences temperatures of -50 degrees Fahrenheit. This book left a lot of unanswered questions. Xiao Hong is obviously very well-educated but mostly she stays cooped up in the apartment while Langhua goes out and desperately seeks work. At first I thought Xiao Hong was pregnant because there was some mention of a baby in the introduction. It turns out she's not pregnant she only has some minor illnesses. I know it was a tough time for women but, it seems to me that she also could have found something in the tutorial field. Langhua gets several tutoring jobs for well-to-do families: He works and gets paid like a slave.
   
   Toward the last third of this book their rice cooker is inexplicably full and they have leisure time. How they went from near starvation and freezing to death to becoming middle class is not explained. Langhua begins writing plays but it's not all that lucrative. Then rumors start flying that they are on the hit list of the Japanese occupiers. The reader is never really informed as to the reason for this. There are vague hints that some of the plays could be considered anti-Japanese. I realize that it was WWII in an enemy occupied country and there doesn't really have to be a reason. What's so incongruous is that in spite of their fear for their lives they don't immediately flee Harbin for one of the unoccupied areas. Instead they set a time table to leave for Shanghai in several months. They need time to have the equivalent of a yard sale and say goodbye to all of their friends. Does this sound like people running for their lives?

No comments about Incense at the Altar: Pioneering Sinologists and the Development of Classical Chinese Philology (American Oriental Series #86).

No comments about Beijing Diary: The personal story of a remarkable theatrical and political event- the production of an all-Chinese version of The Caine Mutiny Court-martial in Bejiing..

5 comments about Daughter of the River.

1. Whats annoying is that the author passes this all off as autobigraphical and historically true, when it is NOT. YH was/is from a very elite background, and like other expats making bucks off of US readers in search of melodramas of oppressed Chinese, this works poorly as history or politics. MOreover, the prose is labored and purple, though this might be the translation's fault.



2. It is true that this autobiography is bleak. It is dark, but it is a reflection of the poverty and oppression experienced by the peasant class in China, now and all during the rule of the Communist regime. How Hong Ying is able to evoke absolute beauty from this seemingly unending ugliness is beyond me. But she expertly does just that. Without thought or pretense, Hong Ying's writing sings immaculately from the page. Amazing prose. This book's importance lies in that it is the story of someone from the peasant class, and since it is always good to hear all different perspectives of the same or similar events in order to get a good all around picture of the times, Hong Ying's book is a must read. In commenting on the book to a friend, I said that perhaps Hong Ying and her family's saving grace was that they were already at the bottom of the totem pole. Because of this they didn't have to experience the worst of what the Cultural Revolution had to offer eventhough it touched their lives daily. The peasant class of China is what Mao Zedong strived to make all the people of China in the name of proletarianism. The fact that Hong Ying and her family were already of this class meant that many of the dynamics of the time that were sweeping through all classes above them settled into their class as normalcy somewhat. It's like a line from Joan Chen's movie "Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl;" at one point when Xiu Xiu is questioning where she is being sent, she is told that it doesn't matter because it's the same everywhere; a simple statement but poignant in just how dead on right it is. Therefore, you must appreciate even moreso when we are allowed to read of these events by all those who were a part of them be it peasant or merchant. If it's done well, it is the most captivating of things to read because it means they made it out and are able to share it with us now. Before, any scraps of paper containing this type of writing would have been confiscated and burned, a black mark put in your file, or perhaps you'd be arrested. Hong Ying has done a brilliant job telling of her coming into womanhood in those times and of the exuberant curiosity she had about her family and herself, always having been treated as the outsider.



3. I cannot say that I enjoyed reading this book ... it was too raw to bring pleasure. But it did keep me captivated until the end. I felt that I wanted to reach out to Hong Ying and comfort her in some way as she lived through such excruciating poverty and endured the even greater agony of not feeling loved. I hope that she has found love and is at peace now. I also wonder about the fate of her family. Did they ever find release from such grinding poverty?

   Hong Ying obviously has a great talent and I look forward to reading more of her writings.




4. The non linar approach kept me thinking there would be some big supprizing reward at the end of the book. To my disappointment there was no such revolation. Not an awfully written story but certinally no prize winner in my book!



5. Dear Hong Ying

   Thank you so much for sending me your book. I was totally gripped by your narrative and when I finished it I found myself weeping uncontrollably. There is so much in your story which strikes my raw emotion and which touches my heart deeply.This is not just because I feel instinctively tuned into the underworld you depicted so vividly due to similar experiences in my life in Chongqing. More importantly, it embodies almost exactly the literary project which has long been fermenting in my mind. I have always longed to read something or even write something which could show that big words such as freedom, democracy and human rights are not just some high-sounding principles; that they affect millions of ordinary people's lives in many concrete ways.

   In my discipline of political science, the rise of East Asia in the 1980s spawned a huge industry of academic research on the relathionship between political system and economic development. For quite a while, Western scholars who were critical of their own democratic system joined the chorus of East Asian dictators such as Suharto, Lee Kuan Yew and Dr Mahathir (of Malaysia) to defend the "necessity" of authoritarianism for the sake of economic development and political stability. I think your book would be an ideal antidote to this typical "arm-chair" scholarship devoid of any sense of reality. To me, your book serves as a powerful warning that development without democracy simply

   creates another privileged class standing above the law and everyone else. I am often angered and depressed by the world I live in. It seems to me so many human injustices stem ultimately from the fact that too many human beings are greedy and cruel.