No comments about Ch'en Tzu-ang (Chinese University Press).

5 comments about Onoto Watanna: THE STORY OF WINNIFRED EATON (Asian American Experience).

1. I didn't mean to like Winnifred Eaton. After all, she was a bit of a fanfaronade and very much of a poseur, not at all the sort I wanted in my circle of intimates.

   But Diana Birchall's sparkling biography changed my mind. Writing with unblinking honesty, Birchall describes the many lives that her chameleon grandmother lived, from journalist and novelist to story editor and screenwriter. Of most interest to me were the stories of her career as wife in two unconventional marriages and mother to four children. Birchall's graceful use of language is enhanced by her wit and intelligently ironic style. She concludes this delightful biography with the acknowledgment that sharing what she has learned about her grandmother has been a privilege and a joy. Surely it is no less a privilege and a joy for the reader.




2. Birchall's fascinating and beautifully written account of her grandmother's life is an important work for scholars in women's studies, Asian-American or American studies, Canlit, and the movie industry, and for the general reader seeking a compelling biography.

   Other reviewers have mentioned Eaton/Watanna's background. I will stress instead the absorbing interest of Winnifred's successive reinventions of herself in societies that had no ready place for her. Like a brilliant slackrope walker with an increasingly awkward load, Winnifred managed to shift her balance not only to survive, but pulled off one tour de force after another. Her performances as a Japanese-American novelist, as a screenwriter and as a rancher doyenne would win applause from Daniel Defoe.

   Eaton/Watanna has become a focal interest of American scholars in recent years. As her granddaughter, Birchall had informaitonal advantages in writing on her. Her graceful, well-considered book shows how glad we should be for Birchall's advantages.




3. "A jolly, laughing lady" are the first words of the bigraphy; the last ones are: "To be able to share what I have learned with others has been a privilege and a joy. Has not this journey been an enviable inheritance in itself?"

   Inbetween these words Birchall indeed shares with the reader the life of Winnifred, in personal and intimate detail. Birchall also seduces the reader into not just reading, but thinking about the culture and times Winnifred faced in her own inimitable style, from her life in Canada as young girl down to the years of Hollywood.

   Normally I am none too fond of biographies but this one enchanted me, by the content and by the style of Birchall's writing. Full of zest, lifely images and easy to read on and on. As non native reader I appreciated this very much; it was a joy and a privilege to share. Would that all biographies were such a good read!




4. "A jolly, laughing lady," those are the opening words of the biography.
   The closing words are:
   "To be able to share what I have learned with others is a privilege and a joy. Has not this journey been an enviable inheritance in itself?"

   In between those personal words, I got the chance to intimately share the life of Winnifred Eaton. Birchall opens the family vaults, secrets and intimacies; shares her deductions and her thoughts about Winnifred with me as reader; and writes in a zesty, tangy language that kept seducing me to read on and on.
   The things I learned about the early filmindustry in Hollywood and the look behind the screens, are as fascinating as all the facts about the working conditions for women in the first half of the century in the USA

   This biography by Birchall leads me to wonder and think about Winnifred as a human being and also about the culture and times that Winnifred went through in her life and tackled straight on, in her own inimitable style.
   What more can a biography do?

   Normally I am none too fond of biographies as genre. This one had me enthralled, qua content and style of writing.




5. In my library I have dozens of books inherited from my parents and my grandparents. We have been readers for several generations, and I grew up with many of these books. One of these books was a novel called "The Heart of Hyacinth" by an author mysteriously named Onoto Watanna. The author was unknown to me, but I thought the book was one of the most beautiful of all the books I'd inherited, with lovely Japanese-style illustrations and drawings.

   But now I've had a chance to learn about the woman who lurked behind that exotic nom de plume. I learn she was not Japanese at all, but half Chinese and half English. Yet her true story seems to be as fully exotic as any of the character's lives from her books.

   Diana Birchall has done a wonderful job of bringing her fascinating grandmother to life. The book give a wonderful look at a most unusual woman, and what life was like for young women at the turn of the last century. At least what life was like when the young women were as self-confident and gutsy as the young Winnifred Eaton.

No comments about Biography of Tsung Dao Lee: the First Chinese American to Win the Nobel Prize in Physics ('Gui fan yu dui cheng zhi mei-yang zhen ning zhuan', in traditional Chinese, NOT in English).

2 comments about Wah Ming Chang: Artist and Master of Special Effects (Multicultural Junior Biographies).

1. As an adult, I was fascinated by this book. I enjoyed the photos and the biography. I think this is a book for adults and children to read together and to use as a springboard for dialogue about life's challenges and how to deal with them, as well as the discrimination faced by a minority. It is all about the incredibly difficult challenges that one man has gone through (discrimination, parental loss as a child, polio, etc.), and is inspiring in how he reinvented himself over the years and managed to find success.



2. I found this book very inspirational, as it tells the life and struggles of an artist and Hollywood special effects master. The language sparked my interest and made me want to read more. I especially enjoyed the details about Chang's work with Walt Disney Studios and the Star Trek TV show. The book made me feel that I personally knew someone famous. This is an interesting story of a man who accomplished so much. As an educator, I would recommend the book to students and to adults. It will help others realize that we CAN get past difficult times and that we can nurture our own creativity in order to see our own dreams come true.

No comments about Yao: A Life in Two Worlds (Wo de shi jie wo de meng) (Chinese).

No comments about Tragedy and triumph: Courage and faith through twenty-seven years in Chinese prisons: the story of Dr. Yu Enmei as told to Dorothy McCammon.

No comments about Captivity: How I survived 44 months as a prisoner of the Red Chinese.

No comments about Precious Fire: Maud Russell and the Chinese Revolution.

No comments about Doings in China: Being the personal narrative of an Officer engaged in the late Chinese Expedition, from the recapture of Chusan in 1841, to the peace of Nankin in 1842.

No comments about A Pictorial Biography of Sakyamuni Buddha in Colour Chinese- English.