JoV's Book Pyramid
China
Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw
UK publication date: 28 February 2013 USA publication date: 2 July 2013 Tash Aw’s Five Star Billionaire opens with enticing self-help get rich book format. “Move to Where the Money is” followed by a short chapter of “How to achieve Greatness” and many how to’s short articles that carries sound advice and also personal experience of Walter … Continue reading
Waiting by Ha Jin
Thanks to Mee, I put this book on my TBR for a long time. Now I finally read it. I remember Mee raves about this book and gave it 5 stars, so I thought I’ll give it a go and surprised myself that I finished this book in one day. Warning: May contain minor spoiler. Communist … Continue reading
The Flowers of War by Geling Yan
December 1937. The Japanese have taken Nanking. A group of terrified convent school girls hide in the compound of an American church, the priest is Father John Engelmann. Among the girls, is Shujuan, through whose 13-year-old eyes we witness the calamity that is to befall the church and its refugees. The church is a neutral … Continue reading
Under the Hawthorn Tree by Ai Mi
What is it: Jingqiu, an innocent young woman from a poor and politically questionable family in the city, is selected as one of a small group of students to be sent to the countryside to work on a glorious new education project that will further the Cultural Revolution. Clever, curious and eager, she wants to … Continue reading
Gold Boy, Emerald Girl by YiYun Li
I thought it will be great if I could write a more focused review, so I am trying out a new format here today. What it is: A collection of short stories mostly revolving around lonely Chinese characters who are grasping at happier future, but are grounded in the bleak realities of everyday life. Gold Boy, … Continue reading
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution was hardly a laugh a minute, but the semi-autobiographical Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie, is surprisingly buoyant and humorous in tone. This seems to be the spirit of Asia. At times of hardship and difficult times, Asians move on to toil and sweat in the hope to alleviate … Continue reading
The Long March Home by Zoë S. Roy
Since 23 January is the Chinese New Year, I thought I read a Chinese Literature to commemorate the day. The blurb: The Long March Home tells the story of three generations of women. Agnes, a young Canadian goes to China as a missionary from the United Church of Canada and falls in love with a Chinese … Continue reading
The Vagrants by YiYun Li
In a cold morning in March in Muddy River, and a “counter-revolutionary” – a once fanatical member of Mao’s Red Guard who became a pro-democracy activist – is to be publicly denounced and executed. Gu Shan is the 28-year-old daughter of teacher Gu and his wife, the parents who questioned themselves the cause that brought … Continue reading
Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother by Xinran
China is one of the few countries where female suicides are higher than male ones, by 25 per cent to be exact. At the end of 2006 there were over 120,000 registered adoptive families for Chinese orphans, almost all girls, in 27 countries. After reading Xinran’s Message from An Unknown Chinese Mother you can understand … Continue reading
Miss Chopsticks by Xinran
In Sanniu’s Chinese village in AnHui, girls are called ‘chopsticks’, boys ‘roof-beams’. Unlike sturdy roof-beams, chopstick girls are so disposable that Sanniu’s parents have named her and her five sisters only with numbers: Sanniu means ‘Three’. Three has other 5 sisters, Sister One is married, sister Two killed herself when she is forced to engage … Continue reading
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Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking. - Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
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