Maybe blogging can improve me.
Because of blogging, I got to meet some bloggers and learned a thing or two from them. And since I am easily influenced by somebody I like and admire, I have been reading books more often than I used to be thanks to those bloggers who shall remain nameless for not to be associated with a low life like me (OKAY, it's readandeat and snowdrops). Certain books I wouldn't have read if not because of them.
"Pull over and ask for direction"--this is my lame translation of a Chinese three-part novel 停車暫借問 by then 18-year old literati prodigy Zhong. I have not been reading any Chinese books for a long time so it took me some time to warm up to her brand of writing which is not exactly easy for a semi-illiterate like me. I am quite at awe to know that the three-part novel, with the book's title taken from the second part, was written by a 18-year old, especially the story has a strong historical background and spans a few decades. This just shows there are really early bloomers who really can make the never bloomers like myself want to kill themselves. The book is full of imagery and beautifully written. The only thing I don't quite understand is the first part of the story seems separate from the rest of the book and doesn't relate except for the lead female character. It seems like a totally different story. On the whole, it was a sappy story about unrequited love with a few male loser characters bobbing in between. And you always wonder why and how a beautiful girl would fall for some losers but hey it happens and it happens every day. As a man, you always hope you are one of their mistakes.
"Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter"--An auto-biography written by Tianjin born Chinese American Adeline Yen-Mah who is a physician turned writer. I guess she writes because she can of course but also because she understands the power of writing--how Mah witnesses the power of writing early on when her childhood classmate cries over being made a villain in her early literary creation. More importantly, this book is perhaps a therapeutic way of getting back at or getting over her own unloving family. The story of Mah begins in the late 30's in Tianjin, China and spans across continents and decades until the late 90's, chronicling how she overcomes adversities imposed upon her by her own unloving family mainly orchestrated by her beautifully devilish cruel and unusual French-Chinese stepmother, Niang and other inevitabilities like wars and her own race and gender. It is a story well told and along the way I also got a glimpse of modern Chinese history as an added bonus in addition to the sometimes sappy but always inspiring storyline. The moral of the story, if you were born to an absolutely unloving family, make sure it's at least rich enough to send you to England to get a medical degree.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
-
LG just up the ante by introducing its own touch screen cellphone a week after Apple made the iPhone announcement. The PRADA phone is a col...
-
New York City is falling apart .... Buildings are collapsing , the financial market is in a tailspin and the dollar is not the dollar it us...
after reading you & readandeat's posts, now i really want to ready Zhong's book! too bad i can't find it in the library here. might have to ask my sis in hk to send me one...
ReplyDeleteone thing about early bloomers, though - you don't seem to heat their names very much after their first bloom - or is it just because i'm too ignorant anyway?
You can find《停車暫借問》here for free:
Deletehttp://www.haodoo.net/?M=u&P=H1118:0&F=-1
There are plenty of free Chinese books on the above site, e.g. 莫言's books.
I should get a cut from their advertising.
ReplyDeleteI would have never read it if not because of r&e. I read it largely out of curiosity. You probably can order the latest edition from yesasia.com I think they have it.
You know when you already reached the pinnacle of your career, the only way to go is down. I guess that in some way explains some early bloomers. Or people find some other callings.
Cut what???
ReplyDeleteI'm very flattered. If my English was better, I would write you more comments.
Just came back from a book sale. Tons of books and people.
Unfortunately I never have a chance to reach the pinnacle. Maybe it's better not to have one ever.
I actually meant I should get some money from their sales of the book as I am promoting it, sort of directly. That's what I meant getting a cut. But I guess I must have been clumsy in saying get a cut from their advertising, doesn't make sense.
ReplyDeleteThat's OKAY, feel free not to leave comment. My English is very limited myself ....
I just borrow books from library mostly plus I don't read much anyway. We didn't go out today, except to grocery shopping and cleaning the leaves.
LCL, you've been too kind. I'm relieved and flattered that you included me along with R&E in the league of those bloggers you like and admire... I must say I'm still quite ashamed of my behaviour lately, and am really grateful for your forgiveness...
ReplyDeleteWow, I can't believe you actually finished Falling Leaves! I actually picked up the book from my shelf again, as it was years since I read it. Actually what really drawn me to the story is her description of Hong Kong in the immediate post-war era, which I've never seen any other Chinese author writing in English has done before.
The description of her stepmother Niang as a Cruella de Vil character was also unintentionally funny (and extremely cathartic for me to read at the time as I was having issues with my own mother when I was younger, though of course not to the same extent as Mah's issues with Niang!).
But I'm amazed that I couldn't locate the pages which had the photos of Niang and other family members which I'm almost certain to have seen before. In fact, my paperback copy didn't have any photo pages at all, and yet somehow I have very vivid memories of looking at old pictures of Niang and having to agree that she was indeed very beautiful... Did your library copy has those pictures, or was it really purely my imagination??
Anyway, I couldn't help but laugh at the moral that you've drawn from her life story. Very true indeed.
Snowdrops, I hope you are feeling better already.
ReplyDeleteNo, it wasn't your imagination. There are pictures of Niang and others splattered in the middle of the book. One of the things that troubles me as far as how truthful the story is Mah towards the end of the story when attending the interment of Niang remarks that Niang lying there was leaving her protruding forehead for all to see, when she would have hid it every possible way when she was alive because he had hated her big bad forehead all her life. I quickly flipped to the middle of the book to check out Niang's pictures and surprise all of the pictures show her and her prominent forehead in plain sight. Maybe out of spite, Mah picks all the pictures her Niang hated? I don't know.
I think the event that turned her life around was when she won some international writing competition in one summer when attending the Sacred Heart boarding school in Hong Kong. Her dad had a change of heart and sent her to England. I think the long distance and the 11 years away made everybody safer and she was able to become a physician.
I think the yearning for love and acceptance both as a child and as an adult is heart breaking and illuminating.