What We've Been Reading

A recent request made me aware that I have been over 1 year tardy in posting what we've been reading.  China's history, culture and rapid development continue to fascinate both of us, as well as plenty of prolific authors.  So, here's a list of the good books we've read over the past 2 years.

Previously reviewed:

Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong, a simple police detective story set in modern Shanghai.

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler, a fascinating and wonderfully written memoir of Hessler's time as  Peace Corps volunteer.  Possibly my favorite non-fiction on China.

China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power by Rob Gifford, Hessler's rival for my favorite non-fiction on China.  Also fascinating and wonderfully written, Gifford travels across China chronicling the modern rise in the daily conversations he has.

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, a classic in modern literature, this book tells the story of a peasant family and makes rural Chinese culture beautifully accessible to the Western reader.

The Three Daughters of Madame Liang by Pearl S. Buck, written decades later and set in the middle of this century, the protagonists are a patriotic Chinese family with Western experience, this time making mid-century China accessible to the Western reader.

New Non-Fiction:

Behind the Wall: A Journey Through China by Colin Thubron.  Thubron travels China in the early 1980s, one of the first writers allowed into the country.  He chronicles his experiences and conversations in the newly opening country - this story can not fail to be interesting, in a land so full of change.

Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China by Paul Theroux.  Theroux does a comparable trip to Thubron, traveling through China in the early 1980s - but he writes a much more compelling book.  Theroux both speaks and reads Mandarin and clearly loves the Chinese people and their culture.  A travel writer known for his curmudgeonly observations and never seeming to enjoy his trips, Theroux clearly loved every moment he spent in China.  His travels cover much of the country, describing diverse geographies and peoples.  And from my experience, every description of his is spot-on.  Hands down, this is the best travel writing on China.  Apparently Theroux recreated his trip recently and a new book has been published - I read the one published in 1988.

1421: The Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies.  Menzies does impeccable research on a relatively unknown subject - that the Chinese knew the world was round and had visited most spots on the globe long before the Europeans discovered any of it.  A very interesting topic, and a very interesting book for the first few chapters.

Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng.  A dramatic and piercing memoir, Cheng details her persecution both by the Chinese government and her neighbors during the Cultural Revolution.  Amazing in its detail and shocking in its truth - this book explained China under Communism in a way that I had never read.  Emotionally, a difficult read - but one that I highly recommend.

Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie Chang.  Chang began researching her book as a newspaper reporter and clearly found her protaganists so compelling that she devoted herself full-time to their research.  She enjoys her subjects and enjoys comparing their plight to that of her migrant great-grandparents, and now-American parents.  Had the book been 1/3 the length, it would have been fantastic.  Another one worth reading, and worth putting down halfway through.

New Fiction:

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan.  Tan is a beautiful author, and her books are well worth reading on their own right.  They also teach Chinese culture in a tremendously powerful way - through a Chinese parent (or aunt) telling her story to her American daughter.  The aunts explain the protagonist's history in their own voices, and in a way that the American daughter fully understands.  Tan chronicles life in a Chinese-American family, and in so doing makes Chinese culture accessible to all American readers.

The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan.  All of the above is true for this book as well.  What I found particularly compelling about this book was its period of history.  The mother in this story lived through the Civil War and Communism in China, and told her story in a very personal and beautiful way - made even more powerful by the comments and questions of her American daughter.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See.  Set farther in history, See tells the story of women and foot-binding in rural China.  A lovely story of friendship and womanhood, See describes the process of foot-binding and the choice to bind one's child's feet in a very real way.  The author makes me begin to understand the choices these families faced, and the challenges and joys these women faced in their society.