What We've Been Reading

The hectic last few months have rather sweetly offered plenty of time for reading. Especially the last two weeks or so, where sitting on the rooftop terrace with my feet propped up has been my primary course of action. And as we see ourselves at the end of our time here, I've been focusing on our books about China. So, you China scholars, here are a few more books to add to your registers.

Unfortunately, I am running on limited brain power these days. So although I can recommend both books, I can probably not write beautiful prose on their reviews. Amusingly, I can hardly follow my own train of thought - often stopping midstream and wondering what I was talking about. We're assuming this will stop in a few days... or weeks.

The Good Women of China came out of a series of interviews by popular radio personality Xinran. This local Chinese woman lived in Beijing and had national recognition for her nighttime call-in show, leaving people with such trust of her that she had incredible access into women's stories. My mother read this book just before we moved to China, and found it horribly depressing. It is - no doubt. Although it does speak of women's strength, it also describes awful conditions and sometimes horrendous lifestyles. It is sometimes difficult to read, and is only recommended for someone with some knowledge about China. Still, Xinran tells stories which often remain untold. Too many women live oppressed lives in China - not only 25 years ago, when this book was written. And one of the ways to stop oppression is to bring it into the open. A well written book.

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang shows up on the shelves of most of the expats I know here in China. People seem to either love it or find it unfinishable. I loved it. Author Jung Chang writes this memoir of three generations of her family, covering the past decade of life in China. Through her family's incredible stories, she gives a detailed history of China since the early 1900s. Read this book because it is well written, or because it tells a compelling story about three very strong women. But more importantly, read this book because it will explain well what this country has looked like, felt like, and lived like through the past, tumultuous decade. Her personal approach helps the reader to understand many of the confusing choices people made during these times - to support the Communists, to join the Red Guards, to report on their neighbors. But it also personalizes the millions of people who lived through such difficult periods - and gives me newfound respect for so many people I now pass on the street. If you have any true interest in modern China, you must read this book.

James Fallows is a correspondent for The Atlantic, and lived in Shanghai and Beijing for a number of years as a foreign correspondent. He only returned to the US last summer, and pulled together Postcards from Tomorrow Square: Reports from China at the same time. Not a memoir, this book tells in depth some of the more interesting points of Fallows' time here as a journalist. Most interesting to Dave and I is that Fallows' time here overlapped quite closely with ours - and so the stories he tells are stories about our China. And in an ever-changing landscape, a difference of years can be quite a difference. Fallows writes well, and so this book is a simple read. He is clearly a good journalist, and so this book reports well on modern China. A good picture of today's China, I recommend this book as well.