Happy Year of the Rabbit!!!

In the Chinese lunar calendar the year of the rabbit began on February 3rd.  Celebrating Chinese New Year will be a new tradition in our family, and we will celebrate this weekend with other families of adopted Chinese children.

I have read another Chinese American novelist in honor of Chinese New Year (and fiction February),  I am sorry to say it took me so long to read her work, as many people have recommended this author to me.  Lisa See has written an amazing book about Chinese women from the Hunan province who developed a secret language to communicate with each other.  Snow Flower and the Secret Fan swept me into another world for four days.  I could hardly sleep last night thinking of these two women laotong, or old sames. Sworn sisters, who lived their lives in particular cultural ways that are completely unknown to me.  They had bound feet, were married off to strange families, endured war and famine and sought out that which many women seek, true and unyielding friendships to last throughout their lives.  These sworn friendships were love relationships which often meant more to them than husbands or children.

The narrator and main character Lily and her laotong Snow Flower communicated using a now almost dead written language called nu shu, the woman's language. It lasted for hundreds of years and men knew nothing of it. It was almost killed during the cultural revolution and has recently been resurrected in the manner of folk dances or art.


Ms. See did an amazing job of creating the world of 19th century China.  Even though I thought I knew a lot about ancient Chinese customs and traditions, I was amazed at how much I learned about this other place and time.  The writing is rich and detailed and the story is riviting.  I felt I understood well why a mother would choose the painful exercise of binding a daughter's feet.  (Maybe a 19c. equivalent of being a Tiger Mother?)  Lisa See's novel helped me make sense of a very foreign set of cultural practices.  If you pick up this paperback version don't miss her post script about doing the research for the book and her own family life as part Chinese and part American.  As always, I am in awe of the creative process that can produce such magnificent tales.  Are there other Lisa See recommendations out there?

I have put this in the mail to my friend Catherine who should enjoy this tale of women and friendship and 19th century China.

Girl in Translation: by Jean Kwok (Hey It's Fiction February again!)

Welcome readers to my second annual tribute to fiction offered for the month of February.  As last year, if you comment about a recent  favorite novel or work of fiction on this blog, I will enter you into a drawing to win a free book!!!  That's right, from my very own library.

This book was recommended to me by a fellow reader who knows I am very interested in Chinese American literature.  I put it on my library list and renewed it a few times but am pleased to have read it. 

Kimberly Chang and her mother arrive in the US from China owing a huge debt to their benefactors (Aunt Paula and Uncle Bob) who keep them in an unheated rodent infested apartment in Brooklyn and force mother to work in their sweatshop to pay them back.  Kimberly goes to school but must rush to the factory after school to help her mother finish the shipment of clothing.  It is a grim life which is slowly redeemed for Kimberly by her prowess in school.  In spite of her many hardships and the inevitable language barriers, she begins to distinguish herself in school, specifically math and science and is able to earn a scholarship to a prestigious prep school.

The novel follows Kim and her mother through school until she graduates when Kimberly faces a very grim and unhappy choice which we don't really get to see her make except in an epilogue of sorts which takes place 12 years after the end of school.

A reader will immediately be drawn into this book.  Kimberly's voice is plain and true and very compelling. The author has a great way of helping the reader try to understand how hard it is for Kimberly to understand what is happening to her by translating some of the English dialogue into the chopped up strange speech that Kimberly might hear.

The descriptions of her hard life in the sweatshop, struggles in school and in the horrible apartment are well done.  I am glad to have read this for that reason alone.  If you read this and then understand from the book flap that Jean Kwok was also an immigrant from Hong Kong and worked in the sweatshops and went to Harvard then you will also want to visit her website and read her own story which is equally compelling.

My one gripe with the story was the ending I which felt very trite and unfitting.  If you read this let me know what you think.

Banned in China

At the end of Pearl of China the author, Anchee Min, writes a short note to the reader about her inspiration for writing this book, a fictionalized account of the life of Pearl Buck in China, as seen through the eyes of her (fictional) life long best friend Willow Yee.

Min writes that she had never read The Good Earth (Buck's most famous work) and in fact during Buck's bid to return to China with Nixon in 1972, Min (along with other school children) was forced to denounce her.  While Min was giving a reading of her memoir Red Azalea at a book store, a woman stepped up to her and asked if she had ever read The Good Earth.  Min replied no and the woman handed her a copy of the book as a gift.  While doing so she told Min that The Good Earth taught her to love China.

Min took the book and read it on the flight home, and when she was done she wept.  She never imagined that a Western writer could capture the essence of China, especially the peasant class, so beautifully.  And then there was that whole denunciation thing.  Min resolved to write this novel at that time.  

Min tapped exactly on why I have become fascinated with Pearl Buck.  She really understood China and its people and was able to write to tell the world and begin to bridge gaps.  We underestimate her importance on East West relations.  Remember that Nobel prize.

This novel was filled with moments like the one Min experienced herself: regret and longing and friendship and deep abiding love, especially toward the latter half of the book when we see Willow struggling to keep her faith and her dignity in spite of all the horror heaped upon her by the Chinese government.  The narrator foreshadows saying good-bye to Pearl for the last time.  She kneels at her grave in the US heartbroken that she did not see her friend for the last 37 years of her life.  She meets Nixon who brings her greetings from Buck (true?) in the US and you can feel the whole town tense and then admit that they know and love Pearl.  All these moments had me reaching for my box of tissues.  I loved this fictional story for that reason.

I was struck by how much Min's style of writing copied Buck's style.  They write in short sentences that move the plot forward quickly.  There are heros and there are villains and there exists no subtlety in any of the characters.  I was surprised to note that in Min's story the missionary work of Pearl's father, Absolom Sydenstrecker, was regarded as heroic. In fact, all the characters who converted to Christianity were heroic.  The Christian conversion narrative was so thick and annoying that it could easily be mistaken for a Christian tract.  While I find reading about missionaries in China interesting, I think there are always downsides and upsides and Min seems to really push a Christian agenda.  

This small part aside, I loved Pearl of China.  Because so much of the plot revolved around historical evidence, I am eager to turn now to some history books and biographies to see what of this volume happened and what was an invention of the author.  

By the way, as my title indicates, I don't think I can send this one to Catherine.  It is not very nice about Chairman Mao and Anchee Min's books all appear on the banned list.

The Book You want to Savor

Do you ever buy a book that you are so looking forward to reading that you put off reading it?  It seems like the perfect book with the perfect cover and you are sure that all the answers you need for whatever questions are haunting you will be found in the covers of this book.  OR you know the story will be exactly what you need and will leave your heart beating fast, and so you read the book as slowly as you can? All you want to do is savor the book so you put off picking it up and reading it?

And so it is with my latest purchase from Amazon.com.uk  an English translation of a Chinese book by radio reporter Xinran called Message from an Unknown Chinese mother.  

These days I am interested in China and in books that I might share and send to my friend Catherine in China, and in looking for stories from China I stumbled across this collection of stories and interviews that help to explain why so many girls are abandoned in China from the point of view of a Chinese journalist who is now living and writing in the UK.

Xue Xinran's radio program involved the host telling stories of Chinese people she met and interviewed over the course of her day to day travels.  She eventually turned those stories into a book called The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices.   Western women who had adopted girls from China began to write her and asking her to tell the stories of Chinese women who had abandoned or given up their daughters.  Xinran wrote this volume in response to those requests.

I think what was most surprising about this book was that it was not simply a story of 10 women who Xinran interviewed, it was really a loose journalistic account of Chinese adoption policy and the history of orphanages and the cultural norms that lead families to preferring boys over girls in China.

Parts of it were painful to read.  Girls and women in some places in China are treated quite literally like garbage.  Other parts were enlightening. Xinran, as a good journalist does, tried to uncover some of the government's secrets about orphanages and explain why adoptions slowed down so drastically in 2006 or why they refused to acknowledge adoptions were happening until 1993.

Xinran interviews orphanage workers and adoption officials and several mothers who she meets who give up their babies. She also tells a few painful stories of her own of things she has witnessed through the years.

Although the translation felt awkward at points, this was a book I definitely savored.  The end of the book includes several appendices about Chinese adoption law and family planning law that were quite interesting. She also includes the letters from the adoptive moms asking her to write this book.

 I do not think I can send it to Catherine as I have noted that Xinran is on the Chinese government's list of banned authors.  It is easy to see why.

So now which books do you read slowly?

PS All Xinran's books are available at the MCPL or the Herman B Wells library at IUB.

A Reader Recommends

A loyal reader wrote me after I announced my Chinese-American series to tell me about a book she read with her book group: A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo.  Technically this work is not a Chinese-American authored novel but rather a novel written by a native Chinese woman who had written several novels first in Chinese.  Dictionary was her first all English novel and it is set in England where the Chinese narrator/main character goes to live for a year to learn English.  Z (her name is too hard to pronounce so she tells the English to call her Z)  meets a man and falls in love and narrates her way through her year in London by calling attention to words and meaning and how they teach her the differences between Western culture and Chinese Culture.  This year of learning language and culture for Z is also a love story and a year of learning about what it means to love a man.

Z educates herself about place and home and love and family and most of all self, by using her dictionary to help her put each word and each meaning fully in the context of her changing self-perception.

I really fell for Z and I cared about what happened to her.  Her affection for her lover was tangible (even if I did not see what she saw in him.) and her growing mastery of the language and her understanding of east meets west was fascinating as it unfolded to the reader.  She metamorphosed into a citizen of the world through her journal of words.

As a love story it was sweet and sad and compelling.  The end is not surprising but yet, you keep turning pages wondering how Z will resolve the major tension of the novel and end her love affair with the odd bi-sexual, vegetarian artist.  Or does she?  More interesting though is her own growth and development. She has become the star of her own life.

I would like to mail this work to my friend back in China.  I found the exploration of language from a Chinese native's perspective to be utterly fascinating.  I think my friend would love it.  It would make her laugh.  But I am starting to wonder about censorship in China, and I am a bit convinced that anything I send will not get through especially if it is written by Chinese.  This book also has several explicit scenes depicting sex and masturbation, and I worry the Chinese government would confiscate it for these reasons.  

I have been  searching for a list of banned books in China...hoping that I could have some definitive answers.  I found a list of books by an American ex-pat who knows a bit about books and China.  Here are at least some books, I should not try to send.

So readers, if you know this book.  Should I send it over to China?  Will it reach it's destination?  Or will I get her put on some list by sending contraband?

Thanks for the recommendation Ann!  Keep em coming.

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

"Once you are born Chinese, you cannot help but feel and think Chinese.
"'Someday you will see,' said my mother. 'It is in your blood, waiting to be let go.'"
--The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

I first got the idea to re-read The Joy Luck Club when considering what books to send to Catherine.  This book is a long time favorite, but I read it so long ago I could only remember bits and pieces.  The Joy Luck Club is  a modern classic about Chinese mothers and their Chinese-American daughters and how they make sense of their lives outside of China. I think Catherine will enjoy it.

Four mothers and four daughters tell their stories which are connected only by the Joy Luck Club: a regular social gathering of the four mothers to eat and play Mah Jong.  I remembered each story, especially the mother's stories rooted in Chinese custom and lore, to be particularly fascinating.

After reading for a few minutes I realized with some sadness that the second reason for reading this book was to understand the wisdom of Chinese mothers which my daughter will never have the opportunity to hear.  I felt a little weepy when I realized that she would really be missing something important and perhaps those Chinese women scolding me in the park were really trying to tell me something besides put more clothing on your daughter.

The Chinese mothers portrayed in Ms. Tan's novel were full of stories of ancient times and proverbs to teach their American born daughters lessons about life.  I have often wished I had those tales at my disposal, ready to launch a life lesson at a moments notice.  Tessa would benefit from the wisdom of a Chinese mother.   They try to teach through story and metaphor.  Although I am romanticizing a bit, it felt a little like living and leading like a poet.

I don't mean to say she will be settling for me and my wisdom, I have plenty to go around, but there is something about the way these mothers approached life that made me think I need to start channeling my Chinese mother more.

The Joy Luck Club was fun to re-read, and I am going to pack it up today for Catherine.  Sometimes it is hard to keep track of the 8 different characters and their stories, but in total they do paint a picture of a complex emotional tension between mothers and daughters.  The first story in the book which is concluded at the end is easily the best and most bittersweet, but all the complexities of life for women and girls in China is very lovingly portrayed.

It is worth reading or reading again.  The movie is slightly different but also very good.