Recommended Chinese Readin

[roddy]

Would anybody like to recommend me a book? I'm looking for something in Chinese, not too difficult (narrative I can cope with, deep analysis and philosophical stuff will be too tough) and would probably prefer something modern-ish. Should also be available easily in Beijing.

Roddy

[Guest lazybutbusy]

<挪威森林〉 “Norway Forest” by a Japanese writers, if u want some chinese literature PLS try the novels by Wang Shuo 王朔， his novels are very sarcastic, tell black humour in simple story and language with Beijing culture.

[skylee]

Norwegian Wood (same as Beatles' song) by Murakami Haruki 村上春樹. It is kind of old. His latest book is Kafka on the Shore "海邊的卡夫卡", which is very interesting. I would recommend Murakami's travel writing, which I think may be easier than his novels. But do note that the quality of translation might affect how much you enjoy the book.

Ever try reading anything written by 余秋雨? A highly regarded, yet controversial (I don't know why), writer. His 山居筆記 is very good. A Hong Kong publisher called 天地圖書 has published a series called "余秋雨眼裏的中國文化", with beautiful photos, but I don't know if you can find it in BJ.

I have recommended 金庸 (Wuxia novels) and 幾米 (picture stories) somewhere else.

[niubi]

try a collection of liu heng's

[Tsunku]

The Story of Qiuju is actually part of a collection of short stories you should be able to find in China. My copy was sold under the same title as the main story. They're all pretty straightforward narratives. I'm completely blanking on the author's name right now though.

[niubi]

I'm completely blanking on the author's name right now though.

chen yuanbin

[skylee]

If you like the movie "Farewell to my concubine", you may like to read the novel as well. The writer is Lilian Lee (李碧華 Li Bihua). There are two versions. One is simplier and shorter, which inspired the movie. One is much longer and enriched, which was rewritten after the movie.

She has also written a number of other very intersting novels, which have also been made into movies, such as "Green Snake", "Rouge", "Seduction of a Monk (not sure if this is the right name)". It seems that she has stopped writing longer novels recently.

[Tsunku]

Another author I like is Hong Ying. She only has a couple of books translated into English but her Chinese stuff might be easy enough to understand. I haven't had the time to really get into a big novel these days myself.

I've been re-reading Lu Xun in Chinese recently, a lot of it is pretty basic and straightforward. I imagine you may have already read him though.

[niubi]

i like hong ying too.

[techie]

For those interested in Wang Shuo literature, the following might be of interest.

http://www.xys.org/xys/ebooks/literature/novels/Wang-Shuo/

It talks about some of his works.

Also some of the folders seem to provide complete works, although I am not sure whether those are his novels or not since I am not familiar with his work.

Nonetheless I think you will enjoy this page. If you find any others , please post them here for others to enjoy.

Regards

[confucius]

Here's your best bet for an easy starter: "Kong Yi Ji" by Lu Xun

[skylee]

孔乙己 is a classic. High school textbook material. After reading it you would know where the name of 咸亨酒店 comes from.

It is always a good idea to read 魯迅.

[Guest Jessica]

Oh, 鲁迅's great. My favorite is "The True Story of Ah Q", 《阿Q正传》But his work is kinda difficult to understand. And in my point of view, some of his words are grammatically incorrect.

[trooper]

Yes, Lu Xun sometimes wrote in Chinese that is not strictly correct but he wrote at a time when modern standard written Chinese was still in the process of formation. As well as that you'll find almost all writers of fiction, especially those writing in English, at some point using non-standard grammar, e.g. using sentence fragments, inventing words of their own, writing in dialect, using non-standard grammar, etc, not because the writers are thick and don't know their own language but for literary effect. Ever tried Trainspotting by Irving Welsh? Or how about A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess in which Burgess invented a street slang of his own? From the first page:

There was me, that is Alex and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter bastard though dry.

As an aside, I wonder if to what extent it's possible to write a book like A Clockwork Orange in Chinese and what the Chinese translation of A Clockwork Orange is like, if it exists!

[skylee]

"A Clockwork Orange" - 發條橙 (there was this movie or song or band once, IIRC)

[geek_frappa]

The Scholars. One of my favorites by Ching-Tzu Wu. Very deep-cutting satire.

[roddy]

I wonder if to what extent it's possible to write a book like A Clockwork Orange in Chinese and what the Chinese translation of A Clockwork Orange is like, if it exists!

Interesting question. I'll have a look at a copy of 1984 next time I'm in a book shop and see how they dealt with Newspeak or whatevery it was called.

Roddy

PS. Actually, I won't. Double plus forgetful

[trooper]

I remember seeing a Chinese translation of 1984 on the internet. They had completely omitted the appendix, "The Principles of Newspeak" thus completely changing the ending.

Maybe it was just an oversight by the people who'd scanned the novel onto the web and the printed version includes it. Or maybe the translators disliked the appendix as the ending or misunderstood why Orwell wrote it.