What are you reading?

[skylee]

Saw this painting at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, the other day, and the title "The purple noon's transparent might", from Shelly's poem, has stuck in my head ...

[Lu]

1937 de aiqing (well, the Dutch translation). Book got praised all over, but I don't really see why. The man in the story is truly an idiot, I can't respect him, and the girl is a bit silly as well. And the writer goes on about 'All women this' and 'All women that', where does he get that. You can't say 'all women...'.

And then the writer keeps repeating the same phrases and words over and over, I know this is more common in Chinese, but it works really bad in the translation.

Well, if it was really as bad as I think it is it wouldn't have been translated, and it wouldn't have been praised, I'll think about it a bit more. The idea of the story is interesting.

[wushijiao]

I just finished reading two books. One is Korea’s Place in the Sun by Bruce Cumings. I really can’t praise this book enough. I might write a more detailed review later.

The other book is The Chinese New Empire; and What It Means for the United States by Ross Terrill. I wouldn’t recommend this book as a comprehensive history about China. Instead, this book focuses on the political philosophy of both ancient dynasties and the PRC. It also highlights a lot of the unsettled questions in Chinese political life, such as territorial claims, the gap between political and economic reform, and the transition to a real legal system.

This book reads like an informed, but very opinionated, Op-Ed piece. On the positive side, Terrill lashes out at things like the condescending way that “hospitality” and “emotions” are used in Chinese foreign policy. On the negative side, the book is a tad unfocused and repetitive in parts. It would certainly offend any PRC advocates/apologists. Nonetheless, I’d recommend it if you like reading about foreign policy or Chinese politics.

Also, I’m reading 没有语言的生活 by an author named 东西, which who the Luxun book award. The book is primarily about peasant life of normal people. It seems pretty good, and pretty easy thus far, but I haven’t formed a definitive opinion on it. Anyway, the book’s cover is by方力钧. See:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/4981-the-artist-fang-lijun-%e6%96%b9%e5%8a%9b%e9%92%a7%ef%bc%89

[Ian (127)]

Interested in your posts re: translation of hong lou meng.

indeed Dai-Yu does say: "Bao Yu! Bao Yu! How could you...!"

as translated by David Hawkes - strike that, John Minford

two things then:

1: I'm given to understand this is the 'authorative' translation of this most wonderful book into English.

2. Bao Yu translates to 'Precious Jade' therein but Su Tong has Bao Yu as 'Jade Embrace in his book Rice. translated by forget-who Goldblatt (Howard possibly?)

now according to the prefaces David Hawkes apologises for various instances of deliberate mis translation such as chinese red = english gold/green etc.

is this something to do with it or are you saying it could be better interpreted?

I am very interested to know your thoughts on this and generally as it was the outlandish language of very first page that attracted me to this book in the first place

alsoo did you know Howard Marks and John Minford went to Oxford together? read Howard Marks's books....

[Lu]

The Crippled Tree by Han Suyin. She has a very interesting family history, and she writes very well about it, connecting it with Chinese history in the late 19th-early 20th century. Good book.

[geraldc]

Hmmm everyone here seems to read proper literature, I think I'll stick up for geekdom. Currently reading "Nikon D70 Digital Field Guide" by David D Busch. I'm off to HK and Shenzhen next week to visit relatives, and I realised although I know how my camera works, I really don't know how to use my camera, so I thought I'd better find out how to be more creative with my camera

Bedtime reading is the Complete Sherlock Holmes, never understood why I never read them before, they're pretty entertaining.

[wushijiao]

Bao Yu translates to 'Precious Jade' therein but Su Tong has Bao Yu as 'Jade Embrace in his book Rice. translated by forget-who Goldblatt (Howard possibly?)

In Hong Lou Meng, the name Jia (surname) Baoyu (贾宝玉) basically means Jia "precious/treasure, jade", as translated.

As far as Rice by Su Tong, I haven't seen the original, but I suppose it is 抱玉 or maybe 包玉. In either case, it is probably refering to a different character than the other "bao". For the romanization of any syllable like "bao", there can be several Chinese characters.

Hmmm everyone here seems to read proper literature, I think I'll stick up for geekdom

Haha!

I deeply respect 没有语言的生活, but I've found it hard to slog through. 　I picked up 中国农民调查, which I first bought in the summer of 2004 but found a bit too complicated at the time. Anyway, I'm about midway through it, and I realize now why it was one of the most talked about books in the last few years. I also realize why it was banned.I suppose when I'm done I'll do a proper review of it.

[skylee]

Well actually I have been reading the user manual of my pocket pc.

[Lu]

Shanghai baby. Am reading it in translation, which feels like a defeat: I bought the Chinese version years ago, planning to not read the translation, but never got past the first chapters. And here I am reading the translation, and it's not even a good one. And neither is the book, now I understand why Skylee threw it in the trash. Mian Mian's Candy was better.

[chenpv]

I have been doing some really laborious experiment in the lab recently, so just picked up a few books to kill the time when the instrument was doing its work.

I just finished 'Brothers' (《兄弟》) written by Yu Hua (余华). Even though I did laugh a lot during the first part of this book, I would like to call it a compilation of contemporary people's talks. As a whole, he is far behind Laoshe (老舍) and Gu Hua (古华).

I also read a few chapters of some memoir dedicated to Hu Yaobang, which further verified the truth that 'Always borrow this kind of book from a library'.

Currently, I am reading 'Wolf Totem' (《狼图腾》) written by Jiang Rong（姜戎). I like it very much and it is definitely my recommendation to foreign friends. No comment till I finish it though.

[Lu]

Currently, I am reading 'Wolf Totem' (《狼图腾》) written by Jiang Rong（姜戎). I like it very much and it is definitely my recommendation to foreign friends. No comment till I finish it though.

That just came in in the library I work. What kind of book is it, and what's it about?

[lady_dilandau]

Currently Da Vinci code and Lonely planet on Japan

[Lu]

Just read Luotuo Xiangzi (in translation). This is the kind of book that made me like The Good Earth so much. It's a good book, for sure, but so negative, so hopeless! Every time Xiangzi gets anything, even if it's just a small thing, he loses it again, and again, and again, there's no hope at all.

I had read quite a number of books in this vein when I read The Good Earth, and that book for once is not so negative. Wang Lung succeeds, he works hard, and has some luck, and he is successfull, and things just get better and better. That was good to read for a change.

[mr. fanglang]

In the middle of reading 藏獒 (tibetan mastiff). Very good. Its being compared to Wolf Totem (狼圖騰) with differing opinions on which one is better.

[Harvey]

Autobiography of Malcom X

[Lu]

A book by Yi Shu. A real pageturner, that is, it has so little text per page that even a reader as slow as me can do 10 pages in about half an hour.

[zhenhui]

I'm reading 笑傲江湖 by 金庸 for the nth time now. Great book!

[HashiriKata]

I'm reading 汉英大辞典 by 商务印书馆 almost every day now. Great book, too!

[zhenhui]

HashiriKata: I'm reading 汉英大辞典 by 商务印书馆 almost every day now. Great book, too!

How's the ending?

[HashiriKata]

It doesn't have an ending (it's a "never ending story"!). That's what makes it such a great book!