What are you reading?

[Lu]

Just finished Fat China, the subtitle 'how expanding waistlines are changing a nation' can be reversed to 'how a changing nation is expanding waistlines' and taken together that would neatly summarize the book. The authors make some good points on changing food patterns, the rising fastfood industry, the weight increase among children and other points, but they could have done with some more editing (messed-up table in chapter one already, and some weird statistics, such as that mortality for children under five increased to 8.7%. As an educated layperson, the only thing I can make of that is that almost one in ten children in China dies before their 5th birthday and that seems a bit extreme) and some more knowledge of China: they quote a statistic that only something like 5% of Shanghainese women cook for their family, and interpret that as meaning that Shanghainese families eat out a lot, instead of evidence that Shanghainese men are living up to their reputation.

[Areckx]

I could barely call it reading, but my current dictionary project is 牡丹亭 written by 汤显祖

EDIT: OH wow this shows how terrible I am at Chinese... I actually don't have the play, but I have the

湯顯祖與牡丹亭

I think it's a comprehensive breakdown of the play? does anyone know more about this work?

EDIT: now I'm really confused... I think it's a novel adaption of the play? 954 pages and I have the top and bottom part... wow I sure wish I could just sit down, read, and enjoy chinese but I have such a long way to go before that can happen...

any tips on how I should go about studying with this?

here's a review

http://book.douban.com/review/1062912/

here's a baidu copy, it's not loading on this computer though.

http://wenku.baidu.c...88d0d26b9f.html

EDIT: Here's a CCTV-9 documentary about 汤显祖

-part 1

-part 2

[skylee]

Better-off families employ ayi, I suppose？ One more possible reason why some Shanghainese women don't cook for their families.

[roddy]

such as that mortality for children under five increased to 8.7%.

Lessee . . . UNICEF says that as of 2009, 19 in 1000 Chinese kids died before the age of 5, so that's 1.9%.

[muirm]

Finally starting on 书剑恩仇录 by 金庸. It is certainly more challenging than 古龙, but if it's not hard, you're not learning (fast), right? I've only read the first chapter and it already feels like the plot has more to it than an entire 古龙 book.

[rob07]

I could barely call it reading, but my current dictionary project is 牡丹亭 written by 汤显祖 ... I think it's a comprehensive breakdown of the play? does anyone know more about this work?

According to your Douban review, what you have is a collection of essays and commentaries by literature professors on the play. They are not breakdowns but analyses of the deeper meanings and comparisons to other works of literature. None of it is going to make any sense until you have first read the play and, probably, studied for an undergraduate degree in Chinese literature or done the equivalent amount of work on your own.

Big points for trying something this ambitious, but I don't think that even 牡丹亭 the play is a good subject for a dictionary look up project. It seems to be generally thought that the real genius of the work is not so much in the plot itself (a love story like many others the world over), but how it is written, it is a bit like one big poem. I haven't read it myself but I remember that the characters in 红楼梦 were going nuts about the quality of the language. The dictionary look up project will completely kill the beauty of the language and the plot is supposed to be not that special.

Why don't you check out the "To Live" thread, that is a great first book.

[Lu]

Better-off families employ ayi, I suppose? One more possible reason why some Shanghainese women don't cook for their families.

Better-off Beijing families also employ ayis, I assume, and yet according to that book Beijing women cook in much larger numbers. Well, many possible explanations, but certainly it's too easy to explain it all with takeout fastfood.

Now reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, great read, Harry Potter for adults, basically. Murong Xuecun has not been progressing very well since I picked up that book.

[Areckx]

Harry Potter is for adults...

[Lu]

It is not. Harry Potter is aimed at children and can also be enjoyed by adults (as I have). JS & Mr N is aimed at adults and I would not recommend it for children, it's much darker than HP.

[Areckx]

Either way, you're a person with a single timeline. Everything you read is interpreted by your unique self. I stopped categorizing stuff I read and watch by children's, adults, etc. I see everything as a unique interpretation by Alex.

[Gleaves]

i finished up 蓝血人 and I'm now just getting started on 天下无贼。 I loved the movie and I think imron had mentioned it wasn't too tough, so I figured I would give it a shot.

[imron]

I loved the movie and I think imron had mentioned it wasn't too tough,

It's not too tough, but just realise it's a collection of short stories with 天下无贼 being one of the later ones. When I first read it, it took me a while to figure out what was going on and why the first two chapters had nothing to do with the movie

[Areckx]

http://ishare.iask.sina.com.cn/f/10585967.html

[imron]

Finished《神雕侠侣》and am about to start on《夜谭十计》which is the novel that the movie《让子弹飞》was based on.

I liked《神雕侠侣》a lot more than《射雕英雄传》and it would probably be my favourite 金庸 novel so far if it wasn't for various inconsistencies/implausibilities, and also what seemed like an over reliance on amazing coincidence to resolve a number of different plot lines (as it stands《碧血剑》is still my favourite at this point). Still a great read though.

[skylee]

Can't say i like 神鵰 that much. imron, you are invited to contribute to that old thread 郭襄 in Chinese corner.

[imron]

There are quite are few parts in 神雕 that I didn't like - especially the reliance on amazing coincidence to resolve problems or progress the story (and sometimes it was amazing coincidence on top of another amazing coincidence). To me, that really detracted from my enjoyment of it.

There were other parts where I went from liking a character to disliking that character to liking that character again as different facets of their personality were revealed. Sometimes I would think that certain characters were stupid or silly for doing some of the things they did and if they only took a little bit more care, or had been a bit more tolerant, then all sorts of problems could have been avoided, other times I'd almost feel angry at the author for the misfortune that was dealt out to certain characters at certain times. Despite all that though, I like it when a book makes you get involved enough to care about these things, even if you don't necessarily like them, and ultimately I thought the good parts outweighed the bad parts.

Anyway, I just had a brief skim of the 郭襄 thread. I might wait until I've read《倚天屠龙记》before commenting, however I think that 郭襄 would have still been besotted by 杨过 even if he hadn't gone all out for her birthday. I haven't read the later book to know how much the birthday presents specifically had an effect on her, but you could see she was already idolising him before her birthday.

[Areckx]

http://book.douban.c...745/collections

http://www.docin.com/p-32322504.html

I received a bunch of a books that seem to be literary criticisms and analyses, if you have been following the books I've been reading. 哈哈哈

Free books are free! I'm really more concerned with character recognition than content at this point. I use these books as sort of a natural SRS.

EDIT:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Great_Classical_Novels

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgTWnyI2U0E

[renzhe]

If you are interested in the four great classical novels, you might be interested in our book reading project (well, I'm the only one left, but it's never too late to join, and given my pace, you'll overtake me by Christmas):

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/29794-project-for-2011-%e6%b0%b4%e6%b5%92%e4%bc%a0/

[michaelS]

Interview about current Chinese literature with Jo Lusby (Penguin), Eric Abrahamsen (Paper Republic), and Alice Liu (Pathlight) about contemporary Chinese literature: http://popupchinese.com/lessons/sinica/chinese-literature

[paotale]

Highly recommend 余花's new autobiography/commentary <十个词汇里的中国>also 徐则臣　<跑步穿过中关村>