What are you reading?

[Summer Song]

I'm reading a science fiction called 老貓, written by Ni Kuang.（倪匡）Really interesting!

[古文奇才]

I heard his stuff was abstract and esoteric.

[simc]

At the moment I'm reading (and listening to) Woju (蜗居). This novel has a TV adaption which was previously discussed here.

 

Now I'm about halfway through. What I like about this book is it is very accessible for the most part. It is easy enough for me that I can just listen to the audiobook and I feel like I can get the gist of what is going on. For me it feels easier than 圈子圈套. I think this would be a good one to add to the list of "starter" novels.

 

[roddy]

Simc, it'd be great if you want to write up a new topic about the book, along the lines of what Laurenth and Geiko have done. An accessible novel, which also has an audiobook and a TV series, would be a fantastic resource. How close are the audiobook and book texts?

[simc]

I'll start a topic then!

 

The book and audiobook match pretty well. I know that I complained in another thread about audiobooks and books not matching, but I only really did that because I had tried to read An Suan (暗算) only to find that the book and audiobook were completely different!

[Guest realmayo]

Looking forward to reading the topic. I enjoyed the TV show, hadn't realised there was a book. And an accompanying audiobook makes it even better.

[roddy]

Simc, you've probably already seen them, but recently we've had topics like these

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/44529-reading-gu-longs-%E6%B5%81%E6%98%9F%E2%80%A2%E8%9D%B4%E8%9D%B6%E2%80%A2%E5%89%91/

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/43310-reading-%E9%AC%BC%E5%90%B9%E7%81%AF-pulpy-supernatural-fiction/

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/44289-%E9%A5%A5%E9%A5%BF%E6%B8%B8%E6%88%8F-the-hunger-games/

 

A topic just introducing the book and linking to the various resources you can find (here's our own TV topic) would be plenty, but if you have the time and inclination to post any vocab lists you've generated, questions you have about the text, etc - all the better!

 

Thanks. 

[Lu]

I read 棋王 and a few other assorted 阿城 stories, and they are well-written, good stories, but I kind of gave up after a few of them, not what I am looking for at the moment I suppose. Nothing really happens, it's not the kind of story that pulls you in, more the kind that you ruminate a bit on for some time after reading it.

Now reading a book titled 丽嘉则拉, subtitled 'the last matriarchal society'. The story of a woman growing up in said matriarchal society. It's a nice book so far (30 pages in), young girl grows up in what's pretty much isolated paradise, next door to Shangri-la. It's presented like somewhat of a travel book/account of Lijiazela, but it reads like a children's book so far. Not sure what to make of that, or whether I need to make anything of that. It's a bit problematic in some ways though: the author is a Han man telling the story of a minority woman (the minority is not specified, but probably Tibetan or a people with a similar language and culture). It's presented as the life story of a very old woman that the author has met, but it's highly fictionalised, without the author acknowledging or explaing that. All the while it's quite enjoyable to read, and easy too.

And it's interesting to think of a matriarchy. Not that much better than a patriarchy, even in the idealised way it's presented in this book. No long-term acknowledged relationships between a man and a woman, no fatherhood... Not a very good deal for men. And instead of getting pressure to have a son, women are pressured to have a daughter.

Edit to add: the writing style is very interesting: lots of repeated sentences, in dialogues the names are repeated with every utterance, also in descriptions it's always 扎西玛 does this and 扎西玛 does that, very little 她/他. It's mimicking the style of folk songs it seems. Quite cool.

Also it's a very fast read, already one-third in after just a few days of reading.

[ouyangjun]

@Lu - interesting the timing.  I cannot sleep tonight so I finished reading 阿城 《孩子王》 about 20 minutes ago.  I've now finished 《棋王》《树王》 and 《孩子王》.  If I had to rank them, #1: 《孩子王》, #2 《棋王》, and then #3 《树王》.  

 

For me the books were excellent.  For 《孩子王》 and 《棋王》 both of them kept me up later in the evening than I'd wanted, because I was so into the story.  I can see how this style of writing/story telling would not appeal to everyone.  But for me they were great, and 《孩子王》 has become my #1 favorite Chinese book.

 

Most of the cultural revolution stories focus on all of the bad things (of which there were many).  But this series of three books has a detailed first person narrative from the viewpoint of young intellects who got sent to the countryside for re-education.

 

Each book has a balance of of "things that are happening during the revolution that don't make sense" (ex. 树王 and cutting down beautiful nature and forests to prove an ideology; 孩子王 and the pointless teaching lessons in which the students are learning no real knowledge), but they also highlight the young intellects teamwork, excitement and how they often celebrate small victories or events in their own way to keep them going.  It takes the focus away from the misfortunes that people like to talk about of the revolution and focuses on how the young intellects live their life day to day and reflection on what they are doing.

 

棋王 - where a young intellect is getting sent to the countryside and on the train meets "the chess master" who is a gifted chess player of daoist thoughts and believes that competition and tournaments are not worthy of his soul.

 

树王 - where the intellects are dead set on chopping down a beautiful forest to prove their ideology only to look back on it with a questioning of what was done.

 

孩子王 - where the teacher is sent from the labor divisions in the hills to a school to teach children and realizes the party teaching methods of textbook 抄写 are worthless and takes it upon himself to change the teaching style (and develop a relationship with 孩子王 who's father is the village idiot).

 

For me all excellent books.  Now my next task... find a new book to read and focus on doing it quickly so I can read instead of researching what book to read (alway a challenge with me).

[Lu]

And this is why I like talking about books, more viewpoints make the book better. It's not that I didn't enjoy the stories per se, it's more that I enjoy them more in hindsight than when reading them. Perhaps I should finish the other stories as well :-/

I agree that these stories talk about the CR in both a positive (new adventure, we enjoy working hard for the good of the country) and negative (pointless teaching, destruction of nature, corruption) light. I liked 树王 best, I liked the point that 肖疙瘩 makes about how the biggest tree shows the work of the (unspecified) god, something that is larger than humanity, that doesn't depend on humanity one way or the other, and that therefore it shouldn't be cut down. 孩子王 was also good, as I was wondering how it was all going to be resolved (is he going to marry 来娣? Are the children going to learn more?), it wasn't resolved, which feels real, and is probably a lot better for an ending than if everything would have been neatly wrapped up.

I finished 丽嘉则拉: part folksong/life story, part sociological taking stock, part travelogue, all of it an easy and enjoyable read, though still problematic for reasons I mentioned. Now reading a book titled 零地点: nuclear disaster strikes Taiwan in 2016 when an accident happens at a nuclear power plant near Taipei, one engineer is at the heart of it all but has forgotten everything, and there is lots of politics as well of course. That's all I know because I'm not very far in yet, but so far it's fun.

[gato]

You might be interested in the excellent movie adaptation of 孩子王 directed by 陈凯歌. It can be founded on many of China' online video sites like Youku or iQiyi. It's one of my favorite Chinese movies.

I loved the Daoism in 棋王. It could be thought of as one of the few ways to stay sane during the Cultural Revolution. Or thought of in another way, the Cultural Revolution was thoroughly anti-tradition and anti-spiritual, and yet here they were talking about something that was deeply traditional and spiritual. It can be seen an a form of personal revolt against what's happening in the wider world. Many stories about the Cultural Revolution shared these themes.

Ouyangjun, you might be interested in reading some stories by 王小波 (黄金时代), 王朔, 郁达夫 (春风沉醉的晚上), or 鲁迅 (伤逝).

[ouyangjun]

@Lu - I tried looking up to see if the book you read, 《丽嘉则拉》, was on Kindle store at Amazon.cn... unfortunately it is not.

 

@Gato - thanks for the suggestions. I will check out the movie adaptation of 孩子王 one of these days.  As for the book suggestions, I found a lot of 王小波 work on amazon.cn Kindle store, including 《黄金时代》... with  郁达夫 《春风沉醉的晚上》.  Going to download samples of both and see which one I want to commit to.

 

Thanks

[Lu]

@Ouyangjun: Here it is, not sure why you couldn't find it. I suppose searching by isbn helps, 9787539930442 :-) It's on 当当 as well.

Do post back if you see the 孩子王 movie, I'm curious what they'd make of it. It is the most suitable of the three to make into a movie, I suppose.

Edit: And only now I see you wanted to find the Kindle version, not the paper book, so my link was rather useless.

[ouyangjun]

@Lu, yes, you're correct, was looking of the Kindle version. If it's not on my Kindle I tend not to read it... An unfortunate reality I've come to accept. For someone who travels a lot for work the kindle is so much more convenient than paper books.

[character]

A China Reading Rainbow | China Hang-up podcast

"The once mysterious Middle Kingdom has long since been opened to the outside world, and where there was previously a dearth of good literature, there’s now a mountain of China books.

"But not all of them are worth the time, especially for the casual reader. So for today’s episode we’ll sift out some of the most worthy titles for readers of varying interests."

Link goes to page with the episode and the list of books discussed on the episode.

[roddy]

Just finished River of Stars, by Guy Gavriel Kay. Might suit people on here, it's a historical fantasy set in an alternate version of the Song Dynasty - loosely based around the fall of Kaifeng, characters inspired by Yue Fei, Su Dongpo, Li Qingzhao. There are supernatural elements, but these are fairly tangential. It gets "'Game of Thrones' in China" reviews, but I think that's overegging the still-tasty pudding. More in line with Joe Abercrombie, but far less cynical and brutal. May possibly annoy historians who want everything to be accurate. 

 

The Amazon sample is a decent length if anyone wants to take a look. 

[mcpon14]

My Life as a Smashed Burrito With Extra Hot Sauce

[Basil]

Still working through my pile of spur-of-the-moment book purchases.

 

Just started 人生 by 路遥。

[imron]

人生 by 路遥

人生 is not bad, but not as good as his《平凡的世界》(reviewed here)。Definitely add that to your reading list if you haven't read it already.

[Basil]

Sure, will do. A million characters of easy Chinese seems like a no-brainer. 

 

Only two novels and ten non-fiction books left to read until I can start...

 

 

Update... 23rd July.

 

Half way through 人生。Not bad, quite enjoyable, few too many exclamation marks though.

 

Picked up 平凡的世界 today. Six books in three volumes. A million characters. So pretty much Lord of the Rings without the elves, dwarves and stuff, and featuring a cast of Chinese hobbits. Seems doable. Always liked Sam Gamgee.