This was, for the most part, a very interesting travelogue-come-food-essay on China and it's many different regional cuisines. It spends most of its tThis was, for the most part, a very interesting travelogue-come-food-essay on China and it's many different regional cuisines. It spends most of its time in Sichuan, where Fuchsia spent a term at the university, home to fiery cuisine and the lip-numbing Sichuan pepper, but also covers various other regions of China. I especially enjoyed the book's sojourn in Yangzhou, an ancient city of salt merchants with a highly-refined culture which seemingly has survived the ravages of the Cultural Revolution. Food is universal and, in writing about food, this book also covers Chinese history, social structures, environment, its many different cultures etc . It's really fascinating.
Not going to lie, there were parts which grated on me. In the early parts of the book, there's sometimes a reckless to Fuchsia's actions which don't tally with the fact that she's living in an authoritarian state. Like when she decides to travel to forbidden zones in Tibet, because she's sure she'll be safe as a foreigner. While that might be the case, what about the Chinese people helping her on her escapades who might have faced repercussions?
As the book goes on, Fuchsia begins to have qualms about her beloved China and some of her earlier eagerness to eat everything without paying heed to the moral and environmental ethics of doing so. She grapples with these later in the book, and I certainly enjoyed these well-rounded chapters more....more
"Why did people ask each other how they were? ... How are you was a question that most of the time resulted in an untruthful response ... It was a dre"Why did people ask each other how they were? ... How are you was a question that most of the time resulted in an untruthful response ... It was a dreadfully lonely experience to be asked, as if she were being given a small rock to step on to cross a deep, rough river."
One evening, Jia Jia finds her husband dead in the bath. He leaves behind a mysterious drawing of a creature half-man, half-fish.
This book is very hard to classify. There's no clear plot and it's constantly mystifying. It feels like a fever dream, with woozy magical realist elements sitting alongside a string of loosely-tied moments in Jia Jia's life after her husband's death, all framed against her awful unhappiness and aimlessness. It's a really confident debut and I'm looking forward to seeing what else An Yu writes!...more
It was home, a home, but he knew he would have to leave here too.
The Leavers is about a mother and her child - Peilan (Polly) and Deming (Daniel) Guo.It was home, a home, but he knew he would have to leave here too.
The Leavers is about a mother and her child - Peilan (Polly) and Deming (Daniel) Guo. Peilan arrives in New York from Fuzhou and tries to make a living for her child, Deming. Then one morning, she disappears.
Its also a story about home and belonging, and what happens when that is denied to a person. Both Deming and Peilan are unmoored, cast painfully adrift. They have been made to live in such a fashion that they're neither here nor there, neither Chinese, Fuzhounese or American, neither poor nor rich, unable to please the ones they love or themselves.
There has never been a better time to read books like this. Its hard to say exactly why without giving the plot away, but as hatred of people who immigrate is stoked all over Europe, America, Brazil and countless other places, and as that in turn fuels the rise of ugly right and far-right nationalism and racism, we need stories like these....more
mo yan is a strange and wonderful writer, and red sorghum is no exception. set in the second sino-japanese war, it follows the narrator's father, granmo yan is a strange and wonderful writer, and red sorghum is no exception. set in the second sino-japanese war, it follows the narrator's father, grandfather and grandmother and the plight of the villagers around them suffering under japanese occupation. the writing feels woozy and delirious - describing, for example, the fields of red sorghum in flowery detail as well as the decaying corpses of villagers sprawled upon them. its structure is similar in that it doesn't really have a beginning or an end, moving back and forth through time elastically in a disorientating fashion. that, coupled with the hideous and constant violence and death, made this a very potent book but one i increasingly wanted to escape from. if it had ended a 100 pages before it did i would have added on an extra star....more
funny, wryly-observed short story of a chinese lady moving to the uk and being utterly bewildered - although be warned, first half sans-weird-englishmfunny, wryly-observed short story of a chinese lady moving to the uk and being utterly bewildered - although be warned, first half sans-weird-englishman much better than the first....more
“we are defined by the places we hold in the web of others� lives.�
4.5 stars: this collection of short stories is perfectly imperfect. there's a few “we are defined by the places we hold in the web of others� lives.�
4.5 stars: this collection of short stories is perfectly imperfect. there's a few in here which come off as a little preachy - 'the perfect match', for example, is a slightly better version of the circle (which is AWFUL btw). sometimes they're wondrously insane - 'the waves', which i loved, almost defies description. sometimes they fall flat, like the fox-spirit/steampunk robot in 'good hunting'.
and there are a few absolute stunners. the post-apocalyptic 'mono no aware', about a japanese man aboard an american space station sailing away from a dead earth is pitched perfectly. and, ugh, the eponymous 'paper menagerie' and it's ode to mothers the world-over, weathering silently the countless little heartbreaks inflicted on them by their children, absolutely broke me.
each story has something new to say about time, the past, memories, the future. for such a diverse assembly of stories (in terms of both content and quality), i was surprised how well they all fitted together....more
The world is pretty bleak right now, right? From spectacular own goals like Brexit and Trump, to deadly political machinations abroad (like the ThailaThe world is pretty bleak right now, right? From spectacular own goals like Brexit and Trump, to deadly political machinations abroad (like the Thailand 2014 coup or the ongoing Syrian disaster), democracy as a global programme is in a pretty bad way. This book effortlessly leaps from country to country, building a complex argument for why democracy is under threat, how the West often has an unintentional/intentional role in it, and what can be done about it. It's really an extraordinary achievement - surprisingly readable for an academic work, the case studies it presents are well-researched (often Klaas interviews people directly), fascinating, and expansive.
At its heart, this book is an impassioned, reasoned and articulate defence of democracy. Democracy is not an exclusively Western ideal. To quote Obama's speech in Cairo, 2009, which this book does: There is also one rule that lies at the heart of every religion � that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. This truth transcends nations and peoples � a belief that isn't new; that isn't black or white or brown; that isn't Christian, or Muslim or Jew. It's a belief that pulsed in the cradle of civilization, and that still beats in the heart of billions.
Every person, no matter where they're born, deserves the right to participate in a democracy. Democracies contain a safety valve to diffuse potential conflicts so they're inherently more peaceful. Democracies need to listen to the people in order function, so they're inclusive. Democracies are less volatile than despots, less likely to crumble, so they provide good foundations for long-term economic growth. Democracies are about hope, enfranchisement, the belief that things can get better. Our current democracies aren't perfect *cough* 3 million more Americans voted for Hillary *cough* but they can be made to be....more
so, i was pretty excited when i picked it up, and it started off okay. and it stayed okay. and it ended okay. and that was it. it was basically the book equivalent of a flatline. i think the language has been poorly translated because it's rather clumsy, and the plot is pretty dull - it got to a point where i was so bored with it that i often dreaded picking the book back up again.
fascinating, but was much more occupied with an academic analysis of the foreign policies of britain, america, china and india toward tibet, rather thfascinating, but was much more occupied with an academic analysis of the foreign policies of britain, america, china and india toward tibet, rather than the country or people themselves. ...more
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