1 comments about Chinese Blackbird.

1. Reviewed by Irene Watson for Reader Views (7/08)
   
   Honest, tender, ruthless, revealing, harsh, enlightening, and truthful are just some of the words that describe Sherry Quan Lee's imaginative and poignant language portrayed in "Chinese Blackbird." Born to a Black mother and a Chinese father, Quan Lee struggles with her identity, not only because of the multi-cultural orientation but because she was convinced by her mother to say she is white.
   
   As I read Quan Lee's writings, I couldn't help but wonder if her identity crisis was really caused by the multi-cultural background as she portrays. Although I will not discount the magnitude it would have had on her life, I also see much more in the writing. I see a lack of self-certainty, sexual-identity questioning, as well as role experimentation - much of what most humans experience as conflicts in their lives regardless of culture. Whether or not Quan Lee's identity crisis was caused by a multi-cultural/color insecurity, or it was due to lack of parenting, alcoholism, drug abuse, or many of the other facets in her life, one cannot judge the experience of another person. But we do know each one of us has a choice whether or not we want to wallow in the past or choose to create a different life for ourselves and move forward. According to Quan Lee's words she is progressing in finding her true self and moving forward.
   
   I commend Quan Lee for exposing her thoughts and life outside of herself. As a poet, her language is powerful, powerful enough to entice the reader to look into his or her own life and question their own identity. "Chinese Blackbird" will touch your soul.

No comments about China High.

No comments about 100 Celebrated Chinese Women.

No comments about Memorials Of Protestant Missionaries To The Chinese: Giving A List Of Their Publications, And Obituary Notices Of The Deceased, With Copious Indexes (1867).

2 comments about Paper Shadows: A Memoir of a Past Lost and Found.

1. In anticipation of the lunar new year, I picked up this book. The author had me under his spell by the second page. In his memoir of growing up in the 1940's, as the son of Chinese immigrants in Vancouver's Chinatown, the reader learns that Mr. Choy, while on a promotional book tour in 1995, received a call from a woman who says that she just saw his mother. But his Toisanese mother died nearly two decades earlier, he tells the mysterious caller. No, the caller replies, she means his `real mother.' And so the memoir and the mystery begin. In descriptive language that is hypnotic and nearly as haunting as a ghost filled home his family lived in, an extremely detailed portrait of his life as a young boy is drawn. In Part 1, his pre-school years are filled with family, Chinglish, mah-jong, lots of single "uncles" to take him for ice cream, nightly Chinese operas (his mother's version are a permanent barrier against pessimism), cowboy films, and his assertively willful tantrums. In Part 2, the author writes of his school years, English and Chinese lessons, stubbornness, truancy, confusion, helplessness, his pet dog, the humiliations his father endured at work, and the other concerns of children. In the last third of the book, Mr. Choy returns as an adult to the mystery of his and explores the hidden secrets of his family. Upon close reading, one learns about the stress of living as an Asian in North America during the War, a time when burials were only allowed in Asian-only cemeteries, when sick Asians were housed in the basement of the hospital, when Asians were offered payments to return to Asia if they promised never to return, and when men were not allowed to bring their families or wives over to the Gold Mountain from across the Pacific. On even closer reading, one can discern how different Chinese identities were crafted in North America by his grandfather, his parents, and finally himself in an in-between'ness third generation.



2. Now a respected professor and novelist in Canada, Wayson Choy was 57 years old in 1999 when he learned that he had been adopted. This memoir is a result of that discovery and, even though some family secrets do get discovered, by the end of this 342 page-book, he and the reader understand that much of his suppressed family history will never be completely uncovered.
   
   I did enjoy the story itself, however, which deals almost exclusively with his childhood years. Born in Vancouver in 1939, his memory of those early ears and his simple descriptions put me right into the young boy's mind.. He's the only child of hard-working Chinese immigrants in the land they refer to as Golden Mountain. Chinatown in those years was a world unto itself, and the young boy was loved and cherished by his parents as well as a large assortment of "uncles" whose own families were still back in China.
   
   Through his eyes we see the elaborate Chinese operas, which were transported to Canadian soil, and which his mother always enjoyed. We see his early encounters with English books and his strong will to learn to read. We see him go to a Canadian nursery school and learn about the Christian religion. We understand his Chinese roots and the many ghosts and spirits that are part of his Chinese culture. We meet his dog and have to laugh at the way this loving pet took over his life. Chinatown becomes real for the reader and so does the boy's obsession with cowboys and refusal to go to a traditional Chinese school. Most of the book was devoted to this very detailed portrait. Basically, this childhood was filled with love and little trauma.
   
   It was only in the last couple of chapters when we join him in his quest for his family secrets. This is written in the same simple style and delves deeper into the history of his family's experience in China as well as the new world. We'll never know most of the story. But we do get to share his growing-up years and learn about the forces that shaped his world.

5 comments about The Private Life of Chairman Mao: The Memoirs of Mao's Personal Physician ('Mao ze dong si ren yi sheng hui yi lu', in traditional Chinese, NOT in English).

1. 
   This doctor could have had a comfortable and fulfilling life but chose to join the spirit of the new China. He, like so many idealistic youth, went back to China (and Russia) to join the "new society" only to be buried in a world created by the revolutionaries in whom they had put their trust.
   
   Dr. Li's suffering was made meaningful in his writing this book. This may be the world's first up close portrait of a national dictator/cult leader. Some of the things that were most striking to me are:
   
   · First, when Dr. Li accompanies Mao to his hometown, Mao tells him how his father, a minor but comfortable landowner, beat him and his brothers so badly that he would run away. Recently I had read how Fidel Castro, was humiliated by living in the workers' homes on the property where his father lived in the "big house" with his legal wife and family. Years ago I had read of Stalin's abuse at the hand of his stepfather. These bright, talented and unwanted sons turned their anger, resentment and hostility on millions of victims.
   
   · Second is that revolutionary warriors had no time for education and their resentment for those that had it ran deep. The facts of the Great Leap Forward imply ignorance, but Dr. Li defines the know-it-all way it got started, grew, got implemented and institutionalized. With science meaningless, Mao's medical treatment was a political decision, and the doctor knew he would suffer for the patient's eventual death.
   
   · Third is the no-win situation everyone was in. The people setting the dynamics had not only the education of third graders, they had the emotional maturity of them too. Slights and unwanted facts create temper tantrums and grudges lethal to the inhabitants of Zhongnanhai and disastrous for China.
   
   · Fourth, was how Dr. Li was expected to know about everything from water quality, to the poisons in food to dentistry and given no opportunities for professional development. When convenient this knowledge was used, but never applauded.
   
   · It's interesting how Mao maintained power even as he lost his eyesight and speech. I'd be interested in some views why/how this happened.
   
   · It's amazing that this book is free of acrimony and sensationalism. For all his troubles Dr. Li was banished to the countryside 3 times and often intentionally separated from his family.
   
   It must have been both painful and cathartic to write this book. I'm curious how his sons got to the US.
   
   This is a must read for anyone interested in 20th century China.



2. An urbane bourgeois doctor meets and works for a brutal egotistic self-doubting country boy turned dictator, with hilarious results. Part of the fun of reading this is who you are rooting for. Personally I found the good doctor rather tiresome, he is clearly a lesser man than Mao (although he obviously didn't think so) throughout the book. However Mao's weaknesses - vanity, covetousness, adultery (in the extreme), heck just paste in all the seven sins - also become tiresome after the first exhilaration of meeting this gangster turned dictator. In fact Mao becomes a bit like Tony Soprano - you stop rooting for him after you realise that this kind of life is what it is - unhealthy and harmful to others. Mao was a powerful man, but not a great one, as he did very little to help his people - in fact millions suffered and died under his rule - but he does have the legacy of founding the modern China that right now is on the rise.



3. A real, in depth account of Mao from the view of his personal physician. I don't think there is any other point of view that can capture this leader's horrendous acts and thought process.



4. This book is long, but written in a clear and fluid style; one brimful with interesting episodes and tidbits impossible to find elsehwhere. The details of Mao's illness(es) and death come to mind and make for very engaging reading, but just about every other account is jaw dropping as well: stories about Jiang Qing, Lin Biao, the Cultural Revolution, the Great Leap Foward, Mao's addiction to drugs and sex, etc., etc. Penned by a man who saw and spoke with the chairman nearly every day he was in power, the Private Life of Chairman Mao is much more interesting than the "standard" Mao biographies I have read, which is, of course, because it is a first-hand, behind-the-scenes account. It may take you a while to get through it, and you may wish to supplement it by reading one of those "standard" bios, but if you're in any way thoughtful or a serious China watcher, this book is a must.



5. I enjoyed the book. To me frankly it was not one of those books that I couldn't put down but it's still a very interesting insight into Mao and Communist China during his reign. He claimed to be a simple peasant. He sent not only the educated people but people in his ruling group, usually in disfavor, including Dr. Li to work with the peasants in the country side to learn from them. Yet he lived like the emperors that he read about so widely. This was a classic example of everyone being equal but some being a lot more equal than others. He starved people by the millions with his ideas while he lived in luxury. To me one of the tragedies of the story was of Dr. Li himself. He was lured back to China in the belief that great things were to happen under Mao. He was drafted against his will to be Mao's personal physician and for a while continued to beleive in him. Of course he soon became totally disillustioned with him but the real tragedy for Dr. Li was that he wanted to continue to study medicine and become a surgeon. He was never able to leave Mao to accomplish this and was separated from his family for much of the time of his service which was most of their lives. The insight of this book truely moves Mao into the ranks of the great monsters of human history.

No comments about Lam Chi Phat: The Chronicle of an Overseas Chinese Family.

No comments about The Travels of Lao Tsan.

5 comments about Daughter of the River.

1. Dear Hong Ying

   Thank you so much for sending me your book. I was totally gripped by your narrative and when I finished it I found myself weeping uncontrollably. There is so much in your story which strikes my raw emotion and which touches my heart deeply.This is not just because I feel instinctively tuned into the underworld you depicted so vividly due to similar experiences in my life in Chongqing. More importantly, it embodies almost exactly the literary project which has long been fermenting in my mind. I have always longed to read something or even write something which could show that big words such as freedom, democracy and human rights are not just some high-sounding principles; that they affect millions of ordinary people's lives in many concrete ways.

   In my discipline of political science, the rise of East Asia in the 1980s spawned a huge industry of academic research on the relathionship between political system and economic development. For quite a while, Western scholars who were critical of their own democratic system joined the chorus of East Asian dictators such as Suharto, Lee Kuan Yew and Dr Mahathir (of Malaysia) to defend the "necessity" of authoritarianism for the sake of economic development and political stability. I think your book would be an ideal antidote to this typical "arm-chair" scholarship devoid of any sense of reality. To me, your book serves as a powerful warning that development without democracy simply

   creates another privileged class standing above the law and everyone else. I am often angered and depressed by the world I live in. It seems to me so many human injustices stem ultimately from the fact that too many human beings are greedy and cruel.




2. The non linar approach kept me thinking there would be some big supprizing reward at the end of the book. To my disappointment there was no such revolation. Not an awfully written story but certinally no prize winner in my book!



3. I cannot say that I enjoyed reading this book ... it was too raw to bring pleasure. But it did keep me captivated until the end. I felt that I wanted to reach out to Hong Ying and comfort her in some way as she lived through such excruciating poverty and endured the even greater agony of not feeling loved. I hope that she has found love and is at peace now. I also wonder about the fate of her family. Did they ever find release from such grinding poverty?

   Hong Ying obviously has a great talent and I look forward to reading more of her writings.




4. It is true that this autobiography is bleak. It is dark, but it is a reflection of the poverty and oppression experienced by the peasant class in China, now and all during the rule of the Communist regime. How Hong Ying is able to evoke absolute beauty from this seemingly unending ugliness is beyond me. But she expertly does just that. Without thought or pretense, Hong Ying's writing sings immaculately from the page. Amazing prose. This book's importance lies in that it is the story of someone from the peasant class, and since it is always good to hear all different perspectives of the same or similar events in order to get a good all around picture of the times, Hong Ying's book is a must read. In commenting on the book to a friend, I said that perhaps Hong Ying and her family's saving grace was that they were already at the bottom of the totem pole. Because of this they didn't have to experience the worst of what the Cultural Revolution had to offer eventhough it touched their lives daily. The peasant class of China is what Mao Zedong strived to make all the people of China in the name of proletarianism. The fact that Hong Ying and her family were already of this class meant that many of the dynamics of the time that were sweeping through all classes above them settled into their class as normalcy somewhat. It's like a line from Joan Chen's movie "Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl;" at one point when Xiu Xiu is questioning where she is being sent, she is told that it doesn't matter because it's the same everywhere; a simple statement but poignant in just how dead on right it is. Therefore, you must appreciate even moreso when we are allowed to read of these events by all those who were a part of them be it peasant or merchant. If it's done well, it is the most captivating of things to read because it means they made it out and are able to share it with us now. Before, any scraps of paper containing this type of writing would have been confiscated and burned, a black mark put in your file, or perhaps you'd be arrested. Hong Ying has done a brilliant job telling of her coming into womanhood in those times and of the exuberant curiosity she had about her family and herself, always having been treated as the outsider.



5. Whats annoying is that the author passes this all off as autobigraphical and historically true, when it is NOT. YH was/is from a very elite background, and like other expats making bucks off of US readers in search of melodramas of oppressed Chinese, this works poorly as history or politics. MOreover, the prose is labored and purple, though this might be the translation's fault.

No comments about All Under Heaven: The Story of a Chinese Family in South Africa.