No comments about The Gay Genius: The Life and Times of Su Tungpo.

No comments about Coming to America - The Chinese (Coming to America).

No comments about The Year the Dragon Came.

No comments about Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty: His Life, Times, And Legacy (S U N Y Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture).

No comments about AMERICANS AND CHINESE. A Historical Essay and a Biography..

No comments about China in the Age of SARS.

2 comments about Sweet Bamboo: A Saga of a Chinese American Family.

1. OUTSTANDING BOOK, SINCE I AM A AMERICAN CHINESE...I CAN FEEL ALOT FOR
   THIS STORY...PLUS I GREW UP IN CENTRAL LOS ANGELES...KNOWING WHERE
   ALL THE LOCAL LOCATIONS WERE. MY FATHER AND MOTHER WERE BORN HERE IN
   THE US...SO PART OF THE STORY WAS VERY INTERESTING TO ME.



2. I heard about this book because one of the author's progeny mentioned it to me. This book gave me a real sense of what being Chinese in America -in particular in Los Angeles - was like. In reading this book, I could see the particular personality of "Papa" reflected in my friend. It's been a few years since I read this book, but the part that I remember in particular are the "painful" walks with "Papa" that the daughter described. It struck a cord with me because of my own experiences in communicating across the generations. Such experiences are felt across all cultures.

3 comments about Little Sister: Searching for the Shadow World of Chinese Women.

1. This tells you more about the author than it does about China; the writer claims to know Chinese but commits some obvious howlers ("horse-horse camel-camel" for "ma-ma hu-hu") that shows she speaks very little. Much better books about China include Kristoff & WuDunn's China Wakes, the Tysons' Chinese Awakenings: Life Stories from the Unofficial China, or Jan Wong's Red China Blues : My Long March from Mao to Now.



2. I've read stacks of books on China--both before, during, and after living there--and I will certainly add this one to my recommendation list. There are plenty of writers comfortable with giving pure "reportage" on a foreign country they have lived in, supposedly factual accounts of dramatic encounters or distanced anecdotes about the sights and sounds, but few willing to speak honestly about how they are personally affected by that place and the people they grow close to--or the complicated reasons that motivate them to go in the first place. Why travel to another country if you aren't willing to be changed by it or admit the concerns and questions you bring with you? Why read a memoir if you want just the facts or a large scale "objective" account and not something of the writer too? Read an encyclopedia or history book if that's what you're after, although these won't give you a sense of what it is for you as an individual to be in that place. Checkoway's beautiful account of her year in Hebei Province and the lives of the Chinese women who were brave enough to tell her their stories enriched my own understanding of the women in China who had befriended me, leaving me longing to return and at the same time profoundly aware of the way travelers are constantly compelled, each for their own reasons, to try to connect across cultures and political divisions. There is a haunting, respectful quality to Checkoway's prose. She admires these women for their courage, determination, and insights, and by the end of the book, I admire them--and Checkoway--too.



3. This novel is even more trite, than the authors boring monologues on mail order brides. Rather than familiarize the reader with the subject matter at hand, the author pumps her own ego repeatedly. What I did find amusing were the multiple references to the author's own homoerotic, incestuous, and pediphilific tendencies. In a word this novel blows. literally.

No comments about Full Circle a Life with Hong Kong & Chi.

No comments about Go Home and Tell: How Answered Prayer Undergirded an Adventurous Witness in China.