No comments about Biographic Dictionary of Chinese Communism, 1921-1965: Vol. 1, Ai Szu-ch'i - Lo I-nung; Vol. 2, Lo Jui-ch'ing--Yun Tai-ying (Harvard East Asian Series).

No comments about Ch'en Tzu-ang (Chinese University Press).

1 comments about Yeee-Hah: Remembrance And Longing.

1. Dr. George Shen, Chief Editor Emeritus of the Hong Kong Economic Journal, published in his column, April 11, 2005:
   "Yeee-Hah! is an impressive, enjoyable read. It is highly informative on the lives of Chinese Americans and how they coped and progressed. In particular, chapters on racial discrimination and on the comparability of the Chinese and Jews are original and written with insight. The book enables readers to have a better understanding of Americans and of the author."

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 Peranakan's Search For National Identity: Biographical Studies Of Seven Indonesian Chinese.

No comments about The Story of Mencius (Insights into Chinese History).

No comments about Biography of Deng Xiaoping (The Revolution Period) ('Deng xiao ping zhuan (ge ming pian)', in traditional Chinese, NOT in English).

No comments about Chinese in the World: Brief Biographies of Chinese Entrepreneurs (book 2).

No comments about The Chinese Lady's Secret.

No comments about Red Dust: Autobiographies of Chinese Comminists.