5 comments about Chinese Through Tone & Color.

1. I think this is an outstanding contribution to the teaching of characters. Hanyu pinyin allows you to encode phonetic information in written Chinese, but does not, like writing directly in characters, dispel the ambiguity of meanings between
   homophones. Being able to directly encode the tonal value of a character by giving it a color firmly links the pronunciation and meaning of a character without the ambiguity of the pinyin transcriptions.
   The book itself is deceptively modest in its declared intention. . .to simply instruct the reader in the meanings of 100 characters drawn from the HSK1 Level A. However, because the author adds a great deal of grammatical and syntactical information, as well as including additional chinese words in pinyin to create illustrative sentences and to provide models for how to properly form sentences, the alert reader will be famililarized with a great many more than 100 characters by working through the book.
   Right now I am working through the HSK1 List with a selection of Pentel Colored Brushes bringing the characters to vivid life by displaying the proper tones directly in the the characters themselves.
   Listening to the mp3's of the characters and exemplary sentences while reading them in color format firmly fixes their pronunciations in the mind. Writing them with colored pencils or pencils, or drawing them with Pentel brushes further fixes them in the mind.
   Once you are familiar with the color assignments to the various tones,it is then no problem to move beyond the book itself and include any other instructional materials into this method, writing and reading other learning materials in color.
   Altogether an great advance in teaching Chinese.



2. First I started with Pimsleur, and then I bought this book to supplement Pimsleur. This book is amazing. I am grateful to the author for creating it. Don't buy this book by itself, however, and expect to learn Chinese from it alone. It's a vocab and grammar book in one, and although it comes with audio cds, it's just too dense to read straight through. That's why I say it's the PERFECT supplement to use with an audio program like Pimsleur. As you learn the words with Pimsleur, you can look them up in this book and learn how to write and read them as well.



3. This book provides a brilliant and easily remembered means for internalizing the tones of characters. For the first time, I have finally locked tones into my memory. If you are a student of Chinese who has struggled with making the transition from pinyin (the Romanization of characters) to writing and reading sentences in characters, the value of this book is obvious. If you are just learning Chinese and still enjoying the luxury of the pinyin and tone-marker crutches, this book is essential. As soon as you leave pinyin and are confronted with the character for 'is' and do not remember whether it is 'shi' with a 2nd tone or 'shi' with a 4th tone (the difference between 'is' and '10'), you will recognize the books' value.
   
   'Chinese through Tone & Color' should be a companion for most beginning Chinese programs. Its primary focus is learning (so they become automatic) the tones of 100 characters by assigning a color to each of the four tones. But it is much more than this, because every lesson sets the target character into basic sentence structures with additional, color-coded characters. I have found that by using these basic structures I am finally remembering tonal patterns fundamental to Chinese. The color coding of the tones accompanied by the CDs has provided an invaluable memory tool.
   
   The pace for the beginner is fast, and I have found it is necessary to listen to the CD tracks multiple times in order to lock the target characters into sentence structures. Several characters are introduced at once in simple sentences. If you have studied no Chinese before, you may find it difficult to catch on at first, but it is worth the effort; if you have studied some beforehand, this book will enhance your tonal memory and accuracy. It is likely to become an indispensable learning supplement. The book, with 2 CDs, is small, compact and durable--easy to carry. Later, the downloadable image-enhanced mp3s make it possible to practice any time, any place.



4. Before reading this book, all I knew about Chinese was that it's a tonal language and therefore very difficult to learn if you don't speak a tonal language already. After reading this book, I have a better grasp of what exactly the different tones are and how they change the meaning of the word. The CDs are extremely useful for the demonstration of the different tones. In a language where meaning depends largely on pronunciation, the CDs are crucial to the learning process. In the beginning, I was constantly looking back at the useful "Note on Pinyin" on pages 8 and 9. The "Note" explains the differences in pronunciation between our alphabet and the phonetically transcribed Chinese alphabet. If you are struggling with your study of Chinese or are just curious about what exactly learning a tonal language entails, this is the perfect book for you!



5. As someone without any real prior background in Chinese, I can safely say that this book introduces the Chinese tonal system in a way that anyone can understand. It's exceedingly clear, succinct, and well put together. I was able to load the character images onto my iPod without a problem, and it's really convenient to be able to study at any time, without bringing the book with me. I'd recommend this system to any new learner of Chinese, particularly if you're intimidated by the complexity of the language.

5 comments about Return to Dragon Mountain: Memories of a Late Ming Man.

1. As usual, Memories is a well researched Spence book. However, this reads more like a compilation of graduate student papers that were edited by Spence. It could also serve as a very long preface to the actual works. There are very few translated/paraphrased passages and a lot of interpretation and overview. We are told that the works themselves are huge and highly nuanced with important references to (for most western readers) obscure literary figures.
   
   The translated passages are evocative. The analysis is dry. I kept wishing for more first person memories.



2. I bought this book on a whim, partly because of interesting reviews.
   
   But once I got it, I got hooked. It is a very readable book about a man who lived in a very different culture from our own. It is organized by theme, rather than by date. That is, it is not so much a biography as a portrait of the man and his times and the culture in which he lived. There are mini-sketches of the struggle of the upper classes to pass the scholarly tests for admission to the bureaucracy (a struggle that sometimes consumed decades); of Zhang Dai's mini-adventure with a very special tea that he discovered; the role and prevalence of prostitutes in his culture; his trips to visit natural spots, shrines, and monasteries, and much more.
   
   I tend to dip into many books, but read very few cover-to-cover. This one I'm reading cover-to-cover and almost done. So on my scale of interesting-ness it rates high; much higher than I expected when I bought the book.
   
   It is a portrait of a very privileged but also a very human person. If the idea of spending a few hours with such a person appeals to you, then I think you'll enjoy this book.
   
   And if you're like I was -- only vaguely intriged -- I'd recommend that you give it a try. Give serendipity a chance to strike. :-)



3. According to the review by the Washington Post ,"historian Zhang Dai's long life, which began in 1597 and ended around 1680, spanned the Ming Dynasty's final, turbulent decades and its overthrow by the invading Manchus. His writings were an attempt to record a lost way of life. They include a Ming dynastic history, profiles of public figures and dreamlike sketches of scenes from his youth. Spence draws on these documents, additional research by other scholars and his deep knowledge of Ming culture to portray the inner universe of a remarkably versatile and sympathetic figure.".
   
   I have read many books by Jonathan Spence.His historical works on China in particular "Treason by the Book" are excellent.Spence said he took several years to research and write this latest work of his. Unfortunately he appears to have only scratched the surface. This is not a full biography.I finished this book knowing only sketches of Zhang Dai.In that respect i was disappointed with this book which i had earlier bought with great expectations.



4. This book is an evocative depiction of Ming society in China through the eyes of contemporary historian Zhang Dai. It's not a history book or a biography, but rather a snapshot of life in the late Ming dynasty. Particularly fascinating are the details of everyday gentry life, particularly in its varied and colorful amusements and hobbies, such as staging plays, tea connoisseurship, how people celebrated holidays, music, boating, antique collecting, poetry, etc., and in the duties expected of gentry, such as studying for and passing the bureaucratic exams to hold office. Also very interesting were the descriptions of Zhang's various relations (grandfathers, uncles and cousins) who varied to extremes in character and revealed much about different expressions of human nature within the social norms of the times. I felt this book truly brought ancient China alive for the reader and that alone makes this book a worthwhile read.



5. This book is very well written and well worth reading. It depicts the life and the world of Zheng Dai, a well-educated bureaucrat (who did not go very high in the hierarchy but still managed to write the history of the Ming dynasty till its overthrow by the Manchus), but also many other interesting characters.
   An extract will show how much this book, though supposed to happen in the 17th century, is still very relevant today.
   "Within five years (...) this tea that Zhang and his uncle had named Snow Orchid had ousted its rivals from the conoisseurs' circles. But it was not long before unscrupulous businessmen began to market inferior teas under the Snow Orchid brand name, and those who drank it seemed not to know they were being gulled. A short time later, even the water source itself was lost. First, entrepreneurs from Shaoxing tried to use the water for wine making or else opened tea shops right by the spring itself. Next, a greedy local official tried to monopolize the spring's water for his own use and sealed it off for a while. But that increased the spring's reputation to such an extent that rowdy crowds began to gather at the shrine, demanding food, firewood and other handouts from the monks there and then brawling when they were refused. At last, to regain their earlier tranquility, the monks polluted their spring by filling it with manure, rotting bambo and the overflow from their own drains."
   Professor Spence is a great historian and we are all in his debt.

1 comments about Footprints in the Snow: The Autobiography of a Chinese Buddhist Monk.

1. Have you ever dreamed about becoming a Buddhist monk? I have. I've visited some of those temples, and can imagine living there, doing the daily work, chanting, meditation, and so forth. After reading this book, I see that my mental picture of it all may have been a bit rosy.
   
   Footprints in the Snow is the autobiography of Sheng Yen, a Chan ("Chinese Zen") Master. There are several biographies of the man in Chinese, but this is the first edition in English. Sheng Yen was born in an extremely poor farming family in the Chinese countryside. With few other options, he was taken by a family friend to the Wolf Mountain monastery, where he learned the basics of becoming a monk. He later moved on to Shanghai, but the war between the Communists and the Nationalists drove him to become a soldier-for-life in Taiwan. Eventually securing his freedom from the soldier's life, he once again became a monk. After travels to Canada, the USA, and back to China, he finally became a Chan Master and one of those most influential Buddhists alive today. He combines his personal story with historical events, and we can see how political changes in China and Taiwan altered not only his life, but Buddhism in general.
   
   I found this book hard to put down. I'm not usually a fan of biographies, but his easygoing writing style and obvious love of what he does makes every page enjoyable. Along with the story, the author explains a bit of Buddhist philosophy in a comfortable, jargon-free style that DailyBuddhism readers will appreciate. My favorite parts of the book, however, are his interactions with the monks and abbots of the various monasteries. Far from being the altruistic teachers and devoted worshipers we usually envision, he shows us the real picture. Many of the Chinese monks sell their services for money, they get into trouble with alcohol and women, there is "office politics" in the hierarchies, and so forth. The pettiness of some of the monks and abbots are shocking. One thing is clear though, in the monk's world, everything revolves around money. Given that we stereotypically assume monks to be poor and penniless, above such financial concerns, the reality or monastery life is quite different.
   
   He goes from poor farm boy to a monk, to a soldier, to an abbot, to a monk again, eventually becoming homeless and rising back to the top. All the way, he refines his teaching style and is attached to nothing. It's a dramatic story, and there are some good educational bits on Buddhism scattered throughout. If you ever wanted to know about Monastery life, this is a must-read.
   
   This one is going into my "Read it Again someday" pile.

1 comments about The Spy Within: Larry Chin and China's Penetration of the CIA.

1. I debated about whether to give this book a 4 star for the information and subject matter and a 3 star for the book's organization and writing. The author is inconsistent when he shifts from a non-fiction factual style to a novelistic style of writing. The author certainly has good credentials for writing this book. He has worked in the intelligence field. I hoped that his being Canadian would give a outside party point of view as to why this deep penetration of our CIA went on for so long.
   I particularly appreciated the author's addition of information to set the historical background of the Chinese Civil War, Korean War, Cultural Revolution, and Nixon's visit to China. I felt he was weak in explaining China's role in the Vietnam War and Sino-Soviet relations during the Cold War. The author seems to jump to conclusions about reliance on Mr. Chin's spy activities by Chinese top leaders. I especially saw this lacking during the explanation of Chin's role during the Korean War.
   Although I find the information about spycraft and the recruitment of spys fascinating, I particularly wanted to find out what motivated Chin to be a spy in the first place. The author, Tod Hoffman, does a good job in the comparison and contrast of Oriental and Western European motivations and values. At the beginning of the book Hoffman briefly describes Chin's ultimate vulnerability, his children. But, there is probably not even a paragraph's worth of information about them for the rest of the book. I am fascinated with someone like Chin who does not seem to be very ideologically motivated and who has been exposed to advantages of living in the USA and yet continues to spy on behalf of the PRC. He is a much more complex person than seen in this book or he is a person who only craves money and recognition.
   The book ends with an extensive bibliography and endnotes. In particular, I referred to the endnotes numerous times while reading to find out the source of matters claimed to be fact. The conspiracy allegations in the final chapter left me curious for more information. I tried to locate a copy of Mrs. Chin's book: Death of My Husband, but I was unable to locate it through either my local library or Amazon.com or even the Library of Congress. I am rather curious about this book since Mrs. Chin alleges in the Abatement court documents that she did not speak/read/write English very well and was dependent upon her husband.

5 comments about The Eighth Promise: An American Son's Tribute to His Toisanese Mother.

1. Reading this book brought back memories of my parents and my childhood living in the Bay Area. My parents were from the same area and the terms like "ji-ji ja-ja" made me smile and laugh, it was said in our household. The soups my mom made were of the same ingredients, unfortunately I did not learn how to prepare them. I do know of the "medicinal" value of each of them. The stories of Chinatown reminded me of how my values were developed by my parents. Those values helped me survive the temptations presented in my life and still respect my elders.
   William's book has provided additional insight to my parents heritage and deeper understanding of how we, the children perceive our parents as we "grew" up in a different world of "Western" values.
   Thank you William Poy Lee for making it important enough to write and share this tribute to your mother. It is also a tribute to mine.
   Oakland, CA...CLim



2. This was one of the most thoughtful personal readings that I have read in a long time. It gives insight into our culture as we know it. Many of us, myself included, have had one or both parents come to the U.S. from Hong Kong area. As children we may have not fully understood what they were trying to impart regarding their experiences growing up. Yet we held on to these oral histories. It is refreshing to see that someone has chosen to reduce the oral histories to written stories and share with others. I found that there is re-affirmation,common experiences and comfort in this book. It was well worth the read and is worth re-reading. Thank you.



3. a wonderful and moving memory of mother and son, of Toisan and San Francisco, looking into the future from the past.



4. I was drawn to The Eighth Promise, as I automatically veer towards any books related to China. Then I realized that this wasn't just about China, but about America as well. The author grew up in San Franscisco's Chinatown during quite volatile times--the Vietnam war, Civil Rights protests, Chinatown wars. I was fascinated by this history which he so vividly brought to life. Then, a terrible thing happened to his family, a terribly unjust, unfair thing that you would hope doesn't happen in America. I was moved to tears by the grace with which they dealt with this horrible injustice.
   The Eighth Promise is an insightful book about Chinese Culture, American history during the 60's, 70's, and most importantly, grace in the face of injustice.



5. What a great book. I just finished reading it. There were so many layers to his story that I found so interesting: the American immigrant story of being uprooted into a strange land and customs, the attention to detail about Toisan food , the history of Chinese immigration to America and the racism they faced, and the racism faced by Asian Americans in contemporary America, the unveiling of the facade of Chinatown as a tourist postcard , the author's coming of age during the chaotic turmoil of the 60's and 70's, his relationship with his brother , and of course hearing his mother's story and the "Eighth Promise".
   It's just a great story overall and he ties everything together well.
   On a personal note, being a Korean American man , it's wonderful seeing more Asian American male voices that are being heard in literature today.

5 comments about Along the Roaring River: My Wild Ride from Mao to the Met.

1. I really enjoyed this book. It is not really about opera - more about the courage and triumph of a man's life. Very well written and very enjoyable. I've been giving it as gifts to many of my friends and everyone seems to be loving it. It is very touching and very real.



2. A great book, and if you've ever heard Hao Jiang Tian sing in an opera house, the human dimension of his story of survival and eventual triumph becomes even truer and more exciting. This memoir is a beautiful introduction to a superb artist, and a fine singer. Tian's determination and bravery in the pursuit of his art despite enormous challenges is a lesson for every artist. Engagingly written, Along the Roaring River details Tian's awakening before and after the Cultural Revolution, the noble tragedy of his parents, and his burgeoning political awareness even in Mao's China. Not least of his story is Tian's essential relationship with Placido Domingo, the one musician who personally encouraged and helped the great Chinese bass in every way, revealing much of what the classical music world already knows about the humanitarianism of Domingo, as well as the subtle ways in which the great tenor has advanced the real meaning of operatic art in the world's consciousness. The interior story of Tian's relationship with his wife Martha is a pillar of the book's strength, and we find in their love story the backbone of the tremendous struggle familiar to every artist of every stripe. As a musician, I'm indebted to Tian for his courage, and for his insights into the art of opera performance, the interior burden it asks of singers, and how it can be successfully achieved. Best of all, Along the Roaring River offers a uniquely personal testament of the humility essential to artistic triumph. Absolutely recommended to everyone seeking a true story of overcoming huge odds to not only survive as a man, but conquer and grow as a musician and an artist. May Hao Jiang Tian have a thousand years of singing his heart, his life! I'm moved by his book. You will be too.



3. Americans seldom get an inside look into the Chinese Cultural
   Revolution. Here is one of the best as seen through the eyes of a sensitive and caring artist.The book is also a frank honest appraisal of what it takes for a person to break out of China to seek a new life in the West. It shows the enormous difficulty that the average Chinese immigrant faces in mastering a professional level of English. It is also a tender personal story of love andpersonal achievement flowering under extremely difficult conditions. Last but not least I learned how one becomes an opera singer.



4. Even if you are not an opera buff, this book is fascinating as it takes you through the history of China and its cultural revolution.



5. Hao Jiang Tian's journey is masterfully told in his own voice by Lois Morris. She has captured his electric personality that brought him to America from a time and place steeped in iconic imagery - Mao's oxymoronic cultural revolution that sent intellectuals and artists, such as Tian, to work in fields and factories. It is a story full of losses, near misses and miracles. That Tian has arrived in America to sing Major rolls at the Metropolitan Opera but still holds dear his attachments to his home country is profound and moving. His talent in singing is enormous and is equal only to his talent for sharing his remarkable journey. A must read by a gifted story teller and his equally gifted co-writer Lois Morris.

5 comments about Bound Feet & Western Dress: A Memoir.

1. This book was so interesting, I think I read it in less than two days. It shows the changes Asian women went through as history marched on. I had no other way of knowing any of this information, and it's so different from my own culture.



2. I found this book to be a compelling read. It does reveal, while the author is relating the life of her great aunt from China, a lot of interesting information related to the customs, traditions and mores of the old Chinese culture in the early twentieth century. Her great aunt was the first in old china to get divorced from her husband, after being abandoned by him .She was young, poorly educated, with two children, one of whom tragically died shortly after her divorce. She morphs from a poorly educated, dependent woman into a self-reliant,educated, successful woman, who eventually becomes a VP of the Shanghi Woman's Savings Bank and helps ensure it's survival, while Japan was invading Shanghi. Luckily, she leaves Shanghi a day before the Japanese take over and moves to Hong Kong. Eventually, she remarries in 1952 and then, after her second husband dies in 1972, she emigrates to the USA. When her great niece finds her name in books while she is studying Far East Culture while studying at Harvard University, she is amazed to find her great aunt's name listed and then decides to interview her, and thus the idea of the book emerges and is completed over many years. A truely unusual and compelling book to read for anyone interested in the Chinese culture, people and history. Quite a different read, inspiring and moving in many ways.



3. In the late 1990s, the Chinese-American Pang-Mei Natasha Chang wrote her first book entitled "Bound Feet and Western Dress," which accounts the life story of the author's great aunt, Chang Yu-i. The author was the first generation of the Chang family to be born in the United States. She wrote the book about her own search of Chinese identity in the American world and the tale of her great aunt's hard and interesting life.
   
   The book is broken into fifteen chapters, which describe the early life of Yu-i, the history of the Chang family, the life of the author herself, the lifestyle of women in China, the marriage and the divorce of Yu-i and Hsu Chih-mo, and the last years of Yu-i's life.
   
   One can understand the influence of modernity on the Chinese society and the Chinese women as one look at the author's great aunt as a traditional girl and her strength as a woman, why Chih-mo marry her, and the significance of their divorce in this book. "Bound Feet and Western Dress" is intriguing work and an enjoyable read.



4. Change can be a frightening affair, and looking back at change can be something that seems almost alien when beheld in the light of certain convictions. That seems to encapsulate the whole of the experience that Chang Yu-I talks about as she tries to explain something of who she is to her granddaughter, Pang-Mei, and it is one of the things that seemed to haunt me as a reader as I listened to Yu-I's tale. The chapters switch from Yu-I to Pang-Mei to give you and idea of how things have changed and to try to identify one person with the other, and I have to say that I found myself glued to the pages and not able to stop reading this book. At first I simply thought it was a story about a granddaughter wanting to explore her grandmother's life because she was the first person to have a Western-style divorce in China, and maybe that was her reason beginning the book. Still, the book goes well beyond that and touches on the dynamics of change and strength and how strong a person can be even when they think they are at their weakest.
   
   Honestly, I thought I could vicariously feel my heart cracking under the weight of some of Yu-I's confessions, amazed by some of the things she was able to tell her granddaughter.
   
   One of the best things about this tale is the detail that Yu-I goes into about China, and about the way things were seen in the past versus the way things became seen as war loomed on the horizon. Yu-I gives a great amount of detail about what it was like to be a child in a country like China, and she vividly recollects what its like to have one's feet bound and the reasons why this practice took place. All that breaking and rebreaking, the tying of the big toe over and over again; when I read this I cringed because it seemed so debilitating just to have a crescent-shape added to the foot. Furthering this are pictures in the book, showing what the feet actually look like when this happens - you can see the shriveled remains of feet that look almost mummified, and you can tell some of the extremes that went into making a foot look like that. Yu-I talks about the pain that's she, herself, experienced because of this practice, too; she tells her granddaughter about being three and having her mother try to bind her feet, and then talks about the torment of those moments and how it was her brother that made her stop this because he couldn't deal with her suffering. Yu-I goes on to tell of the pain that this caused her, too, with her always feeling as if she were ugly because she had "big feet" and "big feet" made a person almost untouchable when it comes to marriage. Still, she does marry the poet Hsu Chi-Mo and, for a time, she thinks this is perfect and learns the rites of being a wife. She cares for the mother-in-law, she takes care of the husband's family; basically she becomes a slave and thinks that this dedication is seem by her husband as love. It is only when she moves to a foreign country with her husband that she finds out what he is like and how she is alone, and when she understands that she is utterly abandoned she explains how it feels to want to die.
   
   There are other painful things in the book, too, things I can't disclose without messing up part of the tale, but I can say that when she is in Germany and loses something more dear to her than anything that this was devastating to read, making the book almost too heavy to pick up because its honesty was like a barb in the soul. I appreciated that, to be honest, and can say that I have read a lot of pieces of literature but that I have rarely encountered a person like Yu-I that both loves the world she lives in, understands the things that she has experienced, and even knows what forgiveness is like.
   While this normally would not be something I would recommend, it has my highest recommendation and the most humble form of respect I can give, thinking it an enduring read that really has something to say.
   I cannot give the book or the voice behind it enough praise.



5. Bound Feet and Western Dress by Pang-Mei Natasha Chang is about a young girl who has a unique relationship with her great aunt, Chang Yu-i. She first meets her great aunt in 1874, at a family dinner. Chang Yu-i had just come to New York after having lived in China, and then Hong Kong. Several family members had come to these dinners in the past, but this was the first time Pang-Mei had met her great aunt. Pang-Mei explains how the family refers to Chang Yu-i as "half man" because of her strength and persistence. Pang-Mei grew closer to her great aunt as time passed, but she still knew very little about her. She first discovered some of Chang Yu-i's secrets while studying Chinese History at Harvard University. She learned that her great aunt had been married to a well-known romantic poet in China, as well as issued the first "real divorce" in Chinese History. After Pang-Mei learned of this, she asked Chang Yu-i about it at once. Her great aunt told her hundreds of stories about her life in China eventually unraveling over a long period of time. Pang-Mei and Chang Yu-i build a strong relationship together and learn about each other, as well as themselves. Pang-Mei comes to love and grasp the heritage she once tried to hide and Chang Yu-i understands herself better after having told her own stories. They are finally brought together even closer by a major phenomenon that takes place in the end.
   I found Bound Feet and Western Dress to be rather tedious. Personally, I find books that dives right into the plot to be the most enjoyable. Bound Feet and Western Dress eased slowly into the excitement. However, I found this book be written with great enthusiasm and detail. Pang-Mei Natasha Chang used delightful details that gave me a perfect picture of the context. On Page 9, Chang Yu-i tells her grand niece about the strict rules she grew up with, "Chinese paintings required admiration form above, Baba said, explaining that the perspective of Chinese paintings differed from Western ones. The best paintings were only hung when your grandfather, Eighth Brother, and I cleaned them, passing tiny feather dusters over the surface of the rice paper. Of all the children, you grandfather and I were the two that Baba allowed near his paintings, and her would hover behind us as we worked, explaining the genius behind a musty mountain landscape or historical portrait." This excerpt shows the details the author used to represent her great aunt's stories.
   The stories of Chang Yu-i told were also extremely touching. Not only did they paint a precise image in my mind of her life but were also genuine. For instance, when she was telling of her childhood and growing up with her large family her descriptions were beautifully written and conveyed. I loved hearing of her two favorite brothers personalities and what each of them gave her. I fully understood her thoughts and joy while talking about her brothers.
   Generally, I think Bound Feet and Western Dress is a thoughtful and well-written book. It is historical and educating as well as a good read. I would suggest it be read.

4 comments about Sweet Mandarin: The Courageous True Story of Three Generations of Chinese Women and Their Journey from East to West.

1. For Lily Kwok the world did not seem to offer much hope. In addition to being a female in a male-dominated society, she was also born into a severely poverty stricken village in rural China. In 1918, there didn't seem to be much of a chance for a different life. SWEET MANDARIN is the story of how three generations of women, beginning with Lily, made their way out of the oppressive confines of culture and poverty to become successful businesswomen in their own right.
   
   Lily was born in a small farming village near Guangzhou. She had one thing that many other young girls of the time didn't-- a father who cherished his daughters. He also had the desire to provide a better life for his family and set about to improve their lives by making and selling soy sauce. While Leung was very successful, he also drew the envy of others in his village. Before he had the opportunity to secure a completely comfortable life for his family, Leung was murdered, leaving his wife and daughters to the mercy of family.
   
   Lily worked hard to help provide for her mother, sisters, and eventually her own husband and children. Through a twist of fate, Lily had the chance to make a difficult choice for her family. She would follow her employer to England, and be away from her children, in order to secure them a better future in the West.
   
   When Mabel and her brother, Arthur, finally joined their mother, Lily, in England, they were strangers to both the country and their own mother. Lily opened a take-out restaurant in Manchester. Not only were they the only Chinese family in the neighborhood, they also offered a service that nobody else did-- a fast, affordable, and tasty meal that could be taken home to the family. The work was hard and the hours long and Mabel learned the skills and recipes that she would one day pass on to her own daughters.
   
   Helen and her sisters grew up under the wings of both Lily and their mother, Mabel. The two generations of women that preceded them gave them opportunities that a young Lily may have only dreamed of. Helen grew up to go to an ivy-league school and become a lawyer, and her sisters shared similar successes. But they found that their heritage called to them and they opened Sweet Mandarin, a restaurant that serves the recipes that guided the lives of all three generations of successful, Chinese women.
   
   SWEET MANDARIN is an inspirational account that proves that even in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles like poverty, murder, addiction, and oppression, if you have the determination, you can achieve your dreams.
   
   Reviewed by: JodiG.



2. When Cambridge-educated Helen Tse and her two sisters opened their trendy pan-Asian restaurant Sweet Mandarin in Manchester, England in 2004, many (including their family) were taken aback to see three accomplished British-born young women turn their backs on hard-won careers in law, engineering and executive recruiting in favor of the wok. But as this sweeping family memoir reveals, their entrepreneurial spirit upheld four generations' tradition in the business of food, which eventually lifted the family out of brutal poverty in southern China to hard-won stability in England.
   
   Grocery shopping for Chinese ingredients with her grandmother Lily, the author gradually teases out the anecdotes and, later, the painful buried secrets of Lily's Chinese childhood that are the most compelling parts of this story. Born in 1918, Lily was one of six daughters of Tai Po and Leung, the rare Chinese man who did not consider his daughters "subhuman" --- a burden and a curse. The early days of industrialization in China saw silk factories employing children like Lily, as young as five. In a breathtaking glimpse of the mores of the day, Lily fainted on the factory floor, and a ruthless foreman thrust her hand into a vat of boiling water to make an example of her for the other workers. Lily's father broke out of poverty by becoming a soy sauce producer, finding modest success as an entrepreneur selling his product in Hong Kong restaurants.
   
   When jealous rivals murdered Leung and burned his factory, Chinese tradition forbade his wife or daughters from inheriting, leaving them at the mercy of an obscure nephew who announced he would only support the women of the family if one of the sisters became his cousin's concubine. To escape that fate, and the nightmarish Hong Kong slum her family was forced to live in, 13-year-old Lily found work as an amah, a servant for British families living in luxury on the Peak in Hong Kong. Scrubbing floors, nannying youngsters and waiting tables, Lily still managed to marry and have children. In Hong Kong, she saw them for literally minutes each week; when her employers took her with them to England, they were separated for years. By the time she brought her kids to England, they were nine and eleven, and her husband was an opium addict, involved with the Triads (China's criminal gangs), bankrupting her while living with a prostitute.
   
   Perhaps the only reliable source of comfort, identity and life-affirming pleasure throughout the story is food. From her great-grandfather's soy sauce business, to her grandmother Lily's special chicken curry recipe, perfected during the six-week ocean liner trip to England, to hours spent working in her parents' fish-and-chips shop, to her own authentic and innovative creations at Sweet Mandarin, financial freedom and a sense of self all flow from cooking, feeding others and enjoying food. As Tse puts it, "cooking is at the heart of the Chinese family and for a Chinese woman it is at the very core of her identity." Lily taught her that "when you cook you are sharing your heart, so cook enthusiastically."
   
   The journey from hunger in the rural village of Guangzhou to stylish abundance in Manchester in three generations offers a tantalizing glimpse into China's journey and the amazing resilience and sacrifice of an immigrant family, through the lives of the tough and talented women of the Tse family.
   
   --- Reviewed by Elliott Walker



3. In Sweet Mandarin, Helen Tse gives us the intelligent multi-generational saga of three enterprising and resourceful Chinese women who faced incredible odds to make their dreams and fortunes come to fruition. The story begins with Lily, Helen's grandmother, in a rural village in China. Facing incredible poverty and with a family to provide for, Lilly's father, Leung, has the initiative to break away from his traditional role as a farmer and strikes out to create his own business, which soon begins to prosper. Moving his family from the destitute village to the more bustling city of Hong Kong, Lily and her family seem to be moving upwards. Then an unspeakable tragedy occurs, leaving the family penniless and at the mercy of inhospitable relatives. Lily realizes the situation she and her family face and searches for employment as a housemaid to the affluent British expatriates in China. Soon Lily immigrates to Britain and restarts her life as a small business owner, the proprietor of a Chinese restaurant. Through the struggles of operating the business and raising her children alone, Tse acquaints us with this remarkably strong woman who must face overwhelming trials in order to give herself and her children a better life. The story continues through the tale of Mabel, Lily's daughter, who is raised mostly in Britain, working long hours from childhood at her mother's restaurant counter. Eventually, Mabel takes up the family business and creates her own Chinese restaurant with her husband Eric. Interspersed with these two women's stories is the story of Helen, Mabel's daughter. Helen begins her career as lawyer but ultimately finds her happiness in opening her own Chinese restaurant, Sweet Mandarin, from which the title of the book is based. In elegant prose, the three women's stories are woven together to create a beautiful tapestry of a bold and valiant family of women who never let their struggles get the best of them.
   
   Of the stories in this book, Lily's was featured most heavily. We see the whole picture of her life, from her humbling situation as a child to her rise as a beloved housemaid, the triumphs and ordeals are painted with compelling energy. I was particularly struck by her forced involvement in the Japanese occupation of China in the 1940's, and her eventual departure from China, where she left her family while she built a new life for them. Though sometimes reserved in her expressions of love for her children, her outward resolve to give them a more hopeful future was inspiring. Sometimes it seemed as though she was a tough nut to crack, but in reality, had she not had the boldness to act as she did, her family might not have survived some of the situations that they faced. Some parts of Lily's story were more difficult to digest, for Lily was not always the admirable woman that some would wish she would be. The situations regarding the loss of her first restaurant were upsetting, but I appreciated the author's candor in addressing the fact that her grandmother was just as human as the rest of us, with flaws that any of us could have had. Much less was revealed about Mabel and Helen, and I choose to see this book as Helen's tribute to the sacrifice and success of her grandmother Lily. The legacy that she built for her family sustained them and drew them closer together as a group.
   
   One of the wonderful things in this book was the description of various foods that were a hallmark to the family's home and restaurants. The intricacies of Lily's Curry recipe, and the depiction of Mabel's Claypot Chicken were indeed mouthwatering. I also liked the way the narrative shifted between the stories of the three women. It made the story less choppy and episodic, while still describing the aspects of all three's lives. The author did a very good job of painting the political and societal aspects of China from the 1920's to today, including the focus on why male children are particularly valued above female children in that part of the world. As I was reading, I really felt I understood the sacrifices and joy of the main characters, which is a true measure of success in any book.
   
   This book was an involving story spanning many years and situations. I very much enjoyed the peek into a story that I think many would enjoy. There are many books about China and it's culture, but this book is unique, not only in the story it tells, but in the spirited strength of it's characters. Great book. I have included a link to a television interview with the author, who talks about the inspiration for this book and gives more information.



4. For three generations of Chinese women, a restaurant is the key to their livelihood. It starts with Lily, who is born in a small Chinese town, moves to Hong Kong, and eventually to Great Britain to make her fortune for her two small children. Lily's daughter Mabel opens her own restaurant in an attempt to recoup family fortunes, so her daughter Helen, the author of this book, grows up in a takeaway. Though she graduates from Cambridge and earns a law degree, Helen and her two sisters decide to open a restaurant of their own - Sweet Mandarin.
   
   I enjoyed the story of these three women. More of the book is dedicated to Lily than to Mabel and Helen, but that seems almost the way it should be, since it was Lily who really made the biggest changes in her family's fortunes. Lily's story is also the most interesting, because her life reads like a novel, full as it is of twists and turns of fate. Beyond that, it is absolutely fascinating to witness the changes in China, Hong Kong, and British imperialism in general throughout the book. It is astounding to witness the vast differences in some areas of the world, while other ways of life in China remain basically the same as they were when Lily was a child. For this reason, my favorite part of the book was their visit to Hong Kong towards the end.
   
   Helen Tse writes the story of her family's fortunes as a memoir, which made it a pleasure to read. I felt for Lily, Mabel, and Helen throughout their stories and really enjoyed the way cooking and restaurants tied the whole book together, with the exception of some of Lily's experiences (although I enjoyed those too, and they're necessary to set up the rest of the book). The common thread of food ran through and it's admirable that Helen and her sisters have embraced and retained their heritage in this way.
   
   I'd recommend this book, especially to people who enjoy memoirs. It has a solid, interesting story and Helen's family is a memorable one.

5 comments about Six Records of a Floating Life (Penguin Classics).

1. I decided to read "Six Records of a Floating Life" after spending a summer in Suzhou, the city of Shen Fu's birth and his home for many years. When describing this work, my Chinese friends were quick to use words like "romantic" and "touching". However I was skeptical since I had also heard that this book detailed Shen Fu's relationship not only with his wife, Yun, but also concubines and courtesans - thus setting it far outside the scope of what is traditionally considered "romantic" by modern, Western standards. Yet, if one is willing to keep an open mind and look at Shen Fu's extra-marital relations (which are, in fact, treated very briefly) within the context of the time and culture during which he wrote, one can see that that author and his wife were very much in love and cared passionately for each other for more than twenty years. Fu's description of the airy joys and carefree pleasures they experienced together as husband and wife are sure to bring a smile to the face of anyone who's every been in love.
   
   Yet, with great happiness Shen Fu also experienced great pain and numerous hardships. Considered a failure in both business and scholarship, he was never wealthy and he struggled to provide even a modest living for himself and his family. Indeed, Fu drifted from place to place, job to job, often relying on friends and relatives to provide him with money and shelter. Adding to the pressures of poverty was his wife's chronic illness, which eventually took her life. Shen Fu's description of his wife's death is truely heart-breaking, as he writes:
   
   "Her spirit vanished in the mist and she began her long journey... When it happened there was a solitary lamp burning in the room. I looked up but saw nothing, there was nothing for my two hands to hold, and my heart felt as if it would shatter" (p. 89)
   
   Part romance, part tragedy, part travelogue and part memoir this book indeed lives up to it's reputation as a classic. Shen Fu articulates the joys and sorrows of ordinary human life with the skill of an artist, and he is always someone with whom we can identify. Like we all do, he struggled to find peace and comfort while trying to bear the weight of sadness. Whether you're interested in Chinese history and culture or not, this book deserves to be read and appreciated.



2. If one reads the introduction, this book is not meant to be read as a sequential narrative, instead it is a collection of memoirs and hence the word "records" in the title. Through this collection of records and memoirs, readers are welcomed to peer into segments of the author's bumpy life.
   
   The records follow Shen Fu on his numerous failed attempts to find contentment in life: As an educated man, Shen Fu tried to gain a position through civil examinations but got nowhere, he tried his hand at being a painter but found that he had no talent, he made friends with people who eventually betrayed him, he got into debt and was disowned by his father, and the final blow came when he lost his child and beloved wife, Yun. In the end Shen Fu's decided to live a "floating Life" by giving up worldly matters to wander China.
   
   Shen Fu is also a groundbreaking author. He is very descriptive of his environment, which is uncharacteristic of Chinese writers of his time. Through Shen Fu's accounts the reader can experience the long lost customs of ancient China, for example, lonely men with a bit of pocket money can visit brothel boats sitting "like aimless floating leaves" on the river.
   
   Moreover, Shen Fu's accounts of his wife, Yun, were against conventions because he does not cease in describing her only as a dutiful wife and daughter-in-law according to Confucian ideology, but he portrays her as an intelligent and adventurous woman who was willing to dress up as a man to visit a temple (which forbids women) with him. To Shen Fu, Yun was his soul mate and she transcends his memoirs into a love story. She is present from his first record, "The Joys of the Wedding Chamber" where they first met as an arranged marriage to his last record, "The Delights of Roaming Afar" where Shen Fu is constantly reminded of Yun, long after her death, when he travelled to places he wished he had brought her to.
   
   Lastly, Shen Fu's tone is full of indignant passion making him an amusing storyteller. The translators (Leonard Pratt and Chiang Su-hui) translate Shen Fu's work without losing his ease and personality, making the book a delightful read.
   
   Keeping in mind that not many authors in feudal China reveal an honest account of their times and even less-so the intimate accounts of their domestic life, this autobiography is wonderfully rare.



3. There are so many contradictions within this quirky memoir that it could only possibly be true.
   
   This is a memoir of life right around the start of the 19th century. It recounts the adult life of Shen Fu, a man who appears to have been ordinary in the extreme. Although educated, he did not pass the literary tests of the civil service. At best, his career could have been a secretary under one of the successful examinees, but his times weren't always the best. His positions never lasted, and his business attempts failed. Often, he sold his possessions and his wife's down to the clothes on their backs (or less). He fell out with his family, in a time when filial duty was enforced by law, and became outcast in almost every sense.
   
   But his life never wholly failed, either. Perhaps it was the glow of nostalgia, but his twenty-three years of marriage were always a joy to him, even when his wife's health failed, and even when she may have been the source of some of his problems. They had their times of poverty, but never to the point of starvation. He was honorable enough to quit a corrupt position when it offended his honor too deeply. He was devoted enough to heal the familial rifts. His joys and Yun's were simple - travel, each other, the beauty of the full moon, and maybe a little too much wine shared with happy company. Shen Fu and his devoted Yun never demanded much from their lives, and usually got enough to enjoy.
   
   The text wanders. The first three chapters chart the ups and downs of the marriage to his beloved wife. She died early, from some frightening disease. Still, she and he accepted it stoically, or mostly did. The fourth chapter collects a few decades of moments together, the sights and sounds of travel. With his wife and after her, Shun Fu visited temples, sacred caves, and pleasure districts, reported in some drifting collage of personal history. Despite the "six" promised in the title, we have only four. It's probably better that way, according to the appendices.
   
   I really think I would have liked Shun Fu. He was honest enough, loving enough, and devoted enough to his children. Even when his own situation deteriorated badly, he fostered his son as best he could and sheltered his daughter with people who could marry her well. He never wholly succeeded or failed, but muddled through the chances that appeared to him. He was no grand hero, nor villain, nor idle dreamer, nor driven workaholic. He was just a guy, living some guy's life pretty well. Maybe he dressed up his memories just a bit, but don't we all?
   
   //wiredweird



4. "Six Records" (also known as "Six Chapters of a Floating Life"), c. 1805, is an extraordinarily frank autobiography that is totally unprecedented and unparalleled in the history of Chinese literature. It describes the life of the author Shen Fu and his beloved wife, Ch'en Yun (1763-1803), in extremely revealing detail. The intimacy and joy shared by the couple are as unusual by normal standards of Chinese married life as is the author's daringness in revealing them to others. Their close, playful relationship stands in defiant opposition to the staid decorum of married life expected by Confucian ideology.

   A thoroughly enjoyable and inspiring read. Ch'en Yun is a woman ahead of her time who admirably balances her love of learning and passion for life with her duties and obligations as a traditional Chinese wife.




5. a very, very good book to get to know the everyday life of late imperial Chinese!

5 comments about China Men.

1. China Men, written as a male companion piece to her female-centered The Woman Warrior, focuses on the Chinese men of Maxine Hong Kingston's family. This book takes what critics said about Kingston being a man-hating nut in The Woman Warrior and sublimates it; now she can simply be accused of being a white-hating nut.
   
   The immigration process was very tough for the men in Kingston's family. Because they were foreigners that spoke little to no English, they were forced into low-paying, labor-intensive field work. The Chinese immigrants would often be called "chinamen." What Kingston has very subtly done with the word is turned it into a positive. The title of the book is "China Men," not "Chinamen." When whites in the book use the word, it's derogatory; Kingston uses it differently - with respect. With what her relatives have been through, it's easy to understand why Kingston tends to hate white Californians.
   
   China Men is heavily mixed with amazing fantasy and heart-breaking reality. Kingston has grown as a writer since The Woman Warrior and anyone interested in a fascinating read on Chinese immigration should pick this one up.



2. I loved this book, and I love how the author writes. She tells her stories not in a typical narrative, factual, journalistic way, but in a stylized, "storylike" way (does that make sense?!). All of the stories focused on the different men in her family, especially her father. They all center on the Chinese man's experience in America, from the railroad days onward, and tells of their struggles, triumphs and failures. As a whole the book is about how these experiences shaped the men in her family. She intersperses a few legends here and there, just like she does in Woman Warrior. I enjoy how she takes her family history and literally turns it into a work of art. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.



3. In China Men, Kingston took me on a ride all over the literary landscape. In general, I thought her book was an interesting tossed salad of memoir, fable, reporting, and poetry. As a reader, it reminded me of a scrapbook of family stories, newspaper articles, heritage legends -- all assembled in one place.

   Interestingly, Kingston begins the book with two distinctive chapters. Unlike the rest of the book, these two chapters are relatively homogenous, sticking with one form, voice, structure and tone throughout. The first chapter is the fable of the Land of Women. I didn?t understand this chapter until the last sentences, when it seemed as though Kingston was saying that coming to North America emasculated the Chinese men who made the journey to the Gold Mountain.

   If Kingston?s main theme is that the journey to North America emasculated the Chinese Men, then from a reader?s perspective I?m not sure if the book delivers on this promise. To put a fable with a very obvious moral at the beginning of the book seems to me to set up a contract with the reader about the subject or theme of the book. Although, Kingston explores many different aspects of the Chinese experience in North America, and even starts to explore the ways that China Men were oppressed, I?m not sure she completely proves her case in my mind. I could be wrong, however.

   Interestingly, the second chapter of the book is another short one, this time a nearly pure piece of memoir. Alone, this chapter seems to set up the author?s own relationship with Chinese men. By mistaking another man for her father, she seems to be saying from the beginning of the book that from her perspective Chinese men are nearly interchangeable. But interestingly, she isn?t the only one who makes the mistake. All the children in that scene mistake the strange man for their father. I like this chapter placed here because it contrasts nicely with the fable/story in the first chapter. The first chapter is told at a distance by a storyteller/narrator. The second chapter is told first person from our main narrator?s voice.

   Kingston returns to this theme several more times in the book. On page 217, she remarks that one of her Uncles looks just like her father. Interestingly, Uncle Bun is also completely forgotten, erased from her sister?s memory only a few years after he leaves. Kingston often hints at how distant and interchangeable the China Men were to her and to the women of her family. At other times she explores her narrator?s perceptions that China Men have no heart, no emotions.

   One of Kingston?s greatest strengths, in my opinion, is her ability to weave in all sorts of other stories into the narrative of her story -- presenting a mosaic of memoirs, possibilities, facts, essays, fables, legends, ghost stories, scenes and reporting -- that all add up to a complete picture of the lives of the China Men who came to the United States. On page 49, she starts one version of a trip to the US with, ?I think this is the journey you don?t tell me:? She then recounts the tale of the father?s arrival in the US as a stowaway. But like The French Lieutenant?s Woman, she (Kingston) also gives us another, more ordinary version of the father?s emigration. I don?t know which one is ?real? and which one is imagined and, frankly, I don?t care. The fact that some Chinese used each of these methods is credible enough to keep my disbelief suspended and keep me in the story.




4. The China Men by Maxine Hong Kingston was a very interesting book. It contains stories of Chinese men traveling to America in the 1800's and working on the transcontinental railroads, in Sierra Nevada. The author shares a lot of details in the stories about her family traveling to America. She retold the story from a male's perspective of what hardships they've been through to get to America, in search for the Golden Mountains. A rich country that they about which is full of riches. As they reach to America what they thought was the Golden Mountains was just a land of hard labor and low paying jobs. Some of them regretted coming to America, but they couldn't go back to their country because they had no money.
   Some part of the story made me feel like I could relate my family to the characters that Kingston has written about. My family immigrated to the United States in 1984. Like the characters in Kingston's book they heard about the Golden Mountains that's why they came to America. All they found was low paying jobs which are similar to the characters in Kingston's book. Is this really what they thought of as the Golden Mountains? It was for sure not what they had thought of. Like many Chinese family my parents thought that the Golden Mountain was really a place to find gold, but all they found was their own blood, sweat, and tears that they shed of all the hard work that they did.
   This book is also very educating because in one of the chapters, Kingston listed a list of laws that were set against Chinese in the 1800's. It gives the reader more information of what the Chinese immigrants had went through to come to America and to work for the country. Overall, this book is very good and very detailed. I strongly recommended this book, if you're interested in learning more about the experiences of Chinese men traveling to America and their stories. This is also one of the best book that I've read.



5. This is an amazing book, wrought with heartwrenching love and pain over the wiping out of Chinese Americans in American history. I disagree with people who say it can be confusing for a non-Chinese reader, because it is certainly accessible. The plot is made up of several stories from different eras of history, along with beautifully narrated myths that are symbolic of America's inhospitability. It made me reaccess my understanding of an America that is not covered in textbooks and really to see how it feels to not feel at home in one's own country.