Thursday, April 30, 2020

China Underground Interview






Matteo Damiani, an Italian Sinologist and founder of the media websites China Underground and CinaOggi, asked many interesting questions about my new novel Tales of Ming Courtesans.

Link to the Interview.


 

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Book Review - Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky



I had picked up this novel at a library book sale several years ago and finally got to reading it. I am not a huge fan of WWII novels. This particular novel attracted my attention mainly due to the fact that the author had lived through the war in France.

The novel consists of the first two parts of a planned five-part epic, which the author was never able to finish as she was arrested shortly after completing those two parts and taken to Auschwitz to be executed.

Part One (The Storm) is a chronicling of events that took place during the German invasion of Paris in the summer of 1940. We meet a spectrum of French nationals ranging from an aristocratic family headed by a museum curator, a famous writer and his mistress, a wealthy hedonist, a banker, to a working class couple and their soldier son, a priest and a whore. The author presents her piercing observation of their differing mentalities and worldviews, mostly dictated by their social status and possessions. In their individual struggle to survive, they are collectively forced to endure physical and emotional upheavals that the war inflicts on them.

Part Two (Dolce) tells the narratives of three families in the village of Bussy during the German occupation from spring to July 1, 1941. The three families represent three different social classes: the aristocrats, the middle-class and the peasant class, and each holds its own values and attitude towards the enemy – the Germans. Through depicting their interaction with the Germans, the author shows us the aristocrats’ pomposity and hypocrisy, the middle-class’s down-to-earth pragmatism and the peasants’ self-righteous effrontery. Woven into this are two thwarted love affairs.

Perhaps this quote captures what in essence was the author’s view on human nature:

Important events – whether serious, happy or unfortunate – do not change a man’s soul, they merely bring it into relief, just as a strong gust of wind reveals the true shape of a tree when it blows off all its leaves.

Overall, Part One was episodic in style, while Part Two was slow-moving and overly descriptive. The two parts read like two separate novellas. Nonetheless the author has keen insights into the human psyche. It’s unsettling to think of the author facing death herself shortly after the writing ends. I’m giving it 3.4 stars. 


Sunday, April 12, 2020

My Translation of Du Mu's Poem "Spring in Jiangnan"






Tang poet Du Mu (803 – 852), one of my favorite poets, wrote the poem “Spring in Jiangnan” to celebrate the spring charm of Jiangnan (the most prosperous region with stunning landscapes located south of the Yangtze River in ancient China).

In celebration of the coming of spring and to provide a comforting distraction to my blog readers from the ongoing pandemic gloom, I’ve attempted a translation of this beautiful poem. Hope you’ll like it.

江南春 -  杜牧

千里鶯啼綠映紅,
水村山郭酒旗風;
南朝四百八十寺,
多少樓台煙雨中

My Translation:

Spring in Jiangnan by Du Mu

Birdsongs traverse miles of greens and pinks,
Lapped in rivers and hills, tavern banners wink;
Hordes of monasteries hailing from the Southern Dynasties,
Countless pavilions, now washed in misty rain.


Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Book Review - "Fathers and Sons" by Ivan Turgenev



As far as classic Russian literature is concerned, I’ve so far read Tolstoy (War & Peace, Anna Karenina, The Death of Ivan Ilyich and The Kreutzer Sonata), Dostoyevsky (Crime and Punishment) and Pasternak (Doctor Zhivago). I liked Tolstoy and Pasternak a lot but was not a big fan of Dostoyevsky’s (but might still read more of his works). Now I can add Turgenev to the “likes” list.

The story is set in 1860s Russia and weaves together the friendship between two young graduates Bazarov and Arkady, the father-and-son relationships in their respective families, and the unsettling effects of their romantic pursuits on the friendship, against a backdrop of Russian social and political reforms. The narration flows in a languid pace, but the main characters’ psychological and emotional journeys are well drawn, evincing the author’s insights into human relationships.

Bazarov is a headstrong, smart and self-sufficient nihilist and up-and-coming medical doctor who puts his ideals before all other things, only to have his cool façade dissolved when he falls in love with a sophisticated and mature woman. Arkady, on the other hand, is diffident and compassionate, and covertly loves the arts but would not admit it in front of his mentor and best friend Bazarov. At first Arkady thinks he is attracted to the same woman that Bazarov proclaims to love, but later realizes that he actually loves her younger sister. Both youngsters, in their unhappy moments, find refuge in their loving families and the ready embrace of their doting fathers, despite the generational values gap. The story ends unexpectedly on a tragic note.

It is a simple but beautiful story that’s worth 4 full stars. The version I read is translated by C. J. Hogarth, and was probably not the best of translations.