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Behind-The-Books Blog
What-ho Blogosphere!
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
This is the newest member of the Allison & Busby team checking in for my first blog – the writing of a blog being, I was told by Chiara last week, an absolutely vital, unavoidable necessity of my new job. Those may not have been her exact words, but my jubilant id (finally! an excusable outlet for my self-indulgent ramblings!) was soon brought into line by my ego, which raised the rather pertinent point: what the dickens are you going to write about?
Something book related and vaguely contemporary would be a good start, and thankfully an obliging newspaper soon popped up to satisfy both requirements. Last year the official (government) advice for graduates, moping in discontent at their debt and joblessness, was to seek their fortunes on foreign shores. Revised update. Last week, a certain paper screamed at the latest crop of frustrated A-level school leavers to ‘GO TO CHINA!’
Sound advice indeed; I have recently returned from a one-year stint of teaching in China, and having come back OK (whether my lungs did is another matter entirely) I can recommend the experience. More to the point, having during the year read a number of books on and from China, I can now recommend a few to my fellow ‘lost generation’ brethren who seek to venture to the Middle Kingdom:
River Town, by Peter Hessler. This account of two years spent as a foreign teacher in the late 1990s is requisite pre-departure reading. Although much has changed in the past ten years, the author’s honest depiction of ordinary life, his armoury of anecdotes, and his personal efforts to adapt provide good preparation for the culture shock of going to China.
Journey to the West: The Monkey King’s Amazing Adventures, by Wu Cheng’en (and Timothy Richard). The Monkey King is something of a hero in China, and apparently iconic to many youngsters (if my students’ daily references to him are anything to go by). This rambling folk epic is, in a nutshell, the semi-historical, semi-mythical account of a pilgrimage to India to collect Buddhist scriptures, the pilgrims including Prince Tripitaka, a naughty pig, a water monster, and Monkey, who is essentially every modern superhero rolled into one fluffy form.
English, by Wang Gang – the story of Love Liu, a boy who grows up in remote western China during the Cultural Revolution and becomes enamoured of learning foreign languages. Shocking for the everyday brutality it depicts, it is hard to get into, as, being originally in Mandarin, the staccato language can feel a little stilted.
Repeat after Me, by Rachel de Woskin – I am reading it this week, a gift from a friend who thought I would relate to it. Although veering dangerously close to chick-lit, the fictional account of an English teacher in China is very readable, and whilst you may want to skip the dubious description of our heroine’s (pre-China) mental breakdown, many of her observations of the cultural differences between East and West and the relationships between their respective peoples are well-observed.
Of course, I shall also have to explore Allison & Busby’s China-themed books: Becoming Madame Mao, by Anchee Min, and the three Inspector Wang mysteries, by Christopher West (which, by the way, are currently 40% off!)
Georgina Phipps, Editorial Administrator
Ah, I saw a very brilliant Monkey: Journey to the West production last year http://www.monkeyjourneytothewest.com/, featuring music by Damon Albarn. I wasn’t aware of the book or of Monkey’s iconic status in China. How interesting!
Posted on August 31st, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Don’t forget “Lost on Planet China” a great account on living as a “Laowai” there.
Posted on August 31st, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Great suggestions!
I can also highly recommend ‘The Dragon’s Village’ by Yuan Tsung Chen, the semi autobiographical account of a girl, originally from a bourgeois Shanghaiese family, who develops a passion for the values of the Communist Revolution. She leaves her family to join the ‘Land Reform’ project, educating poor villagers in land redistribution. As you follow the character, her naive passion for the cause soon becomes tainted with the realities of the revolution, the internal power struggles and the moral issues she deals with herself, forcing her to question where loyalties lie; to do what is right by ‘the’ people or to do what is right by individuals alone.
Posted on September 1st, 2010 at 12:24 amLeave a Comment
Currently we are...
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...Reading
West End Front, by Matthew Sweet. Lesley: A look at what was going on behind the dazzling exteriors of the grand London hotels like the Ritz and the Savoy during WW2. Chock-full of interesting details.
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