Tag Archives: China

These Violent Delights (Review by Sriya B. ’22 )

May 13, 2022 Felix Chen Leave a comment

These Violent Delights (These Violent Delights, #1)

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

TW: gun violence (major), gore (major), transphobia (moderate), racism/xenophobia (minor).
I picked this book up because someone told me it was a Romeo and Juliet retelling, but they didn’t tell me it was a Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920s crime-run Shanghai about star-crossed ex-lovers putting aside the blood feud between their gangs to prevent a monster from terrorizing their city.

Between the ruthless gangs, the rekindling of first love, and the dramatic ploys of various nationalities trying to gain control of Shanghai, this story delivers on so many fronts.

I can definitely see how this follows Romeo and Juliet, but at the same time, it feels entirely different. It’s the perfect kind of retelling, with the right balance of new and original. Chloe Gong successfully took a beloved classic and retold it with new culture, queer representation, and modern themes surrounding misogyny and racism, while also staying true to the core themes about love, loyalty, and betrayal.

The writing, while slow and long-winded in some areas (I might have lightly skimmed here and there), has beautiful descriptions and quotes you’ll want to write down and remember forever. As someone who has been reading a lot of YA romance lately, coming back into fantasy was a bit of a shock, but the way Chloe Gong navigated the multiple POVs and plot without confusing me was amazing. Of course, this way of ornate telling might not be your cup of tea, but I recommend you give it a try anyway! Oh, and the ending had me running to the library to get the sequel.—Review by Sriya B. ’22

If you like this book, Sriya also recommends The Gilded Wolves and An Ember in the Ashes.

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The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang (Review by Anika F. ’21)

February 2, 2021 angela Leave a comment

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Even though this was the first book I read in 2021, I’m pretty sure that this will be one of my favorites from this year. The Poppy War is a grimdark east-Asian inspired historical fantasy centers around the a young girl named Rin. She is a war orphan from the first Poppy War, raised in a poor, opium-smuggling family that treats her as a servant. Rin’s only escape from a forced marriage is to pass a merit-based exam to enter Sinegard, Nikara’s elite military academy. In a surprising shock of events, Rin places into Sinegard, but finds that the experience is not what she expects: She is isolated as a poor and dark-skinned girl from the south, but as she rises in the academy ranks, she begins to realize that the gods of legend aren’t as fictional as people think. As a war is brewing, will she be able to survive and save her nation?

Normally, novels tend to excel in one of two categories: character development or plot development. Very few manage to do both well, but The Poppy War does and does so exceptionally. All character storylines are extremely interesting to follow, and the plot is well-paced, complex, and fascinating. Rin is a determined and headstrong protagonist who makes a lot of choices that readers probably will not agree with. However, her confidence and assertiveness compels the reader to support her no matter what gory or twisted option she chooses. Each detail is action-packed and engrossing, and all the battle scenes delivered believable and heartbreaking consequences.

Lastly, this book tackles some difficult themes. It retells the Rape of Nanking, in which Japanese troops attacked China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The impact of war on civilization is heavily discussed along with colorism and colonization. Multiple chapters delve deep into graphic scenes that involve murder, violence, and sexual assault, as well as exploring drug addiction, trauma, and self-harm. So if you do decide to try this book, please read with caution. —Review by Anika F. ’21

For those who enjoyed this book, Anika has recommended The Priory of the Orange Tree for you to check out!

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Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life by Yiyun Li (review by Andrew ’17)

April 27, 2017 mspelmanlibrarian Leave a comment

Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life by Yiyun Li
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A few months after I finished Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, the Chinese-born writer Yiyun Li’s 2010 story collection, only one piece lingered in my mind: a novella, entitled “Kindness,” about a girl’s complex relationship with her female commander in the Chinese army. The storytelling style of “Kindness” is pretty run-of-the-mill realism, but there was something in the narrative, some hint toward a deeper melancholia, that stuck with me. Li’s brand-new memoir, Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life, helps pinpoint what that profound sadness is and where it comes from. Li wrote these essays during her years-long struggle with suicidal depression, but most often she presents recollections from earlier in her writing life. One essay deals with her decision to forsake Chinese entirely and write in English, another with her unlikely friendship with the legendary Irish writer William Trevor, a third with her mentor at the Iowa Writers Workshop, a man just as flawed as the commander from “Kindness.” The publisher bills this memoir as a “richly affirming examination of what makes life worth living.” It’s not. The essays here are pained and painful, meditative and often oppressively sad. Readers willing to brave all that will find insight on nearly every page into the particular somberness of Li’s life and art. – Andrew R. ’17

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The Great Transformation by Karen Armstrong (review by Andrew R. ’17)

May 26, 2016 mspelmanlibrarian Leave a comment

The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions by Karen Armstrong
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

In The Great Transformation, religious historian Karen Armstrong sets out to analyze the origins of Buddhism, Judaism, Confucianism, and Daoism in the context of political and social strife in the centuries leading up to the Common Era. As a primer to the study of ancient Mediterranean and East Asian philosophy, The Great Transformation occasionally hits the mark: its analyses of the historical realities of the Babylonian Captivity in the Middle East and the Period of the Warring States in China bring clarity to historical periods often overshadowed by the state-building that occurred on either side. Such moments of lucidity, however, appear far too rarely in this thick 500-page text. Having set out to compress an eight-hundred-year history of philosophical movements in the entire Eastern Hemisphere into a single volume, Armstrong falls almost constantly into disjointed, abstract accounts of wars, reigns, and migrations, indulging in so many disparate stories that her ostensible subject—commonalities of Mediterranean and Asian religious movements—disappears for twenty pages or more. Too wide-ranging to shed light on any particular historical subject and too bogged down in specifics to synthesize its parts into one coherent thesis, Armstrong’s book leaves the reader with little more than a mound of undigested historical facts by the last page.

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The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II by Iris Chang (review by Andrew R. ’17)

December 8, 2015 mspelmanlibrarian Leave a comment

The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Iris Chang’s account of the Rape of Nanking, the month-and-a-half-long period of looting, barbarism, and murder after Japanese forces captured the then-capital of China in 1937, is the first book of its kind to be published in English. Part of the reason for this appalling lack of coverage of the massacre in the United States is that certain details, like the exact death count (somewhere in the hundreds of thousands), are still debated and may never be known for sure; Japanese officials’ ongoing reluctance to acknowledge the episode, as well as the intense pain associated with it for the families of all involved, have also prevented it from being intensely studied by American historians. Chang’s book, then, is enormously important in that it fills a gaping hole in the library of English-language studies of World War II, but that doesn’t mean I’d recommend it. The Rape of Nanking is painful to read, with its graphic descriptions of mutilation and abduction and its photos of the episode’s victims, alive and dead; the early chapters especially are as unpleasant and intense as they are informative. This is a brave book, an important book, but you should know what you’re getting into before you pick it up.

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World and Town by Gish Jen (review by Andrew R. ’17)

March 26, 2015 mspelmanlibrarian Leave a comment

World and Town by Gish Jen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gish Jen is a wittier Amy Tan: her novels and stories, usually told through the perspective of first- or second-generation Chinese immigrants to America, fearlessly tackle religious issues, the mystery of death, and the folly of American culture, all without forsaken the signature lightness and incisiveness of her prose. World and Town is split into five narrative sections. One follows Sophy Chung, the daughter of Cambodian immigrants, who takes refuge in fundamentalist Christianity to escape her past sins; another follows Everett, the scorned and scornful backwoods lover of a born-again evangelist. The majority of the book, though, is from the perspective of Hattie (Hăi dì) Kong, an aging immigrant whose existence in the Southern town of Riverlake is somehow more American than any of its native inhabitants. As Hattie struggles with her religion and heritage (and messes with those of her neighbors—she can’t help herself), Riverlake becomes so vivid and complex that it feels as real as life to the reader, and sometimes realer. While Sophy’s and Everett’s narrative voices were not always convincing, World and Town was as a whole engaging, even addictive. Strongly recommended for readers who enjoy having their beliefs challenged and their prejudices called out. – Andrew R. ’17

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Fortress Besieged by Qian Zhong Shu (review by Andrew R. ’17)

February 22, 2015 mspelmanlibrarian Leave a comment

Fortress Besieged by Qian Zhong Shu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s a sad fact of English-language literature that the number of books translated from English and shipped around the world far outstrips that of books translated into English from other languages. That means the pool of books available to American readers in translation from, say, Mandarin is relatively limited—only works of scholarly interest, unusual acclaim, or specifically Western appeal make their way to our libraries. Fortunately, Qian Zhongshu’s classic Fortress Besieged meets all three criteria. Not only has it been the object of intense study and widespread consumption in the seventy-five years since its publication, but its consistent references to Western proverbs and literature make it uniquely relatable to an American audience. (The excellent translation by Nathan K. Mao and Jeanne Kelly also helps.) The reader follows Fang Hung-Chien, a graduate student returning home from Europe, as he stumbles through a sticky love triangle, an exhaustive trip to China’s interior, and finally a bitter and loveless marriage. The author’s intent sometimes seems to be to poke fun at every subject he can come up with, from the Chinese to the Jews, from government officials to university professors, from bachelors to husbands to women of every age. None of this, though, changes the novel’s unique and undeniable cultural value. – Andrew R. ’17

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The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston (review by Kacey F. ’15)

August 21, 2013 mspelmanlibrarian Leave a comment

The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Kingston’s memoir speaks through first person only sometimes, defies chronological order, and thoroughly succeeds as an unconventional and thought-provoking work that presses the boundaries of a typical autobiography. As a Chinese-American girl of immigrant parents, Kingston recounts growing up in California amidst a confusing clash of cultures. The subject matter sounds dangerously close to other Chinese-American books save for the fact that Kingston places emphasis on dreams, imagination, and ghosts as much as real events. Her prose plays out with real and intriguing art, propelling the reader from one seamless narrative to another with subtle fluidity. She navigates through fact and fiction, blurring the line between the two while still beautifully encapsulating the emotional essence of her childhood to adult years. Poignant, bittersweet, and sometimes disturbing, The Woman Warrior is a recommended masterpiece for all mature readers, especially those appreciative of the postmodern style of literature. – Kacey F. ‘15

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The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (review by Preethi K. ’17)

August 19, 2013 mspelmanlibrarian Leave a comment

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amy Tan’s inspiring story, The Joy Luck Club, looks into the life of four Chinese women and their American-born daughters sharing their tales of hardship from their past and present. The story starts off in San Francisco, 1949. Suyuan Woo has died two months ago and her daughter Jing-mei, “June”, joins her mother’s friends, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-ying St. Clair for a game of mahjong in place of her mother. The book is spread out into four allegories followed by stories from the mothers or their daughters. Throughout the book, their stories show Chinese culture, the strife they have suffered, hope for a better life, family, love, and despair. I would recommend The Joy Luck Club for its moving storyline and insight into the emotions and feelings of a mother and daughter’s bond. – Preethi K. ‘17

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The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan (review by Anika J. ’17)

August 19, 2013 mspelmanlibrarian Leave a comment

The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A compelling story about the unbreakable mother-daughter bond, The Bonesetter’s Daughter features Ruth Young, an adult living with her boyfriend and his two kids, and her superstitious mother LuLing. The women have always had an difficult relationship, usually filled with arguments. Everything changes after LuLing gives Ruth some papers that reveal her past. Ruth finds that her mother’s humble childhood has made her into the woman that she has become, and soon learns about a side of her mother that she never knew – one filled with kindness, bravery, and a bit of rebelliousness. The lessons that Ruth, and the reader, learn about living life as it comes are some that will never be forgotten. A unique novel full of the perfect mix of surprise, laughter, sadness, and love, The Bonesetter’s Daughter is definitely a must-read. – Anika J. ‘17

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