Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
I normally only read non-fiction books but, as you can see, this novel is exceptional like A Good Earth by Pearl S Buck. It is all about family life in a Chinese village before and after the 1949 revolution. These are ordinary people and the book looks at how they survive this very difficult period in Chinese history. This was the time of endless political war between 1940s to 1980s.
我一般不读小说，但是这本书很例外。这本书写的是1949年中国革命之后乡村的家庭生活。写的都是寻常百姓如何渡过那段中国历史上最艰难岁月的故事。上世纪40到80年代正是一个充满了政治斗争的年代，这也是日常生活中的常态。
Your final book is To Live by Yu Hua.
Yes. I normally only read non-fiction books but, as you can see, this novel is exceptional like A Good Earth by Pearl S Buck. It is all about family life in a Chinese village before and after the 1949 revolution. These are ordinary people and the book looks at how they survive this very difficult period in Chinese history. This was the time of endless political war between 1940s to 1980s.
But this was a very common situation in real life at the time. You read about this family’s whole life against the political backdrop of what is going on. Many families were very rich and went to the casino every day and lost all their property, but that actually saved them when the communists came to power because by then they were poor and were looked after by the communists.
The world was turned upside down. And, although it all sounds very dramatic with disabled children and fortunes lost and found, this is actually just what China was like. When I read that book I can identify with it and see my own childhood and my neighbours during the Cultural Revolution. I was hated by other children because my parents both speak foreign languages and I had chocolate every day when most Chinese families couldn’t read and had not enough food for their kids….
This book made me realise what good writing is all about. It makes people think and helps people to see that our past should not only be written by history-makers. A real history should be recorded by people’s lives from both sides – winners and losers.
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Xinran is a Chinese writer, broadcaster and founder of The Mother’s Bridge of Love, an organisation reaching out to adopted Chinese children all over the world. She chooses five books on Chinese history and culture and says the birth of a donkey is more likely to be celebrated in rural China than that of a baby girl.
您的最后一本书是余华的《活着》。
对，我一般不读小说，但是这本书很例外。这本书写的是1949年中国革命之后乡村的家庭生活。写的都是寻常百姓如何渡过那段中国历史上最艰难岁月的故事。上世纪40到80年代正是一个充满了政治斗争的年代，这也是日常生活中的常态。你必须在大的政治背景下识读这个家庭的命运。很多家庭非常富有，却在赌场里一夜输光所有财产，然而这却在共产党执政之际拯救了他们，因为贫穷他们收到了共产党的照顾。整个世界就这样被颠倒了。虽然一切听起来很戏剧性，比如残疾儿童的失而复得，然而这就是中国当时的面貌。当我阅读这本书的时候，我可以从中窥见自己的童年和文化大革命中身边的邻居。我被周围的孩子记恨，因为我的父母会讲外文并且我每天能吃上巧克力，可当时绝大多数的中国家庭充斥着文盲，食不果腹。这本书让我明白了好的作品是什么样子的。它发人深思，让人们看见主流历史之外自己的过去。而真正的历史应该记录于赢家和输家共同的生活之中。
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Xinran is a Chinese writer, broadcaster and founder of The Mother’s Bridge of Love, an organisation reaching out to adopted Chinese children all over the world. She chooses five books on Chinese history and culture and says the birth of a donkey is more likely to be celebrated in rural China than that of a baby girl.
