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The daughter of Happiness by Geling Yan (严歌苓)
I was given this book by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gylfinir who read it but didn't care for it so she offered it to me. At first I wasn't sure as I'm not terribly keen on modern Chinese literature (the little I've read) but saw the author was the same woman who wrote "xiu xiu the sent down girl" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115005/ which is one of my favourite films terribly disturbing and sad. So I became curious.
I loved this story. The main character Fusang was a perfect embodiment of everything Laozi suggested. She was weak, yielding, unintelligent and untouchable. The book took a stark look at the history of racism against Chinese immigrants in the 19th century and with the new 5th wave. The author spent part of the book carrying out a one sided dialogue with the main character that I found rather touching. (If a little confusing at first). The style reminded me a lot of the early 20th century Chinese writers who littered their prose with descriptions of physical unpleasantness. Even translated it came across beautifully.
I shall have to add this to my list of books to read in Chinese when I'm able. (Hopefully in a year or so). In the meantime I've added her other books translated into English books to my amazon wishlist. I'm very glad to have discovered this author.
I was given this book by
gylfinir who read it but didn't care for it so she offered it to me. At first I wasn't sure as I'm not terribly keen on modern Chinese literature (the little I've read) but saw the author was the same woman who wrote "xiu xiu the sent down girl" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115005/ which is one of my favourite films terribly disturbing and sad. So I became curious.I loved this story. The main character Fusang was a perfect embodiment of everything Laozi suggested. She was weak, yielding, unintelligent and untouchable. The book took a stark look at the history of racism against Chinese immigrants in the 19th century and with the new 5th wave. The author spent part of the book carrying out a one sided dialogue with the main character that I found rather touching. (If a little confusing at first). The style reminded me a lot of the early 20th century Chinese writers who littered their prose with descriptions of physical unpleasantness. Even translated it came across beautifully.
I shall have to add this to my list of books to read in Chinese when I'm able. (Hopefully in a year or so). In the meantime I've added her other books translated into English books to my amazon wishlist. I'm very glad to have discovered this author.