Chinese Archives - Page 3 of 16

Rich People Problems [Crazy Rich Asians 3] by Kevin Kwan [in Library Journal]

25 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Hong Kongese, Repost, Singaporean, Singaporean American, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American

*STARRED REVIEW Kevin Kwan’s third volume continues to expose – albeit with plenty of schadenfreudian humor – the outrageous excesses and over-the-top machinations that began with his debut, Crazy Rich Asians (currently in highly anticipated celluloid production). Lydia Look, who voiced book two, China Rich Girlfriend,...

The Years, Months, Days by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas [in Library Journal]

22 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Set in the fictional Balou Mountains in Yan's home province of Henan (also the setting for Lenin's Kisses), these two compelling novellas both exalt emotional bonds and warn against their fatal consequences. To escape endless drought, an entire village flees in search of sustenance...

Little Soldiers: An American Boy, a Chinese School, and the Global Race to Achieve by Lenora Chu [in Christian Science Monitor]

21 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

'Little Soldiers' examines the Chinese education system from the inside Born in Philadelphia, reared in a Houston suburb, Stanford- and Columbia-educated, journalist Lenora Chu has a resume that – at first glance – looks very American. But her “connection to China came by birthright”: she’s “a...

Celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with 12 New Titles [in The Booklist Reader]

10 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, British Asian, Cambodian, Cambodian American, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Japanese American, Korean, Korean American, Lists, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian, South Asian American, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese American

While Columbus is credited with discovering the Americas, notable scholars and historians have argued that Chinese explorers traveled around the world in the early 15th century and created a surviving map that shows America on its route. Imagine if those ancient explorers had stayed. The history of Asians...

The Leavers by Lisa Ko [in Christian Science Monitor]

04 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost

'The Leavers,' inspired by a real story, confronts transracial adoption “Everyone had stories they told themselves to get through the days,” Deming Guo muses the evening of his 22nd birthday, summing up a lifetime of leaving – and being left – that has defined his short...

City Gate, Open Up by Bei Dao, translated by Jeffrey Yang [in Booklist]

04 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Translation

Bei Dao is considered the most prominent of China’s “Misty Poets,” named for the abstract, opaque nature of their compositions written predominantly during the oppressive Cultural Revolution. In contrast, the language of Bei Dao’s memoir, seamlessly translated by fellow poet Yang, is elegantly simple and...

Frontier by Can Xue, translated by Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping [in Booklist]

07 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Fiction, Repost, Translation

“It will be interesting what people make of this one,” novelist-essayist Porochista Khakpour (The Last Illusion, 2014) reveals in her introduction, something she admiringly says about every Can Xue (The Last Lover, 2014) title. “Can Xue,” Khakpour explains, is both pseudonymous disguise and “synonymous with...

Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang + Author Interview [in Bloom]

21 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Repost

Ever since she was a child, Janie Chang was steeped in family tales she inherited from her parents about the generations that came before. For decades, she remained the family’s repository until, at age 53, she presented the world with her debut novel, Three Souls,...

The Girl at the Baggage Claim: Explaining the East-West Culture Gap by Gish Jen [in Booklist]

30 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Nonfiction, Repost

Beloved novelist Gish Jen (World and Town, 2010) expands on the East-West cultural paradigm she applied to examining art and culture in her previous nonfiction work, Tiger Writing (2013), to see “what it can show us about the world.” As the U.S.-born child of Chinese immigrants,...

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See [in Booklist]

02 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost

In a remote mountain village, the survival of an Akha tribe, one of China’s 55 ethnic minorities, depends on tea. Rigid traditions prohibit Li-yan from keeping her newborn. She saves her daughter by leaving her in a nearby town, wrapped in blankets with a tea...

The Explosion Chronicles by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas [in Library Journal]

07 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Fiction, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Yan Lianke's latest translated-into-English title offers multiple rewarding options. As straightforward narrative, it follows the astounding transformation of Explosion, a rural mountain village, into a "megalopolis" through the entangled lives of the Kong family's four sons – a teacher, a politician, a soldier, and...

Remembering 1942 and Other Chinese Stories by Liu Zhenyun, translated by Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin [in Booklist]

03 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

Mao Dun Award–winning novelist Liu Zhenyun (The Cook, the Crook, and the Real Estate Tycoon, 2015) adroitly confronts Very Big Topics – family, education, work, bureaucracy, the military, history – in his first translated-into-English story collection. “Tofu” exposes the numbing tribulations of being a poor family...

The Art of Confidence by Wendy Lee [in Booklist]

01 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Taiwanese, Taiwanese American

An ephemeral, atmospheric painting, Elegy, is at the core of Wendy Lee’s third and most ambitious novel (Happy Family, 2008; Across a Green Ocean, 2015). An unknown, 30-year-sojourning Chinese artist is paid a pittance to recreate a missing canvas. A desperate New York gallery owner...

The Problem with Me: And Other Essays About Making Trouble in China Today by Han Han, translated and edited by Alice Xin Liu and Joel Martinsen [in Booklist]

11 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Translation

Although he was a 1999 national writing-competition winner at 17 and runaway bestselling novelist a year later, Shanghai-based Han couldn’t finish high school. His subsequent rants against the education system, standardized testing, and corrupt bureaucracy earned him widespread acclaim. At 34, he has added rally-car racing...

Discover WeNeedDiverseBooks with Guojing’s The Only Child

05 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Absolute Favorites, Children/Picture Books, Chinese, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, WeNeedDiverseBooks, WNDB.SummerReadingSeries2016

The Boat Rocker by Ha Jin [in Library Journal]

01 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW When Fen Danlin first landed in New York to join his wife, Yan Haili, she delivered him to a "seedy" Chinatown inn with $500 and instructions to stay – alone – within walking distance of an arranged restaurant job. She returned the next day...

The Fortunes by Peter Ho Davies [in Booklist]

11 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Hong Kongese, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW British-born of Welsh and Chinese parentage, Peter Ho Davies (The Welsh Girl, 2007) has lived stateside since 1992, but this is his first U.S.-set title. In it he explores the history of his adopted home in four sections. In “Gold,” he links the completion of...

One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment by Mei Fong [in Library Journal]

06 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese, Malaysian, Nonfiction, Repost

China's infamous one-child policy lasted just 35 years. Forced sterilizations, gruesome late-term abortions, an overseas adoption boom, and baby trafficking emerged as by-products of the draconian law. What was touted as a "necessary step in [China's] Herculean efforts to lift the population…from abject poverty" resulted in...

The Only Child by Guojing

07 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Absolute Favorites, Children/Picture Books, Chinese, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha

The single-page "author's note" which introduces this stupendous, otherwise-wordless wonder is a full story unto itself: Guojing reveals her lonely childhood growing up in 1980s China under the one-child policy. Her parents worked, and she was often cared for by her grandmother. But sometimes when...

Author Interview: Yiyun Li [in Asian American Literary Review]

15 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost

To become a writer, Yiyun Li left behind everything familiar: her birth country (China), her first language (Mandarin), her family (parents and sister), her scientific training (immunology), and her PhD degree (University of Iowa). On the other side of the world, she switched into the...

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