This review
is written as a contribution for 2015's A Fistful of Reads blind spot challenge
which is hosted by A Fistful of Films.
Last month, I reviewed a book by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which dealt with Nigerians in the US, and so I was curious to also read a short story collection by a Chinese author, which likewise is a window into a culture I was not familiar with.
A multi-award winning debut fiction work. Yiyun Li grew up in Beijing and came to the United States in 1996. Consists of a collection of ten short stories about life in modern China and Chinese Americans in the US. Has also been adapted into a film which I haven’t seen.
I like the observations about how the rigid system in China sometimes causes unhappiness among its citizens. However the writer’s anti-communistic critique of the regime is too repetitive, so while interesting, the book is a bit monotonous thematically. I do think the messiness of life is handled well by the author, which is not necessarily specific to China, but universal.
My experience of reading short stories is that it’s quite demanding, because you have to keep starting from scratch after a few pages. Worth a read if China and its people interest you. Certainly a brave publication in a country that is notorious for its censorship. Although China is changing, it's still shaped by its traditions and recent history.
Of the two short story books I’ve read in the last six months, I prefer The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2009), which I reviewed here
If you’d
rather not have the stories spoiled, I recommend you skip over the following summaries:
1) Extra (Rating 8/10)
Summary: Grandma Lin loses her job, but is not given a
pension, so she must figure out how to get by on her own. She marries an old
senile gentleman who has wealth, he dies, and she inherits nothing. A relative
of the deceased offers her a job opportunity at a private school. Lin cleans
and does laundry, and forms a friendship with a 6-year boy named Kang, who is
as much a reject as she is. Grandma Lin takes pity on him. Kang is from a divided
family, where the father has a new wife, and the existing wife and child(Kang)
are no longer desired. This is why Kang has been sent away to the school. Kang
disappears and is found again, but Lin is fired due to lack of responsibility
towards Kang. On her departure from the school her handbag is stolen, luckily
she kept her money in her lunchbox. Lin speculates inwardly about missing out
on love, she only had temporary loving moments in her life.
Thoughts: A critique of the regime not giving
unemployment benefit, and about loneliness
2) After a Life (Rating 9/10)
Summary: Mr and Mrs Su are cousins yet married.
Unfortunately their first born girl is spastic and afflicted with cerebral
palsy, their daughter lives at home with them. The trio isolate themselves from friends
and family, and secretly would like their girl to die so they can be free of
the burden. The spastic girl keeps their son away from home, and he is missed.
Mr Su becomes friendly with a man his own age. The friend says he wants to live
with a younger woman and leave his wife, who is current serving time in prison. His
wife is released from jail and is horrified that he would want them to live two
women and a man under the same roof.
Thoughts: The Greek tragedy aspects are interesting, that the
family are punished for inbreeding. I could empathize with the parenthood issues,
even though it’s wrong not acknowledging your child to the surroundings. The parents are to be admired for
sacrificing so much to look after the handicapped child, but it’s a high price to pay, and
maybe some might say the girl would be better off in a home. It's always going to be the parent's decision how to handle the responsibility, for better or worse.
3.) Immortality (Rating 7/10)
Summary: Takes place in a fictional country and tells the
story of a young man who bears a striking resemblance to a dictator. A family policy is introduced by the
dictator which encourages women to produce many children, these women are name
“hero mothers”. A scientist is tortured
to death because he asked the dictator to change his politics, having predicted
a massive growth in population.
The
citizens due to food shortages are encouraged to eat sparrows. The dictator is
described as a heartless bastard, who is not afraid of another world war and
atomic bombs, because if half the country’s population should be killed, then
there will still be 250 million remaining, and the survivors can quickly
multiply themselves so the population once again is 500 million citizens.
Thoughts: Different approach to the first two stories, the storytelling is quite fragmented. The exaggerated absurdity is comical about the
dictatorship, poverty of communism, and so on. An obvious satirical jab at China's
population-control policy.
4.) The Princess of Nebraska (Rating 8/10)
Summary: Sasha is from Mongolia, and now lives in the
US. She is too far into her pregnancy to have an abortion. Boshen is openly gay
and currently in a proforma marriage with a lesbian friend. He is in love with
18-year-old Yang, who is an actor. The secret police halt Boshen’s efforts in
China against AIDS. Boshen and Sasha know each other and consider whether they
should raise the child together in US and potentially bring Yang to the United States. It
turns out she befriended Yang also, and Yang is the father of her unborn child.
Thoughts: Again, a critique of the regime who are
preventing efforts in China against AIDS.
The author
does a fine job of depicting how you can fall in love with someone without
hardly knowing them.
5.) Love in the Marketplace (Rating 6/10)
Summary: An illiterate mother works at the market, she
makes the best eggs with spices. Sanson is called Miss Casablanca by her
students, because she shows them this film.
Sanson is
abandoned by her lover Tu, he married another woman called Min. But Min dies
ten years later. Sanson’s mother wants Sanson to take Tu back without
questioning the reasons for the divorce. Sanson doesn’t want to marry him,
because it didn’t work out the first time.
The story
concludes with a beggar asking people on the street to cut him for money. If
they kill him it doesn’t cost anything.
Thoughts: The critique of the regime concerns the
capital, if you don’t have citizenship there, you have to settle for lesser
jobs outside the city. In comparison, in America they don’t care where you are
from. The laws also limit the students opportunities, in that only students
with relatives in US could have a passport to study in US.
Can you
rekindle with a former love is also what the story is about, which is difficult, if
the other person treated you as second best.
6.) Son (Rating 7/10)
Summary: Hung is a 33 year old unmarried software
developer, with US citizenship. His mother is a
matchmaker, however Hung is gay.
Mother
picks Hung up at the airport in Beijing. She gives him a gold chain and wants
Hung to go to church with her. After the father’s death, many of the mother’s
letters to Hung have been about her newfound faith.
At an internet
café, many of the pages Hung usually frequents have been blocked, for instance
gay chat and NY Times.
Hung never
becomes irritated by people from churches and listens to them. Hung tells his mother
that the state-authorized church see the communist party as their only leader.
Hung thinks his mother’s church is deceiving people.
Children
beg in Beijing, the mother gives them money, if they agree to go to church with
her. Hung is more critical and notices the kids are child labor. Roles are
reversed, and Hung now sees himself as someone who is protecting his mother,
but she doesn’t want him to.
When the
mother returns from the church he admits to homosexuality. She accepts this
because “god sees all and understand all”
Thoughts: Questions whether China should block specific internet
pages. The story is about empathy among children and their parents, who have
grown apart. In this case, Hung perceives the Church differently because he is
educated.
7.) The Arrangement (Rating 8/10)
Summary: Uncle Bing is under suspicion for having an
affair with a married woman, when her husband is away. Ruolan’s mother is less
irritable when unmarried Uncle Bing visits. The mother is sick yet not very
old, she doesn’t work, and spends a lot of time in bed.
Ruolan is
about 12 or 13 and gets her first period. Ruolan can’t talk to her mother about
it and admits she’d rather speak to a stranger on the street about her period
than her own mother.
Father and
daughter are in the same boat, tied to the woman they are unable to love, but
unable to leave. Mother refuses to divorce him.
The father
is hardly better, and says he is not her father, she is her mother’s daughter,
and Ruolan has to look after her mother. He has another woman he goes to see.
Uncle Bing
and Ruolan are friends, he admits that for many of the children the only meal
they eat during the day is porridge at school, and this is the main reason they
go to school. He also tells her she is adopted.
Ruolan
wants to escape and marry Uncle Bing when she becomes of age, he is
uncomfortable with this suggestion, and refuses, because he is much older.
Thoughts: Nearly all the main characters are unhappy, so
it’s easy to empathize. Uncle Bing is the outsider character who tries to help.
8.) Death is Not A Joke If Told The Right Way (Rating
5/10)
Summary: Visiting Mr and Mrs Pang, the child narrator
can take a breather from her blood family and the obligations of being a
daughter. Mr Pang is incompetent, and we follow his journey. He dies with
dignity in a post office job. The narrator becomes friendly with a group of
drop outs.
Thoughts: For me, the weakest short story in the collection. I quite like the ending, but the characters and story are a bit forgettable.
Thoughts: For me, the weakest short story in the collection. I quite like the ending, but the characters and story are a bit forgettable.
9.) Persimmons (Rating 7/10)
Summary: A couple secretly had a second child but
didn’t rapport their firstborn. The authorities hear of this and "one child per
family" is painted on their house. Mother commits suicide so Lao Da can have
more children, but he loses his mind and kills 17 people. The children go to an
orphanage. Lao Da becomes a killer because his son was killed. A group of
judges go to the local reservoir and following an insulting remark throw Lao
Da’s son into the water. The boy drowns and his father later takes revenge, the
reservoir was a place Lao Da had fought for, and for the drowning to happen
there made it even worse.
Thoughts: Deals with one child per family and how it
affects a family. The social commentary is that there is a
drought, yet it is illegal to beg in the city. The authorities offer no social
benefits or handouts. Probably the moral of the story is that on rare occasions a gentle man can turn into a violent man, and it's insinuated the laws and circumstances are at least partly to blame for his frustration.
10.) A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (Rating
8/10)
Summary: Mr Shi visits his daughter in Midwestern
United States. People are friendly
towards him, and impressed, when he tells them he is a retired rocket scientist.
He
befriends an elderly lady, the language barrier means they don’t understand
everything the other says.
Mr Shi has
a dysfunctional relationship with his daughter, she felt he wasn’t present enough during her childhood, and now he feels she is not present during their
conversations. Perhaps she is getting her own back.
Years earlier, he was caught talking to a female employee and degraded. He was unable to talk about what he did at his job and this hurt his home life.
Years earlier, he was caught talking to a female employee and degraded. He was unable to talk about what he did at his job and this hurt his home life.
Favorite quote: “life offers more happiness than we are aware
of”
Thoughts: The friendship between the elderly lady and Mr
Shi was quite heartwarming, who struggle to understand what the other is saying,
yet appreciate each other’s company. In
contrast to the father-son relationship, which is so heartbreaking.
Overall rating of book 7/10
Are you a fan of reading short stories? Know any books/movies that depict Chinese people in America? Are you familiar with Yiyun Li or other Chinese authors? As always, comments are welcome.
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