China Books

This collection of short stories is easy to read and never boring. It gives the reader a picture of life in China that is very different from the propaganda we get from the governments in China and in the United States. If anyone wants to know about a culture or a country, observing the bottom of society is much more enlightening and accurate than looking at the society from the top. I suspect that most of us, in China and the rest of the world, are much closer to the bottom of our societies than we are to the leaders of those societies. I thank the author for braving the wrath of his government to show us a glimpse of real life in the real China. It makes me think that the more different we appear to be, the more we are all the same.

I read this book after seeing a positive review in the Chicago Tribune and it did not disappoint. Each story of everyday Chinese citizens and their struggles was very memorable, touching and thought-provoking. As an American, I also found it very enlightening, and thought the stories were so important that I recommended the book to family and friends.

The Corpse Walker is the kind of book you will think about long after you've finished reading it!

The collection of stories in The Corpse Walker is comparable to the most fantastic of Jorge Luis Borges' fiction, except they are real. I always thought that China, as big as it is, must be home to some of the weirdest human stories in the planet. Add some fifty years of communist dictatorship to the mix and it is impossible that it wouldn't be. Now Liao Yiwu, the only Chinese among the 1.5 billion that I can truly say I would dig a whole all the way to China in order to meet, gives to the world a glimpse of what some of those stories are. Where else would corpse walking exist as a profession? Where else would they select choice human excrement for delivery to a commune, once visited by Chairman Mao, where it was used as fertilizer?

Throughout, you get a hint that Liao Yiwu did not stumble into the stories by accident. His wit and genius comes through loud and clear.

My only complaint is why only one volume? Why did Pantheon Books not publish the three volumes that are mentioned in the introduction?

On the strength of this book, I think Liao Yiwu deserves the Nobel Prize. Since there isn't one for muckraking, he should be given one for Medicine on the grounds that he helps keep the world sane.

I picked up this book after reading a review in the Financial Times. And I couldn't put it down. There is so much being written about China but nothing out there presents such a fascinating glimpse into the lives of ordinary people who are out of view in all the talk about the economic power.

As a Chinese communist party member, I'm supposed to tell a lie as usual, but I have to admit that I really love this book. However, sad stories are always hard to go over again and again, which will make me emotionally unacceptable. If I were a girl, Jingsheng, I would like to be your lover, but never your wife.

Wei Jingsheng is well known as China's leading dissident, but this book also establishes him as one of China's leading intellectuals. He has the courage to see and to say what others in China cannot. His letter to Deng Xiaoping about Tibet is an extraordinarily powerful piece of writing. It is worth buying the book for this alone.

"Don't give the Chinese communists too much pressure, otherwise they cannot afford to provide food for the people." That is a pretext used by many countries or people to delay the democratization of China. Wei's counter-argument was: It is the people who provide food for the communists. Why did you reverse the order? Wei's political analysis is better than a lot of people with Ph.D. degrees. He is willing to tell the obvious even in face of personal danger. From now on, people who talk about contemporary Chinese politics should start from Wei's ideas. If they do not, they should at least explain why they are avoiding them.

The lack of heroes these days has become a truism. Our political leaders are beset by satyriasis and mendacity. Our sports icons gobble steroids, routinely violate the terms of their parole, and sometimes even behead their wives.

That makes it surprising to encounter a genuine hero, which the author of The Courage To Stand Alone certainly is. It is doubly strange that he should emerge from China, the land of groupthink and hyperconformity. Who would have thought that a child of the Cultural Revolution would become a major force for decency and dignity even as those qualities were being rendered quaint and passe by the rush for market share in the New Global Economy?

When Wei Jingsheng was first put into prison and began writing the letters that make up the bulk of To Stand Alone, Mandela had been in prison for 17 years, Solzhenitsyn had just published Gulag in English, and the concept of dissent was unknown in China. When Wei was released in 1997 and flew to the US after having served 18 years in China's gulag (known there as laogai), Mandela was president of South Africa, Solzhenitsyn had returned to a free Russia, and Deng had transformed China from a socialist police state to a plutocratic police state. With all the stuff in our hardware stores and clothing shops bearing the Made in China tag, you might even think China had been transformed into a free society. You would be mistaken to think that, however. Wei was imprisoned for exercising one of the simplest and most basic rights, that of free speech. He published a magazine. In it, he urged the Chinese Communist Party to honor all the grand promises it made in the constitutions it churned out from time to time, promises like "The People have the right to speak out freely, air views fully, hold great debates, and write dazibao (large character posters posted on walls in public places for all to read)".

Wei had begun his career as a dissident by putting up one such dazibao: his essay "Democracy: The Fifth Modernization". This document (included in To Stand Alone) is a piece of impassioned logic which a Jefferson or Hancock would be proud to sign. He wrote it and posted it the same night on Beijing's Democracy Wall. Unlike the others who posted writings there, Wei left his name and number. That wasn't safe, but Wei believed the Chinese were getting a worldwide reputation for spinelessness, thanks to people like Deng and Lin Biao who, during the reign of Mao Zedong, had taken the craft of brown-nosing and sycophancy to new depths.

In 1979 Deng was just beginning his reign, and many thought he was a new kind of leader, which he was, in some ways. In other ways he was the oldest kind of leader there is: a tyrant. In his magazine, Wei identified him as dictator-in-the-making a full 10 years before Deng ordered the murder of hundreds of students in Tiananmen Square. That prediction put Wei in prison, the special Chinese kind of prison where you are expected to confess your "errors" and "crimes".

There was a certain amount of international pressure on China, so Wei probably could have gotten out early for confessing his "crimes". But he had that thing about backbone, about standing upright for what you believe in. He was, it must be noted, a little stubborn. Actually, more than a little stubborn. Actually, you know nothing about stubborn until you read this book. Picture David Niven going into the oven in Bridge On The River Kwai for insisting on being treated like an officer according to the Geneva Convention. Now picture him doing that every day for 18 years, and you have some idea of what Wei went through. Not an oven, but a box without windows, very little food, very little heat in a region bordering Tibet, no medical care, sleep made impossible, beatings, solitary confinement for months on end...All these measures notwithstanding, Wei would not confess to a crime he had not committed. He wouldn't even get impolite. In his letters from prison, he demands the basic rights he's been stripped of in a tone less harsh than I use on my neighbor's barking dog. Reading these letters one occasionally gets the feeling he's been detained through some silly bureaucratic mix-up. Of course, he wasn't. He was thrown into the largest system of concentration camps that yet exists on the planet, just like millions of his compatriots. He's out now, but the others are still there, doing slave labor, starving, being executed by the score, involuntarily donating their organs to international markets...

When the Chinese Communist Party falls, as all brutal, sadistic regimes inevitably do, this book of letters and one landmark essay will be remembered as one of the chief causes of its demise.

Wei, if you read this, I would urge you to post Democracy: The Fifth Modernization on this site. It's common for authors to put excerpts of their books here, and that essay would be a perfect sample. I doubt the Party will be able to have it removed.

This book has affected my way of thinking and living more than any other book I have ever read. While I feel a few things in this book are outdated and can not be realistically applied to todays world the majority of what is written has made me a more accepting person and by changing my expectations I have found that I lead a more fullfilled life.

The Dao is perhaps on of the best philosophical books that I have ever read and it is something that everyone should read at least once.

Contains extensive introductory information, including discussion of recent archeoligical discoveries, and interesting endnotes (although I prefer footnotes - less fumbling with pages).

However, I found this translation to be a bit difficult. One of the reviewers on the back of the book refers to it as "poetic" - well, maybe; mostly I found it a bit of a struggle to make sense of it, and had to read through it with several parallel translations to figure out what Roberts was translating. However, in that situation, read with several parallel translations, this translation provides an worthwhile "spin". I find Mair's translation much cleaner, simpler, and more comprehensible. The two together are nice.

Moss Roberts' fine translation of TAO TE CHING is one of several recent translations based upon the Ma-wang-tui texts of Lao-tzu's reflective book of wisdom. Those texts were discovered in 1973, preserved in the tomb of an official's son. That tomb has been dated to 168 B.C. (p. 4). Professor Roberts' translation also draws from the Guodian LAOZI, discovered in 1993 in a royal tutor's tomb. As such, Roberts' translation could be considered the most definitive translation of the TAO TE CHING presently available.

Roberts is a Professor of Chinese at New York University, and the goal of his work is to assist his reader in understanding Lao-tzu's difficult poem. His book includes a twenty-three page Introduction that offers the historical background of the TAO TE CHING. He then annotates his literal translation of the two-part, eighty-one stanza poem with his insightful commentary. His translation is just as scholarly as Robert Henricks' translation, more literal than Stephen Harrison's poetic rendering of Lao-tzu's TAO, and more challenging than Red Pine's excellent translation.

G. Merritt

This book is the Generals best by far because it chronicles pretty much everything about the man himself. His story is proof of what happens if you persist. If you want to get the whole snapshot of my hero, Gen Bob Scott- then this is the book you need to read!! Trust me.

Robert Lee Scott is one of the heros of our century who faded from our collective memory long ago. His 1943 best-seller, God is my Co-pilot, made him famous during WWII, and The Day I Owned the Sky brings the reader up-to-date (Well, up to 1988, anyway) on the further adventures of this magnificent Flying Tiger. This book will take the reader from his humble beginnings in Georgia, to his wartime exploits, and into his fun-filled retirement. If you love books like Yeager and Press On! you'll love this one, too!

This is another great book by Gen. Scott. I feel that I am right in the cockpit with him. The last time I looked, there was a limited number of autographed editions available in the Air Force Museum gift shop at Robins AFB. Ga. Contact the gift shop for availability.

I have a autographed copy of this book and it's one of my most treasured books. It is a wonderful follow up to "God is My Co-Pilot". I have read it at least 10 times in the year that I have had it. It is a very compelling book... I just don't know how to desribe it. Every library that I know of has it, as well as God is My Co-Pilot. It's really not all that hard to find. If you are even the slightest remoteness interested in what it was like in China between 1942 and 1945 this is a exellent book. I don't know how to put it into words... I just love his books. I'm sorry to say that I've never been able to read any of the others (Flying Tiger: Chennault of China, Boring a Hole through the Sky, God is Still My Co-Pilot, just to name a few). He's now over 90 I know that he flew a F-15 Eagle at age 89. Your really not supposed to.. but somehow he convinced them he could. Most everyone I've told says that there must be another seat for the navigator that somebody else went sat in. But, I garrenty you that there is only ONE seat in a F-15 Eagle. In short he is a incredible man, and has a incredible life. And I quote:

"Claire Lee Chennault was a indivialist, and some of that indiviualty must have rubbed off on me because I to have been a indiviaulast.. a mavrick general, in my carrer. But first I had to meet him, and that took some doing. I had to lie cheat and surely steal. There is a saying "never steal anything small" well what I stole was a B-17E FLying Fortress. Right or wrong, under the surrcumstances I did it. It is a long story and I have to Start at the beginning."

A good solid book to have about China. I'm very glad that I got this.

This "coffee table" book literally sits on my coffee table. Every member of my family looks at it just about every day -- we are constantly showing each other the pictures. It shows an amazing variety of moments from an amazing country. It draws you in, and every time you look at it, you see and learn something new. I highly recommend this book. I am thrilled with it.

This book captures all the sights, sounds, and smells of China with these pictures. It is unbiased showing all sides of life in China. While paging through all the different cities and times of day I was taken back to the streets of China and the warm people in the cities I have had the privlege of visiting.

This collection of photos taken of people and places across China gives you a glorious snapshot of the complexity and beauty of this country. This table top collection of photos captures the soul of the country and its people and gives you a chance to travel to a far away land without ever leaving your armchair.

This is much more than just a story of a climb to Mt. Everest (which is a inspiring story on it's own!). This is a story about the strength of the human spirit. There is no scientific explanation for his survival. It is obvious the strength of his mind/spirit is what brought him down from that mountain. The story was written well and enjoyable to read. Although I enjoy the outdoors, I am not a mountain climber, and I found this book so inspiring!

Over two years ago, Lincoln experienced the best and the worst of Mt Everest. He was reaching the summit when he got a severe case of altitude sickness. His group attempted to revive him, but when that failed he was left for dead, very close to the summit. As fate would have it, a group of climbers making their way up, saw him in desperate need of help and ultimately saved his life. He writes about his horrible ordeal in this amazing book.
His hands and feet were absolutely covered in frostbite. He has had some limbs and toes and fingers amputated, and various other surgeries as a result of his experience up there. He refers to May 26, 2006 as the day he died, and writes in here the pros and cons for climbing Everest. He puts his family on both lists; on the con - the fear of leaving his wife and kids without a husband or father and on the pro list, the idea to show them that he was willing to take a chance to live out his dream. He describes the bitter cold and all the thoughts running through his head. It's a book that takes you through different emotions - triumph, fear, relief and everything in between.
Whether you like mountain climbing or not, this book is a great read. It is moving and interesting and it's good to see a happy ending. I really enjoyed this and hope you will too.

This is an excellent book- very well written and hard to put down. I have read many books on climbing and Everest, and this is one of, if not the best. His survival is incredible, and it's nice to read how histhoughts and love of his family kept him going (and played into whether he would attempt the climb at all) at a time when so many people only think of themselves. I highly recommend this book.

I got this book a year ago thru a friend from Australia when it first came out over there. I read it in one sitting and could not put it down. For those who have read Beck Weathers Left For Dead, Lincoln Hall goes even further into the fight for living after the physical part is gone. I have all of Lincoln Hall's books he has wrote, and along with Blood On The Lotus this is his best writing.If you are into the physical and mental demands of what climbing Everest is about, Lincoln really blows you away with his own mind trip that night as he lay there in a fantasy world of his own.Excellent read..

"Dear Alice" is a must read for anyone headed for China. It's a collection of hundreds of letters by English teachers from America, who arrived to discover China was a bit too different. Often in desperation, but usually with great wit and insight, they sought a shoulder to cry on. So they wrote barrel-fulls of letters to the person who sent them there; hence, Dear Alice .... Alice Renouf, the author, began sending teachers to China years ago and now runs a full-fledged human resources firm helping people who want to teach English in a truly different, challenging environment. Even the locals will tell you China is a crazy place -- a soviet-style bureaucracy trying to run a 3,000 year old society on a marathon of change. Some of the 1.2 runners are at 'start' and some in the 20th centruy. The route changes hourly, and the finishline is definitely "mei you." But if you want to know people who suffer awful frustration with courage, you're in the right place. The best part of the book is learning how many Americans overcome their initial shock, and why they don't flee to the nearest airport. The common strategy seems to be (1) Talk about it (2) Make friends with fellow suffers first, i.e. other Americans. This sounds a bit stand-offish considering you've gone all the way to China to meet Chinese, but it isn't, (3) Learn Chinese if you can, but failing that develop a busy schedule. China is truly ugly, but always interesting, so don't allow yourself an idle minute to examine your (usually) wretched physical surroundings, (4) Take enough money, or make enough. China isn't cheap, and a "mental holiday" in a place like China (dinner at a joint venture hotel) is many times costlier than in the US, (5) Travel and see the country. Make the experience count, and (6) Be prepared for the ultimate culture shock -- ending up where you may have started -- wiser and more tolerant perhaps, but believing your own culture makes considerably more sense.

First of all, I would like to mention that I had the opportunity to teach for one year in Xi'an, the ancient capital of China, and now the capital of Shaanxi province. I am thankful to Alice Renouf, the "Alice" of the title "Dear Alice", for making this dream come true. I went in 1992, if I remember correctly. Since I began reading this wonderful book, I have been unable to put it down. So many forgotten memories and subtle emotions came pouring into my consciousness. From the shock of the first weeks in China to standing in front of the classroom to the everday rush of life which I was part of, to eating in the nightmarket. Reading this book is a vivid and emotional experience. Second only to going to China oneself. Though, I feel it is a must read for anyone planning to go; either as teacher, student, tourist, businessman, politician. In fact, I feel it is not only important for those going to China, but also for anyone who intends to immerse themself in another culture. But even if you just want to read a good book, either while sitting on a warm and glistening sandy beach, with the waves lapping against the shore; or while sitting in your living room sipping a cup of coffee or tea; this is certainly a worthwhile, entertaining, and educational book. After all, it is about becoming sensitive to another culture, and discovering one's own, in the process. I highly recommend "Dear Alice". You will certainly enjoy it.

I just finished reading Dear Alice. I found it extremely helpful in preparing myself mentally for an upcoming trip to China. The letters were quite authentic and honest, often revealing small details about the enigma of life in China. While I can't assume that I'll have a similar experience to that of the writers, I feel comforted to know that others have dealt with China and survived. A great book if you're curious about this foreign culture and an especially illuminating book for those of you from the United States and who are interested in the ways Americans might react to "The land on the other side of the looking glass."

After buying _Dear Alice_ at the recent meeting of the Association for Asian Studies annual meeting in Washington, D.C., I read it with laughter and tears on the train back home. As someone who runs an exchange program for high school teachers between the U.S. and China, I found the letters, and the sentiments they expressed, extremely familiar.

The book will be a wonderful service for those planning to go to China to teach, and for those whose dreams take them only as far as the living room couch.

A must read.

Margot E. Landman
Director, U.S.-China Teachers
Exchange Program
American Council of Learned Societies

Excellent instructions for beginners but not so simple that the more advanced painter will be bored. 300 patterns with ideas for many more. I will be using this with Mentally Challenged Adults. I have a copy myself and am ordering this copy for them to use.

I really enjoy painting ceramics as a hobby and use this book every week for ideas and inspiration. It covers a wide range of subjects, from fruits to flowers to lettering and animals, design specific for your ceramic piece so you can get an idea what might look nice on a teapot, for example. It is a great starting point to see how designs, shapes and colours work together. This book should be available in every ceramics studio!

Señores Gare: Me es grato poder comunicarme con ustedes y felicitarlos por su ceramica,que es muy linda,como puedo adquirir la revista Decorating Ceramics May 99, ya que através de internet no lo puedo hacer. ¿ SE podría enviarla através de una agencia?, y yo mandaría los dolares. ¿Me pueden mandar su dirección e- mail y su casilla para poderles escribir? Mi nombre es Elizabeth Hendrickson de Solis. Huancavilca # 712 Y Rumichaca. Teléfonos: (593-4)414419, 413634, 406292,493954, 441754.

As a Ceramic Teacher I have found this book to be very useful in the studio. There are so many ideas and designs to look at, as the title says over 300 designs, simple and easy to understand. The designs are easy to follow for beginers and give great ideas as to how to lay out design work on ceramic. Advance students have followed some of the ideas, adding their own designs to a more advance level. Anyone who has a studio with beginers this is a must..A great studio tool.

I am delighted that these diaries have at last been published and thus made easily accessible to the scholarly world and all interested readers. They transport us back to a little-known time and place, China just after the turn of the 20th century.

Volume One includes great detail of the acrimonious diplomatic negotiations after the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 which led to the signing of the final protocol between the powers and China on September 7, 1901. Volume Two of the two-volume set includes Satow's observations on and of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) and much about the development of railways, the Imperial Maritime Customs Service run by Sir Robert Hart (the Inspector General) and so on.

There is much more to come from the Satow Papers (PRO 30/33 1-23) in the National Archives of the UK at Kew, West London but these diaries have never been published before and will repay careful study.

Ian Ruxton, editor of Sir Ernest Satow's Private Letters to W.G. Aston and F.V. Dickins: The Correspondence of a Pioneer Japanologist from 1870 to 1918 (Paperback), also available on amazon.

In part two, the Satow saga continues, and through the diaries, one can understand these historical events of the time much better by knowing the details of the motives, fears and values of the British and of the Japanese, at least through Satow's eyes. In the first few pages,1903 the reader is introduced to the problem of Manchuria, and of the chances that China had in turning the "Russians out by force." Satow seems to write about almost every issue of the time. In his 1904 notes, he discusses issues of the coal at Kaiping, loans of ten million pounds sterling, rumours concerning the Chinese Empress-Dowager, of French capitalists offering money to reanimate the Imperial Bank of China, to name just a few. From these notes, it is easy to see the incredible manipulation, and cunning on the part of the politicians and diplomats of the day. The background to the Russian-Japanese war begins on page 25 with Japan agreeing to peace if Russia gave up Port Arthur, evacuated the province of Manchuria, and handed over the railway to China. In short, the notes not only make for interesting reading--and there is a LOT more here--but they also a good read for the historian or those interested in diplomacy. To know history, one must know the tiny details that went into making the events, and these details are only known through the diaries of those who shaped the events.

Ian Ruxton's second volume of Ernest Mason Satow's diaries while serving as British envoy to China begins in January 1904 and continues through 1906. Early in the volume appear Satow's reports on conflicts between Russia and Japan over Chinese territory, conflicts which would lead to the Russo-Japanese War, which Japan scholar Satow would have to observe from his China posting. Nonetheless, Satow's particular position and scholarly background as an observer of East Asia allowed him to make observations still of interest to a general reader.

In this second volume of Satow's Peking tenure, his Diary moves on to consider and relate wider International aspirations and worries, including Russian interest in Manchuria, and even Korea. There is considerable reference to the expansion of the railway system and the sharing of its construction/costs. Although I'm sure there will be many more such lighter moments in the full version, no extract from Satow's Diaries can be complete without a witty comment on something not inherently comical. Here it is reference to the Belgians procuring the services of one Mr Sheng 'by stuffing his pockets', whether this means a bribe, or legitimate expenses/remuneration, Satow quite wisely does not state! Again, the recorded musings of such serious topics are interspersed with things social - although when it comes to the application of tact and diplomacy, the stock in trade of the Diplomatic service, it is really no wonder then that engineering contracts are won and lost, and wars declared, ended or avoided, over a slice of upside down cake and a tumbler of steaming hot lemon tea. Yet again these diaries provide a fascinating glimpse into the machinations in the Orient of the Diplomatic Service in the Edwardian era, and which are personalised by Satow's recorded views. Due to the continued endeavours of Ian Ruxton,we yet again walk with Sir Ernest Satow along the ( overseas ) corridors of power, eavesdrop on the chattering classes, and share his secret doubts, dismissal and disdain ( and occasional admiration ) of both colleagues and his Chinese and International counterparts. Excellent.

This is truly a stunning collection of Lu Xun's works. The translation is an easy read and entertaining. Professors seeking revolutionary period text for use in the classroom will be extremely satisfied.

Lu Xun (1881-1936) was not the greatest writer produced by a certain time, or city, or nation. He was one of the greatest authors this world has ever produced. Period.

This book begins with an overview of the man's life and works. I read its long preface, something I rarely do with a career retrospective, and enjoyed it. Lu Xun lived his life. He was not lived by it.

The meat of the book comes from his short stories, prose poems and reminiscences. The only way to tell his fiction from his non-fiction is by the name of the narrator, and even then you don't really know. Lu Xun is that good.

I was immediately stunned by his turn of phrase, his utterly realistic portrayal of life, his unflinching honesty, his gentle wit. His mind, his heart, his soul. Here in his hometown, 100 years too late. I am so grateful that he wrote, because otherwise I would have never known him.

"As to why I wrote [stories], I still felt...that I should write in the hope of enlightening my people, for humanity, and of the need to better it.... My aim was to expose the disease and draw attention to it so that it might be cured."

Just a few of his early words. I also admire how he openly states that he set out to use his words as "daggers" and "javelins." Here are more of his words.

"I did my best to avoid all wordiness. If I felt I had made my meaning sufficiently clear, I was glad to dispense with frills. The old Chinese theatre has no scenery, and the New Year pictures sold to children show a few main pictures only.... Convinced that such methods suit my purpose, I did not indulge in irrelevant details and kept the dialogue down to a minimum."

Let me pause here. Lu Xun knows how to show rather than tell. But dialogue that does neither doesn't exist in his writing. That's what he means by "a minimum." His dialogue rings so true that I'm sick with jealousy, and there's an ample supply.

"I forget who it was that said that the best way to convey a man's character with a minimum of strokes is to draw his eyes. This is absolutely correct. If you draw all the hairs of his head, no matter how accurately, it will not be of much use."

The best authors have always known this. But look at how well Lu Xun explains it. I could copy and paste what he wrote about writing, pass myself off as an expert, and get rich. Let me return to his words.

"After finishing something, I always read it through twice, and where a passage grated on my ears I would add or cut a few words to make it read smoothly. When I could not find suitable vernacular expressions I used classical ones, hoping some readers would understand. And I seldom used phrases out of my own head which I alone -- or not even I -- could comprehend."

I graduated high school, in Tampa, Florida, in 1981. I was taught that simple language is bad, which we now seem to accept isn't true. In China, roughly 70 years before that, Lu Xun defended the use of words that readers actually understand. Modern China and modern USA could both learn from him on this. The goal of communication is to communicate. It really bugs me that I feel a definite need to state this.

"Truth is the life of satire. Unless you write the truth it cannot be 'satire.'" But satire must be good-intentioned. Lu Xun opposed the cynicism which "simply convinces its readers that there is nothing good in the world, nothing worth doing."

I learned all this, and was convinced I'd love his writing, before I even read the first word. Look at the intelligence, the perceptiveness, the passion, the clarity. All this from the preface alone. Before I move on to a preface written by the master himself, let me throw in some historical perspective.

The Revolution of 1911 overthrew the Qing Dynasty, but it didn't erase the imperialism and feudalism. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Lu Xun saw this. He shows us life as it was then. But please don't think of him as a "political author," the way the preface by a loyal Communist Party member encourages you to do. To reduce Lu Xun to those two words would be a terrible injustice.

Lu Xun left Shaoxing when he was 17, to study medicine. His father's death was due to medical incompetence. Lu Xun studied medicine at the Kiangnan Naval Academy in Nanjing, then at a medical college in the Japanese countryside. This background exposed him to the world, whereas most Chinese at that time knew only their little corner of China. But let me use his words again.

"...one day I saw a news-reel slide of a number of Chinese, one of them bound and the rest standing around him. They were all sturdy fellows but appeared completely apathetic. According to the commentary, the one with his hands bound was a spy working for the Russians who was to be beheaded by the Japanese military as a warning to others, while the Chinese beside him had come to enjoy the spectacle.

"Before the term was over I had left for Tokyo, because this slide convinced me that medical science was not so important after all. The people of a weak and backward country, however strong and healthy they might be, could only serve to be made examples of or as witnesses of such futile spectacles; and it was not necessarily deplorable if many of them died of illness. The most important thing, therefore, was to change their spirit..."

That's from the preface of the man's first book. Lu Xun, brand new author, states that it's okay if Chinese people die because they are sheep, and that's why he left medicine. He challenges his readers with this before they've ever read his first story. Then he presumably expects those readers to read his stories anyway.

Based on the Western stereotype of China, this is what makes authors vanish without a trace. According to some people, this is what makes authors in Bush's America vanish without a trace. But what matters is that Lu Xun never lied to a reader. That's what he felt, so that's what he wrote.

Have you read a short story collection where you raced to see how fast you could knock it out? Here a story, there a story, everywhere a story story, and two hours later you're done. An hour later, you're hungry again. That's what's hurt the popularity of the short story. Writing them is easy!

No, it's not. Not if you do it right. The well crafted short story is harder to write than a novel. Every time I read a Lu Xun short story, it ended far too soon and I had to pause while my mind caught up with what it had just witnessed. He is truly a master, and I can't recommend him highly enough.

Back to the preface before Lu Xun's preface. "Lu Xun's essays form the bulk and the most important part of his literary work." In addition to his teaching and his editing. Amazing. I've spent the past two weeks being blown away by his short stories, but the other THREE books are supposedly all more important. Given the mind of their author, I believe it. Oh, the treasures ahead.

The cynic in me would like to know about the essays that didn't make it into this collection, but never mind. Lu Xun opposed that sort of cynicism. I'm happy to spend a whole lotta time with Lu Xun, and I can.

Can you? I don't know. Check your local libraries, bookstores, websites if you must. Lately, I've read email from several Westerners who are familiar with Lu Xun. There must be a reason.

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LU XUN - SELECTED WORKS - VOLUMES TWO THRU FOUR

I'm pleased to report that Amazon.com sells a short story collection containing all 25 of Lu Xun's short stories, not just the 18 reviewed above. What this means is, you can get it at your local bookstore or perhaps even your local library. Go for it! I have it, I've read it, I love it.

Now then. I also mentioned in my previous review that the anthology claims his essays are his greatest contribution. So how do they measure up?

They measure up just fine, thank you very much. He is a master of satire and he does use words as weapons. He can make you laugh and think at the same time. A remarkable clarity of thought combined with an enviable gift for communication. Again, one need not be from China, or from the early 20th century, to appreciate this remarkable person.

When I reviewed his fiction, I used the phrase "gentle wit" even though it wasn't always gentle. Regarding his essays, I'll say biting wit. Acid wit. Devastating wit. Think Jonathan Swift, think Bertrand Russell, strip them of the rubbish and make them far more prolific. Lu Xun's even better than that, but at least you'll be on the right track.

(I almost mentioned Oscar Wilde, but he wasn't quite disciplined enough to join Lu Xun's tier. Damn witty, though.)

I don't know that you can find these essays. If you can, get them. If not, well, the short stories probably are more "timeless." I probably enjoyed the essays more on my first reading than I did the stories. But I've since read the stories numerous times, and own a collection. It's hard to say whether or not the essays would hold up to the test of repetition so well, no matter how witty their author. Essays are like that, I think.

Finally, since I've been to Lu Xun's ancestral home, and since I have some of his short stories (English translation) on my website, and I've given him his own page at Lu Xun, you can probably guess that I want to give this author my highest praise. I'm trying. Get the book!

In this book by Lu xun, a greatest Chinese fiction writer in the history, you will see some influence from Russian literature, such as Gogol, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy, yet Lu xun manages to keep the Chinese atmosphere by the vivid descriptions on things he sees in China. "Diary of a Madman" is absolutely wonderful. Comparing it to Gogol's story of "Diary of a Madman" it is interesting how Lu xun explores the reality in such a different way from Gogol and still cuts one side of humanity open to the readers. If you like Chinese poetry, this book by Lu xun is a must! It's nothing like any novels written by Chinese Americans because you feel the sense of China in his stories while you can relate to all the characters' mental pain and suffer through his gorgeous language. I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy ethnic literature, Russian literature, and Chinese poetry, or those who simply enjoy literature.

I walked into Standford University bookstore on Sunday afternoon and saw the translation of 'Diary of a Madman'. I flipped through the pages and saw the short story 'Ah Q - real story' so I grabbed one book just to see the translation. As a student grew up in Taiwan, I knew Lu Xun's stories in Chinese well in high school. Actually even some of his work was in high school Chinese Literature curriculum. But I could not put it down until I finished reading the translation of 'Ah Q - real story'.

It is really a masterpiece in translation. The translator is both master in Chinese and English. I like the introductions, a foreigner's introduction about an author is more in reality, dealing both success and failure of Mr. Lu's life. Besides, as the translator said he tried to imagine what Mr. Lu would said if his native language is English. He really captured the essence of it. I really like it. It is a great way to know English style from an Engineer major point of view.