The Library of Legends

Finished August 13

The Library of Legends by Janie Chang

This historical fiction novel also has elements of fantasy. It is set in China in 1937, as the war with Japan begins to have an impact on the safety of China's citizens. The point of view shifts between a few characters. One of them is nineteen-year-old Hu Lian, who is a scholarship student at Minghua University in Nanking, which was the capital of China at the time. The government has a strong belief that the students at universities from around the country are key to the country's future, and they begin to organize relocations of the students and professors into cities further from the front lines. Some students decide to go home, some choose to enlist as soldiers, but there are many who join the migration of their schools. 

Lian has a secret, she and her mother took new identities after the death of her father and moved to a large city to get away from people who might know them. They didn't have a lot of money, but her mother spoke English and was able to use a typewriter, and that gave her opportunities to earn enough to cover their costs. Lian would like to go to her mother, who has told her that she is heading to a mission in Shanghai, but with Shanghai now in control of the Japanese, she isn't sure exactly where her mother might be, and she is convinced that waiting until she knows where her mother has settled and lets her know via the school will be the only way they can be sure to find each other. So Lian goes on the journey with her assigned group, consisting of students, professors, administrators, and staff who do things like cook their meals. 

One of the professors is Professor Kang, the dean of literature and a recognized expert on classics of the Tang Dynasty. He dresses as a traditional scholar, in a long dark-coloured gown with a high neck. He is particularly interested in a set of volumes that contain folk legends and myths, known as the Library of Legends. Each student will carry one volume of the set and read the stories in that volume along the journey. They will also have to write a term paper on one of the tales in the book they carry. Lian has a volume called Tales of the Celestial Deities. Kang is another of the characters that we sometimes see the thoughts of. 

Liu Shaoming, known as Shao, is a fourth year student who meets Lian after a bombing attack where they both took what shelter they could. He and his servant, a young woman called Sparrow Chen accompany her back to canvas and are part of the same group from the university. We also sometimes see his thoughts. 

As the journey progresses, the travelers encounter hardships, from the danger of bombs and rough living conditions with limited food options, to political differences. They learn how to find footwear that will carry them on their long walk, and friendships as well as rivalries grow. 

Lian and Kang learn that two of their fellow travelers have a link to a folktale in the volume Lian carries, "The Willow Star and the Prince" a story of love that continues over reincarnation after reincarnation, but has no happy ending. They also learn that the times have coincided with a exodus of the many gods, large and small, through the Gates of Heaven which are open to them for a limited time. As they ponder why this change is happening, they also see how it affects the world they are used to. 

I really enjoyed the folktale aspect of the novel, and the way that only some people can see the gods in their true form as the move to leave the places where they've been worshipped and go home to where they came from. 

I also liked Lian as she faced challenges with reason, looking for a way to be her own person, and not rely on others more than she has to. 

A very different and interesting read. 

Executor

Finished May 24

Executor by Louise Carson

This novel is a mystery novel with a literary and social justice slant. Peter Forrest, a York University professor and poet, finds that one of his mentors, the poet Eleanor Brandon, has died, and named him her literary executor. Peter and Eleanor had a personal relationship at one point, after his failed first marriage, but it didn't last, and Peter is now happily married and plans to travel to China in the coming days to finalize the adoption of their third child from that country. 

Eleanor's death, despite her illness, was not a natural one, and there is some question about whether it is suicide or murder, and Peter is on the suspect list. 

As Peter goes through her papers, he finds that many of her more recent poems reflect her social activism on behalf of Chinese dissidents. On his trip to China to pick up young Annie, he finds several things suspicious. First, young Annie doesn't look like the photo they received of her. Then, he finds his visit to her orphanage raising questions about the staff there. On an outing with her, he is approached by a Chinese man who passes him some information. 

As he maneuvers the security of both Chinese and Canadian government workers, he keeps his eyes and ears open for more things that seem suspicious. 

Despite Peter's intention to stick to only the literary side of Eleanor's legacy, he finds it entangled with her social activism and impossible to separate from it. 

Now, his worry is who might be behind her death and whether he and his family are in danger. 

This was a book that drew in aspects of international diplomacy and several issues that have been raised around China with a more personal story. 

A quick and interesting read. 

Blue Sky Kingdom

Finished October 16

Blue Sky Kingdom: An Epic Family Journey to the Heart of the Himalaya by Bruce Kirkby

This memoir tells of a family journey that was partially documented in film. Bruce, his wife Christine, and their sons Bodi, seven years old, and Taj, three years old, left their home in Kimberly, British Columbia and traveled for several months, fulfilling a dream to take their children and experience a time of reflection and cultural learning. For the trip to their destination in remote India, they were accompanied by a documentary film crew who documented their experiences in a film called Big Crazy Family Adventure. 

They traveled in adventurous ways, driving to the Columbia River, and then going down the river via a canoe-based catamaran, reaching the town of Golden after five days. From there they took a train to Vancouver, and a taxi to the wharf where the container ship Hanjin Ottawa awaited them. 

They'd had to do some research to find a boat that would take kids as young as theirs as passengers. It is during this section that the author discusses his older son and the journey that his family went through to discover that he is on the autism spectrum. This explained some issues that had arisen with his interactions and reactions to some situations, and made them able to plan and prepare for situations with Bodi in a way that would be less stressful for everyone. It was toward the end of this journey that they discussed this with Bodi himself as they knew it would come out when he viewed the documentary and they wanted to do it in a way that he wouldn't feel judged. 

From South Korea, they took a ferry to China, spending a few days in Beijing before travelling by train the Lhasa. After visiting their first monastery on the trip, they travelled by road on to Nepal. They spent a few days in Kathmandu and then moved on to India, entering near Lumbini, and traveling by car to Prayagraj where they boarded a riverboat and went down the Ganges toward Varanasi. It was here that they began to encounter some of the hottest weather they would experience, making it difficult to sleep and quick to get angry at circumstances. But they overcame that stress, continuing their journey by train, stopping briefly at Agra to see the Taj Mahal, and then enjoying a week in more luxurious rooms in Delhi, while they waited for filming permits to come through. Then more trains and a long bus ride brought them to Manali. At this point only a small film crew stayed with them for their overland trek to Zanskar. They began this trek at the village of Keylong, traveling by foot, and horse (for Boti for part of the trip). 

This is where the major part of the memoir takes place, at the monastery Karsha  Gompa. The family stays there for three months, living in the home of one of the former head lamas. They get christened with new local names and learn new cultural habits. They participate in the rituals and activities of the monastery and teach English and math to the young boys who live there. At this point it is sad to see that these monasteries are no longer the places where young boys can be educated and prepared for a variety of opportunities as the schooling is lacking in resources and good teachers. Bruce and Christine work hard at it, but they aren't trained for this and they often feel inadequate to the need that exists. When they leave, it is with heavy hearts for these young boys who they've grown close to. I enjoyed seeing the experiences here, how they integrated into the life of the nearby villages, helping their lama's family with harvest and learning about the culture that they can see modernizing even in the short time they stay there. More and more, the young people are leaving, and the technology that arrives brings change to the villages by introducing class division between those who can afford these things and those who cannot. 

When they left to return home, their trip took them the other way out of the valley, on another overland walking and horseback trek, this time without a film crew, ending up in Leh, and then flying on to Delhi. There, they hoped to travel home with the lama that hosted them, giving him a taste of Canada. 

Included in the book are photographs as well as drawing that Bodi did of various scenes and objects. 

Throughout the book, Kirkby gives lots of information on the places they visit, history and geography, culture and religion. I liked the way he integrated this information in natural ways into the journey and experiences, adding to the story in a very meaningful way. Bodi, in particular, took naturally to things like meditation and came out of his shell more in many of this culturally different environments, gaining confidence that would show when they returned home as well. 

I really enjoyed this memoir and the ways the family took to heart their experiences throughout their journey.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Finished September 14
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie, translated by Ina Rilke

This short novel is told from the viewpoint of a young man who is one of a pair of young men who are sent to the mountains to be reeducated during China's Cultural Revolution. The narrator and his friend Luo are the only two sent to their remote village, and both are the sons of doctors. Another young man in a nearby village sometimes visits with them, and the two boys discover that he has a hidden suitcase of foreign novels.
There is a tailor in the region that travels from village to village making and mending clothes, who has a daughter that he mostly leaves at home. This young seamstress is friendly to the boys, and Luo begins to court her by reciting stories that he knows. Their village headman also enjoys their stories, and allows them to take time off work to go visit a larger town nearby where they could visit a cinema and return to recite the story of the film to the rest of the villagers. Luo has an extraordinary gift for storytelling, but at the times where illness strikes him, the narrator can also do a fairly good job. The narrator was also lucky enough to bring his violin, and he often played music, to distract them from their life as it was in the mountains.
When the boys are able to borrow one of the books from the boy in the next village, they read the book by Balzac often enough to memorize it, and the young seamstress is particularly enamored of this story.
We see the difficult work the boys must perform, the lonely life in the small mountain village, the release that they long for, and the ways they manipulate those around them to make their lives easier. It is a story of endurance, of hope, and of the power of story.
The author himself spent more than three years undergoing reeducation, and ten years after his release, emigrated to France.

The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure

Finished February 4
The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure by Adam Williams

This chunky novel (704 pages) begins in 1899 and takes us through 1902. The setting is China. A small bit of the story is set in Peking (now Beijing), and the rest in a fictional smaller community called Shishan north and east of Peking, along the planned railway route and just beyond where the railway reaches as the book begins.
The foreign community in Shishan is small. There is a Scottish medical missionary, Dr. Edward Airton with his wife Nellie and their two younger children Jenny and George. Their two older children are at boarding school in Scotland. There is an American missionary, Septimus Millward, with his wife Laetitia, and their 8 children, with Hiram as the oldest at fifteen. There are two Italian Catholic nuns, Sister Elena and Sister Caterina, who now work with the Airtons as their priest died recently and has yet to be replaced. They still travel out to surrounding villages where they have converts. There is Englishman Frank Delamere, a representative of a chemical company, and German Hermann Fischer, chief of the railway building project.
Joining them soon after the story begins are Tom Cabot, an assistant to Frank as the business grows; Helen Frances Delamere, Frank's nineteen year old daughter who has recently finished school; and Henry Manners, recently of the British army and now attached to the railway project.
Helen Frances was escorted on the ship over by Tom and the two became close, getting engaged along the way. Tom is a good solid man, but Helen Frances finds herself strangely drawn to the dashing Henry with his adventurous past.
Frank's Chinese associates and Dr. Airton urge him to rein in some of his less gentlemanly behaviour once they find out his daughter is coming. These include excessive drinking and regular trips to the local upscale brothel, the Palace of Heavenly Pleasure, where he has grown attached to a young Chinese prostitute.
Local Chinese officials from the military leader Major Lin to local merchants regularly hold meetings at the Palace as well as participate in extracurricular activities.
As Tom gets to know his market and partners, and Helen Frances tours the area escorted by the handsome Henry, the political tension grows as the Boxers, a recent rebellious group with a tie to martial arts and superstitions, grow in influence.
Of course this story involves the Boxer Rebellion and their wholesale slaughter of foreigners and anyone they deem involved with them, from Christian converts to tradespeople. We see how the various players in the foreign and local communities are affected and the actions they take or are forced to take.
This is a story strong with historical detail, from the operation of steam engines to the political realities to the business of a brothel. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
For those with more conservative tastes, a warning that this book includes graphic sexual scenes and violence.

Calls Across the Pacific

Finished November 30
Calls Across the Pacific by Zoë S. Roy

This novel follows a young woman, Nina Huang, as she flees the collective she has been forced to live on in China. It follows her out of China to Hong Kong, on to the United States, and eventually to Canada. Nina's father was in the military, and she was at one point a Red Guard herself. But her father's education, at West Point, soon counted against her, and sealed her fate within China under the cultural revolution. Nina's experiences read like a memoir, with her voice reflecting her origins.
The story begins in 1969 and continues to 1978. We see Nina's life in North America and how she adjusts and finds a place for herself. We also see her longing for news of her family and friends back in China and how, as the borders relax, she is able to make her way back on more than one occasion to reconnect, learn their stories, and perhaps find a voice for those stories in the larger world.

The Undertaking of Lily Chen

Finished June 8
The Undertaking of Lily Chen by Danica Novgorodoff

This graphic novel follows a young Chinese man as he follows his parents instructions to find a bride for his dead brother so that his brother will have a companion as he travels into the next world. Following a Chinese tradition traced back to the year 208 A.D., the Chinese, when faced with the death of a unmarried man, look for a woman's body to bury with his as a companion. Deshi's brother has died in an altercation with him, and now he is faced with a task that seems impossible. Looking in graveyards, hospital morgues and funeral homes for the answer to his parents' wishes, Deshi finds himself faced with a feisty young woman with her own dreams for the future, in the world of the living. Lily is the daughter of a peasant, with parents that are expecting her to marry their landlord to ensure they don't lose their home. This is not the life she has dreamed of and when she meets Deshi, she takes off with him in search of a better life, but is death what awaits her?
A tale of two young people, facing traditional expectations from their parents, and looking for their own answers.
Engaging and with great drawings, this novel will keep you turning the pages.

The Wild Beasts of Wuhan

Finished May 20
The Wild Beasts of Wuhan by Ian Hamilton

This is the third book in the series featuring Ava Lee, forensic accountant. Here the book begins as she is on a cruise with her family. There is discord, and when Uncle calls with an urgent new case, Ava is easily persuaded to fly to Hong Kong on her way to Wuhan where the potential clients live. They are wanting to recover the money spent on paintings they have discovered to be fakes, all Fauvists, a group often know as Wild Beasts. Ava doesn't like the feeling she gets from Wong Changxing as she prefers a straightforward financial problem and he seems too emotional. But after a direct appeal from his wife, she agrees to do a little investigating to see what she can learn. The trail leads her to London, Ireland, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, and New York City. She finds evidence of more fake paintings, and buys some lovely clothes, meets some people she might hope to see again, and finds that she was right to trust her initial misgivings about these clients. I like Ava. She gets the job done, but on her own terms. She is proud of her skills, and will do what she can to get to the bottom of a puzzle.

The Long March Home

Finished January 2
The Long March Home by Zoe S Roy
This book follows Meihua, a young mother in China and her daughter Yezi. Meihua is the daughter of an American missionary woman and a Chinese man. She was born in the United States, but came to China to try to find her father. Instead she met and married Lon, and began a family. With the Cultural Revolution, Lon has been sent to the mines, and Meihua is struggling to keep a low profile and support her family with the help of a servant, Yao. When Meihua is denounced and sent to labour camp, Yao stays unpaid and raises the two younger children, struggling to keep enough food on the table. Yezi is only a baby, and grows close to Yao, even while seeing her father occasionally and her mother once a year.
As Yezi grows, the restrictions abate, and Meihua is released. Yezi learns about her American grandmother and joins her mother in curiosity about her grandfather.
I found the parts in China compelling and interesting as well as Yezi's experience when she came to see her grandmother. But the ending of this novel seemed rushed and simplified, like the author just wanted to wrap everything up neatly. This could have been a much better book, but for that.
I look forward to Roy's next effort.

Dreams of Joy

Finished July 15
Dreams of Joy by Lisa See, read by Janet Song
This book is a sequel to the earlier Shanghai Girls. Following the revelations at the end of that book, Joy is feeling guilt and shame. Her college experiences have also led her to idolize China's political changes, and she decides to go to China and search for her father, the artist Z.G. Li. She arrives just a Z.G. is going off to the countryside to "learn from real life" and teach art skills to peasants. She goes with him and finds herself drawn to a certain young man.
Pearl is also hard hit by the events at the end of the previous novel, but is worried about Joy and takes off after her. She does so with some planning though instead of running headlong like Joy. She sets up communication links and possible allies. Pearl finds herself back in her family's home in Shanghai, where things are both unchanged and changed immensely. As Pearl follows Joy, she confronts her past and finds courage for a new future.
With China imposing the Great Leap Forward, much is changing in the country as well, and these changes will have great impact on the two women.
A moving epic of a story, with lots of personal growth for both characters.

Latest in Orchid Series

Finished August 1
Kill for an Orchid by Michelle Wan
This book continues the story of Julian and Mara in the Dordogne region of France.
Julian is a landscaper designer from England with a passion for orchids, and who is particularly intent on finding the one that seems unfindable.
Mara is an interior designer with a thriving business, who came to France from Canada and who has begun a relationship with Julian.
The two are getting serious and discussing marriage, when the rare orchid chase raises its head yet again, and Julian's past comes back to haunt him.
Mara is having trouble sleeping is Julian becomes involved with a group working against a big drug company whose latest sleep medication is based on orchids. Julian is worried about the wild orchids disappearing.
As Julian gets drawn to China in his quest, his relationship with Mara falters.
There is a lot going on here, and deception and intrigue are everywhere. Despite their feelings, Mara and Julian work together to figure out what is behind it all. A real page-turner, this story will keep you reading.

Very Interesting Read

Finished February 11
The Last Days of Old Beijing by Michael Meyer
This is a fascinating read, looking not just as the current day situation of architecture and urban planning (or lack thereof) in Beijing, but also at the history of the architecture of the city.
Meyer includes an extensive bibliography for further reading as well.
Meyer lived in a room in old courtyard housing in the Dazhalan area of Beijing, to better understand what was being lost with the destruction of these neighbourhoods. He found an active community that interacted with each other and knew their neighbours. Meyer volunteered to teach English at the local grade school and thus became part of the life of the neighbourhood. He made friends and gained insight into the people's lives. When necessary to better understand lives, he visited the areas that migrant workers came from, or followed workers as they did their work.
I learned so much about China, its people and its history.

Audio Fiction

Finished July 6
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See, read by Janet Song
This book follows two sisters from Shanghai, Pearl and May. When the book begins in 1937, Shanghai is the Paris of Asia, with a large international community and busy nightlife. Pearl and May work as "beautiful girls" modelling for advertisements of all kinds. This world begins to fall apart when their father reveals his financial problems have caused him to sell the two sisters as wives to "golden mountain men". The sisters fight against this at first, but when they realize the full story of their family situation, the city is already under attack by the Japanese. They must fight just to survive.
As the girls make their way out of Shanghai and to Los Angeles, they undergo a great deal, and these events seal their fate. In Los Angeles they struggle to begin new lives with men they don't know. But their strong bond as sisters carries them through.
From 1937 to the late 1950s, the sisters lives change enormously. See really makes the reader feel the reality of living as a visible minority in the U.S. at this time. It is a great story, and also a revealing one about the unsavory past of North American immigration.
Back in my undergrad days I took a course that looked at immigration to Canada from China and Japan from the beginnings until the early twentieth century and while their are differences, there are a lot of similarities as well. It is an interesting subject and this is a good book for a taste of it.

China Journey

Finished September 23
The River at the Center of the World: a journey up the Yangtze, and back in Chinese time by Simon Winchester
The edition of this book that I read had a new afterword by Winchester bringing some of the issues around the river and his trip up to date.
Winchester has visited China often and his knowledge of the language assists greatly in both facilitating this journey and informing it. He travels with a guide, Lily, up the river from the mouth to the headwaters. The book breaks the journey into sections, with a map showing the relevant area at the beginning of each section. The trip starts out in the water where the Yangtze waters meet the ocean, and Winchester talks about the major towns that lie along his route, the history of the river, its trade and navigation, and the people he meets. As always in his books, he makes the story interesting, informative and yet not weighed down with too much information. The geography of the river is fascinating and his trip was taken after the Three Gorges Dam project had started, but before it was complete, so this is one of the last glimpses of that section of the river, now buried beneath the waters. I learned interesting tidbits of Chinese history and all kinds of things about the river itself that add to its imagery in the imagination.
I highly recommend this to travellers, historians, and just those who like a good story.

Lovely Foreign Novel

Finished February 6
Miss Chopsticks by Xinran, translated by Esther Tyldesley
I took a snow day yesterday and was able to finish a couple of books. This novel is a lovely novel by a Chinese journalist who now lives in London and writes for the Guardian. Xinran was inspired to write this story after hearing a man in a rural area of China referring to daughters as chopsticks and sons as roofbeams. With the current trend of young peasant women moving to cities to get jobs there, she decided to show that "chopsticks" are not as detrimental to family life as some fathers think. She was inspired by some city workers that she met and took three different stories and made the women sisters. The sisters are three of six daughters whose father didn't bother with names, but simply named them One through Six. The three that get city jobs are Three, Five and Six and their different stories not only inspire, but also work together to show the new reality of life in China.