/r/chinesebookclub
A subreddit for people who want to read and discuss Chinese books.
Welcome to the Chinese Book Club, a subreddit for reading and discussing Chinese books.
Every month we will choose a book of the month to read and discuss.
This month we're reading: 莎菲女士的日记 by 丁玲
Past selections:
京華煙雲 by 林語堂 in May 2018
網內人 by 陳浩基 in April 2018
家 by 巴金 in March 2018
人之彼岸 by 郝景芳 in February 2018
边城 by 沈从文 in January 2018
极花 by 贾平凹 in September 2017
死亡通知单：暗黑者 by 周浩晖 in August 2017
荒山之恋 by 王安忆 in July 2017
雪山飞狐 by 金庸 in June 2017
圈子圈套 by 王强 in May 2017
親愛的安德烈 by 龍應台 in April 2017
动物凶猛 by 王朔 in Marts 2017
城南旧事 by 林海音 in February 2017
1988：我想和这个世界谈谈 by 韩寒 in January 2017
那些年，我們一起追的女孩 by 九把刀 in December 2016
临界·爵迹 by 郭敬明 in November 2016
蒙着眼睛的旅行者 by 朱岳 in Oktober 2016
下面，我该干些什么 by 阿乙 in September 2016
猫城记 by 老舍 in August 2016
呐喊 by 鲁迅 in July 2016
年月日 by 阎连科 in June 2016
解密 by 麦家 in May 2016
三体 by 刘慈欣 in April 2016
生死场 by 萧红 in March 2016
撒哈拉的故事 by 三毛 in February 2016
原谅我红尘颠倒 by 慕容雪村 in January 2016
流星‧蝴蝶‧剑 by 古龙 in December 2015
妻妾成群 by 苏童 in November 2015
告别薇安 by 安妮宝贝 in October 2015
第七天 by 余华 in September 2015
师傅越来越幽默 by 莫言 in July 2015
三重门 by 韩寒 in June 2015
伤痕 and 班主任 by 卢新华 and 刘心武 in May 2015
黄金时代 by 王小波 in April 2015
活着 by 余华 in March 2015
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/r/chinesebookclub
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Can Xue's Vertical Motion: Short Stories (2011) — An online literature reading group, starting Sunday October 20, open to everyone
02:22 UTC
Looking for Recommendations!
Hello everyone!
I'm looking for a fiction novel that has a lot of Chinese culture in it. I'm in a University class about Chinese culture and our final assignment is reading, critiquing, and commenting on a book. I read almost everything but I tend to lean towards really weird books (for example, my favourite book is The Hike by Drew Magary). Open to literally all suggestions though, they don't have to be weird, that's just a bonus!
Thank you for your help!
14:48 UTC
Recs of horror novels
Hi! Could anyone recommend me translated horror/unlimited flow/mystery novels please?? I could be webnovels or more classical ones
19:59 UTC
说说你喜欢的中文书😊
我最近听了李野墨播讲的白先勇先生的三部小说《孽子》、《台北人》和《纽约客》，非常感慨！作者的文思奇妙、文字优美，播讲人的演播精彩传神、动人心弦！听完三本书，觉得自己的人生经历又丰富了许多！What a wonderful experience!
16:21 UTC
Chinese Novel Recommendations
Chinese Novel Recommendations Request Can you recommend me some chinese novel where the MC is smart and also has good cultivation system and discuss in depth about different Dao where every side character have their own specialty like in the novel of The Journey of the Fate Destroying Emperor or True Martial World where every cultivator cultivate Dao and have their own level based upon their own comprehension?
Novels that I have read which I like so that you can gain some preliminary understanding of my Preference:
Desolate Era Archaeon Eon Art True Martial World Martial Universe The Journey of Fate Destroying Emperor Lord Xueying Coiling Dragon Peerless Martial God Reverend Insanity Legend of Swordsman
11:16 UTC
HELP! Looking for your perceptions, attitudes and expectations of translated Chinese literature
Hi! This is Amy, a translation studies major in the final year struggling with the thesis. Would you please help me by taking my survey on translated Chinese literature? It takes 15-20 minutes and is about your perception, attitudes and expectations of translated Chinese literature and translation as a whole. Your opinions MATTER to me!
Thank you for your interest and time! Your participation will be highly appreciated and I'll be your help if you're interested in anything related to China and Chinese literature.
07:54 UTC
Hello everyone, I'd like to share my new Chinese reading video. I hope you will like it. Read Chinese Book 两生花｜HSK Reading #chinesestory #historiachina #hsk3 #hsk4
00:38 UTC
Chinese for Foreigners (CD Included) Mandarin Chinese Edition by Shaojun Deng (Author), Dr Xin Zhang (Author)
Chinese for Foreigners (CD Included) Mandarin Chinese Edition by Shaojun Deng (Author), Dr Xin Zhang (Author) does anyone have this book pdf?
14:59 UTC
Chinese for Foreigners
Thanks in Advance.Does anyone have pdf of
Chinese for Foreigners (CD Included)
this book.
14:55 UTC
[Resources] 10 Must-Read Books in Chinese for 2023 by Douban: Read Online, Download, and Audiobook
07:45 UTC
Help finding book pdf
Hello I need help finding a book pdf of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way Please
08:54 UTC
Chinese Teachers’ Top 15 Picks: 2023 Chinese TV Recommendations for Language Learners
05:49 UTC
Looking for the chinese name of the novel
I don't exactly remember the character names or the summary but the story was on weibo and is something like this:
There were two childhood friends (boy and girl). The boy was going to marry someone else. Before his marriage, he gifted a villa/mansion to his childhood friend as a gift. However, girl liked that boy, and she wished to marry him and live in that villa. She made this wish during childhood. Moreover, boy told her that his marriage was on her birthday so he would not attend her birthday party.
17:56 UTC
Looking for Chinese name of the novel
Can someone please tell me the Chinese name of this novel?
She woke up in the ward, only to find that she had transmigrated into a book, where she was the supporting actress, Zhen Tian. The memories of Zhen Tian flashed back in her mind. Zhen Tian returned home after 16 years of being abducted. However, she was usually overlooked because everyone, especially the male lead, He Yan, adored her older sister. She was quite envious. Then, she got into the show business because her sister did. She even attempted to replace her sister by marrying He Yan. But her story did not end nicely. During a big fight with He Yan, she fell from the top floor and died. Foreseeing her future, Zhen Tian recovered her senses and decided to turn over a new leaf. Nominal marriage? End it! Money and fame? Welcome! This time, she would definitely welcome the happy ending
17:40 UTC
Audiobook platform for Taiwan-published books?
Hi, I'm seeking something like Himalaya 喜马拉雅 (for Mainland) or Audible that has a large number of audiobooks? I'm trying to find a particular audiobook (a Chinese translation of the best-selling psychology book "No Bad Parts"). It has been published in Taiwan as 没有不好的你 but I can only find the physical book, and the text is printed right to left and vertically, which makes it hard for me to read. Would love to have the audio version. A Google search has not proved fruitful. Thank you for any leads!
16:56 UTC
Selling and collecting books are more dangerous in China now
Especially for the books "uncensored"
A user selling Taiwanese books on a Second-hand book website in China (kongfz dot com) was fined about $50,000. The 4,200 Taiwanese books he owned was also confiscated. Most of these books are precious and were published 85 years ago.
14:46 UTC
Kids/teenagers books in 1980-1990s (5)
Last post see
https://www.reddit.com/r/chinesebookclub/comments/vpkwzm/kidsteenagers_books_in_19801990s_4/
In this post, I will briefly introduce the "Fairy Tale King", Zheng Yuanjie (鄭淵潔1955-).
Zheng was born in Hebei in 1955, and lives in Beijing from 1961. His parents were CCP military officers, and during the Cultural Revolution, they were degraded and punished to work in Wu Qi Cadre Training School (五七幹校）, a kind of concentration camp for intellectuals and officers. He went there with his parents and he himself was forced to quit the school when he was in Grade 4. So he never finished the primary school and was taught by his father. From 1970 to 1976, he managed to join the Air Force and worked as ground crew. After retiring from the army, he started writing in 1979. He is a high-production (could be highest in China) writer who has published hundreds of books and thousands of stories, which makes him the name of "The King of Fairy Tales" (童話大王).
His style of writing is deeply influenced by Zhang Tianyi (张天翼, 1906-1985) , who was the chief editor of the magazine People's Literature (人民文學). His stories are full of imagination, and are always coded references to the social events, or even the politic events like 8964. He shows the dark side of the society with humorous and sarcasm flavours. Most of his works praise the goodness while lash the evil.
He always builds an imaginary world and no one can predict what will happen, like the Rubik's Cube as a High-rise （魔方大厦）. It was published in 1994 and republished in 2003. A cartoon series was made based on the novel.
With the help of a wizard, a boy went in the Rubik's Cube world. Each cube was a different world, and there were 26 worlds. The boy met with new friends, and helped them to solve odd problems in every odd countries. How odd it is? In one country, children controlled adults. The adults were kept at home and did their study, while the kids were electing their president; in another country, they changed the calendar from 1 year to 1 month, so everyone looked quite old; in the Village of Truth, people cannot speak because they always tell lies; in the Helmet City, everyone were forced to wear a strange helmet. The hero visited all of these worlds and solved one problem from another. He fought for his dragonflies friends to against the invasion of grasshopper; he drove the spacecraft to find a planet where his friends' fathers were lost there ...
In Shuke and Beta (舒克与貝塔), two rats want to change the bad impressions against rats. Shuke found a toy helicopter and Beta got a toy tank. Shuke flew the plane and Beta drove the tank to solve peoples' problems. They defeated the pirate and became heroes in the town. The book was published in 1987 and new series is still going on.
He started to write stories about Pi Pi Lu and Lu Xi Xi (皮皮魯和魯西西) in 1989. Over 17 books of this series have been published. Pi Pi Lu and Lu Xi Xi were twins born on 10 Feb, 1981, and the girl Lu Xi Xi was a model student while her brother was a naughty boy. Some stories happened in school, but Pi Pi Lu and Lu Xi Xi would enter some wonderlands to make adventures. Zheng still keeps on writing with the series. After 2008, he mainly works on educational books based on the two characters, such as the Child Safety Lessons: Lu Xi Xi shows you how to reject strangers; Pi Pi Lu shows you how to be alone safely, etc, about 50 booklets, just too much.
11:09 UTC
Kids/teenagers books in 1980-1990s (4)
Last post see
https://www.reddit.com/r/chinesebookclub/comments/vny86u/kidsteenagers_books_in_19801990s_2/
In this post, I will introduce Qin Wenjun, 秦文君 the important contemporary female writer in Kids/teenagers' books you cannot miss. Qin is a high-production writer with about 60 books and hundreds of proses and essays. Because of this, I cannot show all of them in a single post. She is now the associate chair of the Shanghai Writer's Association.
Her most famous book is Jia Li the Boy 男生賈里 and Jia Mei the Girl 女生賈梅, which describes a twin's lives in middle school in the early 1990s. Her stories show humor and wisdom from young men and young girls. Her heroes and heroines are self-confident, open-minded and with good hearts, just like herself.
秦文君 was born in 1954 in Shanghai. Her parents were military officers who later became local CCP officers. Her family was kind of upper class in Shanghai, while her parents lost their jobs and suffered during the Cultural Revolution. At the age of 16, in the movement of "young students go to the mountains and fields"(上山下鄉), she was forced to quit school and then sent to a remote area in Hei Long Jiang (黑龍江), near the border between China and Russia, to work as a logger.
This experience changed her deeply. She witnessed her friends die easily in the forest, and young men and women aged from 14 to 18 suffered in the cold, harsh weather. She wrote this experience in her novel, A 16-year-old Girl (十六歲少女). This book was first published in 1988, then republished in 1996, 2001, and 2007 with different publishing houses.
Teenagers' experience during the Cultural Revolution is unique around the world. Imagine a young girl, who lived happily in a modern city like Shanghai with her dear younger brother and open-minded parents. But one day, some officers came to her home and said her parents "have some problems in politics and need to be interrogated". She had to quit school with her younger brother, and then took a train for 3 days to arrive at a remote village near the Northeast border, in the area of Greater Khingan Mountains (大興安嶺), and worked as a logger with other young people aged from 14 to 18. These young people suffered in the minus 40-degree weather and the snowstorm in winter, and in summer, they chopped the trees in the forest under very hot weather. The girl missed her parents and her hometown, Shanghai. She fell in love with two men: an 18-year-old native villager and a 23-year-old Shanghai man called "old smoke-gun" (Lao Qiang老槍) who was a heavy smoker. Her best friend married a native hunter at the age of 18 and soon got pregnant. She took care of her, but the young mother died of dystocia when there was no doctor who can help. Blood from the young mother and blood from a dead baby shocked the young girl and after many years when she got her own baby, she still felt the nightmare. Lao Qiang, the old smoke gun then died in an accident when a tree fell on his head. The girl suffered and got lost in the forest when a notice said that the Cultural Revolution ended and they can be back to their hometown.
This experience or story made Qin become a writer. She first taught in a Middle School as a Chinese Language teacher then quit the job and became an editor and a professional writer, focusing on kid's and teenager's books. When the novel, A 16-year-old Girl was published in 1988, many young people were shocked by her experience and wrote letters to her. Qin wrote a few short proses to tell more stories to these young people. They are beautifully written proses and worth reading. One of them is Yesterday's Young Girl （昨日的少女), talking about her feelings from a young girl to a now middle-aged woman and a mother.
In The Lonely Bell-ringer (孤獨的敲鐘人), instead of the novel stories, she talked about a true person, a 17-year-old young man who worked in the village as a bell-ringer. He also came from Shanghai and was a taciturn young guy. He rang the bell at 7 every morning to call them to rise up for their daily work. He never missed one. One night, he rang the bell gently, and the young man found there was a train coming from Shanghai. They were so excited to see the train from their hometown, and then they realized that the young man waited for the train on the extremely cold night to notice everybody. They considered him a hero. Later the bell-ringer died in an accident during chopping the trees: a branch of the tree shoot into his head. The young people made a tomb for him. The girls piled up the flowers on that tomb.
In the prose, We are at the same age of 16(同是十六歲), a 16-year-old girl from Guangzhou （廣州） who visited Qin on a winter night in 1986. The girl thought her life was boring and her parents were mean to her. So she left her family without letting her parents know. The girl learned Qin's story in her proses and she thought it was cool. She wanted Qin to introduce her to the Greater Khingan Mountains' village. She wanted to work there just like Qin and then gained good experience to become a writer. "No," Qin refused, "You would never know how horrible I have experienced there. I myself won't want to experience that again." "Why?" asked the girl. Qin then gave the reason with patience. She thought youth is precious and should be nice. In this case, young people can be nice and pure, full of hopes and ideal ideas. This is not bad and every young people should enjoy a happy youth time. While her youth was a disaster, her experience was harsh and traumatic. Her body was broken as well as her heart. It took a long time for her to see the good side of the world again. She tried to persuade the girl to go back to her parents and notified her parents. They came and she took them together on a trip to Shanghai city. When talking to the girl about her stories in the Greater Khingan Mountains, Qin thought she should write up these stories to let more young people know the truth. After 2 years in 1988, then came the novel, A 16-year-old Girl.
Qin was a middle school teacher before she became a professional writer. So later her books are about young students and the stories are always happening in the schools. She wrote a series of books, about a twin, Jia Li, and Jia Mei, as well as their friends, Lin Xiaomei, Liu Geshi, and Lu Zhisheng, ... a few books with different characters were produced! These Shanghai middle school students were active in the 1990s. Quite different from the tragedies that happened in A 16-year-old Girl, these stories are humorous, bright, and happy -- just like the golden age of 1990s China. These books were written from 1990 to 2000, and they were republished several times until 2011. Jia Mei, the Female Middle School Student (女生賈梅), even made a TV series. Jia Li, the Male Middle School Student also made a movie.
Jia Li the Male Middle School Student (男生賈里)
Online reading http://www.dushu369.com/tonghua/nsjl/
Jia Li the Male Middle School Student, New Stories (男生賈里新傳)
Jia Mei the Female Middle School Student (女生賈梅)
online reading: http://www.dushu369.com/tonghua/nsjm/
Lu Zhisheng the Naughty Boy
Lin Xiaomei the Little Girl
Lin Xiaomei the Cool Girl's Stories
A Confession by the Boy Liu Geshi
05:58 UTC
Kids/teenagers books in 1980-1990s (3)
Last Post see
https://www.reddit.com/r/chinesebookclub/comments/vny86u/kidsteenagers_books_in_19801990s_2/
This post will introduce the teenager book series, the Trilogy of Middle School Girls 女中學生三部曲, and the kid's story, My Mum is a Fairy 我的媽媽是精靈, by Chen Danyan 陳丹燕.
Chen Danyan was born in Beijing in 1958, and has lived in Shanghai for about 50 years since her primary school. Most of her books are focused on the historical figures in Shanghai. She also wrote stories based on real events in Shanghai from 1920 to 1990.
The Trilogy of Middle School Girls was published in 1986, and re-published in 1991, 2012 and 2014. It describes the girls' lives in late 1980 in Shanghai. It contains 3 medium-length stories:
1.Death of a Female Student 女中学生之死
2.The Answer to the Youth's Riddle 青春的谜底
- How Far can the Wings of the Youth Fly 青春的翅膀能飞多远
The first story based on a real tragedy happened on 21 Mar 1986. A young girl called Shi Li, 施骊, who studied in Shanghai High School (上海中學), the best (not one of the best !) high school in Shanghai, jumped off the building. This event shocked the people in Shanghai and then the whole country. A famous journalist shouted about it: How miserable we are ! We just suffered from the Cultural Revolution, when many people carrying their dreams lost their hopes and committed suicide. How does this happen again to our kid, one of the best students?
As a writer, Chen interviewed Shi Li's mother, classmate, teacher, and friends. Shi Li's mother kindly offered her daughter's diary. The mother also wanted an answer. After a deep investigation and getting a few thoughts, Chen made this first book focusing on and caring for teenager girls' thoughts and lives in the People's Republic of China (since 1949).
This is a novel based on Shi Li's diary. The author also made her own imaginary to complete a puzzle. The girl named herself as Ning Ge, which means "would rather better singing" (宁歌). She was born by a single mum and never saw her father. During the 1970s in the Cultural Revolution, a single mum means a shame, and a moral decay. Her mum was detained, and then was always paraded through the street by people and humiliated on the street. She witnessed her mum was on the street, with dirty shoes put on her head, people beating her, throwing trashes to her while calling her "broken shoes", which means a dirty bitch lost her virginity. This did not happen in the Middle Age but in Shanghai in 1970s. It may still happen in some places around the world. So her mum's experience gave her a miserable childhood. She was also bullied in the primary school. Her grandma and uncle took care with her when her mum was in jail. Her grandma and uncle were always angry with her mum so they were also very mean to her. Her mum treated her coldly, and sometimes thought she was the bane.
Shi Li was lack of care and love from others. But she was tough and hard-working. Later she passed the high school entrance exam with a very excellent grade and then enrolled in the best high school in Shanghai, the Shanghai High School. In that school, every students were top students in their middle school, and almost everyone were talented, -- just think about MIT or Caltech. Shi then became a third-class student with a lower rank of grade in her class. She always got C or D in her exam. She was so stressful and even failed in math. On the other hand, she showed a talent in literature. She wrote nice poems, which were appreciated by her teacher. She tried her best to get her classmate and teachers' appreciations, while her bad grades made some classmates and teachers disliked or looked down upon her.
Later Shi got a pen friend, a boy from a different school in Shanghai. With the boy she shared her poems and prose. The boy showed the love, and wanted to build a relationship with the girl. They finally met with each other and the boy kissed her. While she got the love and care from other people for the first time, she was quite upset about the kissing, since the teenager love was not allowed in high school and they would be punished seriously. Soon the teacher knew the relationship, and talked to both of them. The boy left her and the boy was punished. Her teacher wanted to protect her, so they just warned her. Her mother beat her. The classmates and neighbours laughed at her: the mother's daughter! This was the last straw of the girl.
Chen didn't want to conclude the story as a tragedy of the teenager's love. What she really wanted to show is the lack of the love of a young girl who always seeks love. The lack of the love and caring is not only the tragedy of the girl, but also the tragedy whole society of that time. Chen also wanted to depict the subtle, complicated, sensitive mind of teenager girls. Shi was so sensitive that she could see the bird was tired of the grey sky. So the description of girls' psychology made the novel became a masterpiece and the first book on teenager girls in the People's Republic of China.
The other two stories are about Shi's school dormitory room mates, Zhuangqing 莊慶 and Dinging 丁丁. These two medium-length stories are less famous and a bit of plain compared to the first one. They described their comments on Shi's death, and the change of life from high school to the university.
Also see https://m.weibo.cn/status/JpTR2x27H
Online reading: http://www.dushu369.com/tonghua/nzxssbq/
My Mum is a Fairy 我的媽媽是精靈 is a very interesting kid's novel. The little girl found that her mother was a fairy with a magic power. Why the parents show her this secret which they had kept for years? Because her mum has to leave and go back to her fairy world!
Actually her parents were busy with their divorce. The girl tried her best to keep her mum, but her mum finally left. The girl learnt that, if two persons are very different and they decides to leave each other, no one can help.
In the 1990s, many Chinese couples divorced, which was not common in China in the earlier time. This is because many new concepts came to people's mind. They wouldn't consider divorce as a shame. But parents' divorce is traumatic to kids. The author just wanted to let the kids accept this and then prepare themselves for the change of the life.
Interestingly, the author set the entrance of the other world to be the "Red Church", which exists in a quiet street, the St. Joseph Cathedral.
04:16 UTC
Kids/teenagers books in 1980-1990s (2)
Posts for collections of Chinese kids/teenagers books in 1980-1990s
First post
https://www.reddit.com/r/chinesebookclub/comments/vn7hg6/kidsteenagers_books_in_19801990s/
In this post, I will introduce the Camel Book Series（駱駝叢書）. This green book series was published in 1992, and collected important works from important kid/teenager book writers/editors through the 20th century in People's Republic of China. Most of them were born in 1920-1930s. Their work focuses on the Chinese kid's life from 1920 to 1980s, which provide unique historical documents. This book series is quite large with 22 books, so I will keep updating this post when I am free.
Ren Daxing （任大星）, My Girlfriend in Childhood
任大星(1925-2016.9.22) was an important kids' writer active in 1940~1990s. Most of his works are kids' stories. In this collection, he mostly told the stories during his childhood in 1930s. Most of the stories happened in a village in South-east China, and they read like legends. The story of "My Girlfriend in Childhood", he described a brave girl fighting her destiny against the child brides. In another story, the brave kids explored a haunting house and finally captured a fox. In the rest of the book, he wrote the stories of the kids in 1950s.
A Collection of Ren Daling. 任大霖作品選
任大霖（1929-1995）was also an important kid's writer, as well as the Editor-in-chief of the Teenager & Kids' publishing house.
In this collection, about half of the stories happened in 1930 - 1940s, and the rest happened in 1950s, and a few in 1980s. The first part of the stories described the authors' childhood in Southeast China during the WWII and the Sino-Japanese War, and later the Chinese civil war. These stories are miserable: the author witnessed his sick younger sister gradually passed away since his family was not afford to the doctor; his younger brother was starving to death; his friend was sank in a lake in order to catch a fish for their family's dinner ... These stories show the suffering of the kids in continuous wars, reminds people of Ghibli's film Grave of the Fireflies. In the part II of the book, stories became kids in 1950s and 1980s. Their lives were happier. The editor of the book series was sorry about the 20 years' gap because of the infamous Cultural Revolution.
Shengye's poems for kids 聖野兒童詩選. The author is famous for writing imaginary poems for kids. His poems are easy to read and understand, like the "frogs are singing when it's raining", which helps the kids to learn, write, and read Chinese.
A Collection of Lu Bing 魯兵作品選. Lu Bing is famous for his book: 365 nights of Kid's stories (365夜兒童故事). In 1980s, almost every family would buy 365 nights of Kid's stories. Then young parents read the stories for their kids before sleeping. Most of the stories are edited from folks, fairy tales and literature suitable for children, and a few of them are original work by the author.
A collection of Shi Yanbing. 施雁冰作品選. Shi was a famous female writer and the Editor-in-chief of the Teenager & Kids' Publishing House. This book includes 3 parts: the first part contains stories of the author's life in 1930s in Shanghai. They are about child bride, school bullying, the WWII, drop-out-of the school, her struggle to become a nurse and a writer,etc. The second part are stories about the kids in 1950s and in 1980s, recording their happiness and bitterness: the love between young teenagers; the misunderstanding between the kids and their parents; the conflicts between classmates, etc. The last part is a medium-length novel, The Sonata in Early Summer (初夏奏鳴曲) about the kids in Shanghai in 1980s. These kids were in their last year of the middle school. They were preparing for their high school entrance exam. The hero wanted to become a painter, and he tried his best to pass the exam. The story exhibits a real life of the Shanghai middle school students in the 1980s.
Ren Rongrong, For My Giant Friends. 任溶溶，給我的巨人朋友
Bao Lei's collection.
Chen Bochui's Collection. 陳伯吹文集
Ru Bin: How to teach Children with Literature
He Yi's Collection.
Shao Yu's Medium-lenght Detective Stories for Kids
Fang Yiqun's Collection
Yiqing Huang's Collection
03:21 UTC
Kids/teenagers books in 1980-1990s
I have collected a few old books about kids/teenagers written in 1980-1990s when I was in China several years ago. These books show the real life of kids/teenagers in 1980-1990s. This is an interesting time, since the infamous Cultural Revolutions just ceased and people were eager to rebuild the society and want to make everything back to normal. However, at the meantime, some old, corrupt customs were still there, from tattletale to the child bride. So these books show distinct characters of that era. Some of them also depict some subtle topics which the current Chinese government doesn't like. Because of this, the publishers have no interest to remake them and they will never be republished again. SAnd there are even no electronic versions since they are rare.
I am thinking to scan them when I am free (I am quite busy with my job), but there is copyright issue. I am not sure how to tackle with this and share these wonderful books to more people who are interested in them as well as the real life during the middle century in China.
But anyway, I will make some introductions about some books I have in the post.
First I will introduce the teenager book: O, Boys and Girls! (啊，少男少女) written by Zhang Chengxin 張成新 (1942- https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%BC%A0%E6%88%90%E6%96%B0/4553868). This book is now out of print. It was first published in 1988, and its last version was in 1990, for a circulation about 40,000. Zhang was a middle school teacher before he became an editor in the “Teenager & Children” publishing house. He wrote five books. His last book published in 1998 is "Devil City in US"（美國魔鬼城）, described a real experience of a Chinese young girl who first came to US and involved in crimes.
O, Boys and Girls! was based on Zhang's own experience when he taught in a small village in Songjiang （松江）. In 1988, Songjiang was a small town with multiple rivers and lakes. At that time, it took half a day to travel from Songjiang to the city center of Shanghai. Now it is a part of Shanghai and turns to an industry development area, and the it only takes 2 hours for the subway.
So at that time, the hero lived in Hudang Lake village (湖蕩湖), which was undeveloped, poor and quite rural. The hero was a 14-year-old village boy, and also a top student in his class. He studied hard, but he never knew the world outside the village. One day, a woman came with her 14-year-old daughter. They were from Shanghai. The woman, Mrs Ying (英老師) was an excellent Chinese language teacher who was designated by the Education Bureau to help the village school. She thought her daughter was spoiled so she wanted the life in village can reform her. The pretty, modern Shanghai girl was soon welcomed by the class. Mrs Ying asked the hero, who was the monitor of the class, to help her daughter, Yiqian (一倩) to get familiar with the village life.
The hero liked Yiqian, and they soon made friends. He taught the girl how to fish, and to do the farmer works. The girl was not good at studies, and the hero also helped her. However, Mrs Ying got worried because the teenager's love was despicable in the culture at that time (still now!). So she began to be mean at the hero, and tried to control her daughter. Their friend, the associate monitor Jufen (陳菊芬) was upset about this. She thought Mrs Ying was stubborn and old-minded, and they were just friends. Jufen's father was a teenager magazine editor, and he was open-minded. He suggested them to contact a magazine in Shanghai to tell their troubles with Mrs Ying. So the three of them boarded a boat at 5 a.m. to visit Shanghai. The boat left the small village. This is the end of the part-I of the story.
When this story came out in 1988, it liked a huge stone dropped in a lake. The ripples were hundreds of teenager readers' letters mailed to the author. The author just told a story so real that many young guys had experienced. For the author, he thought he finished the story. He just wanted to show the crash between teenagers and their parents. Male and female teenagers do not think too much about their friendships, while their parents think about the young people's love, getting pregnant, quitting the school, shame of the family, ... Well, there was also no proper sex education in school (still now!)
However, the readers strongly suggested the author to continue. Then he made part-II, which is real, sad and cruel.
When three of them reached the magazine and told their stories, the editor answered them perfunctorily and sent them easily. However, they met with a few high school students who were interested with their stories. These young students showed sympathy, and planned to put their story on the school magazine. They wanted to correspond with them, and said they will visit the village at some time. The hero found that, Yiqian changed subtly. She thought these Shanghai students look down upon them since they came from a rural area.
When they came back, three of them were controlled by the president of the school. The letters from Shanghai students were intercepted by the school teachers. The president of the school was angry, and he considered their behaviour was an offend to the village school. Although the Shanghai students never received the letters back, they visited the village and held a campfire party beside the lake at Saturday night. The president warned the school that no one was allowed to join them. At the meantime, Yiqian was locked in the dormitory and brainwashed by her mother. Finally she admitted that what she did with the hero and Jufen was totally wrong. The hero was beaten by his father. Since Jufen admitted that it was her idea to visit Shanghai, she was deprived of the associate monitor and was recorded a demerit in her file. The hero wanted to pick up the friendship, while Yiqian just went away.
Months passed, it was the last year of the middle school. They faced the high school entrance exam. The best student would be recommended by the school president to the top high school, the Songjiang 2nd High School (松江二中，where the writer Han Han once studied) without taking the exam. The hero was the top student, he should be eligible for this. However, the president recommended Yiqian, since he thought her mother helped the school a lot. Then Mrs Ying went back to Shanghai with content. Yiqian may feel guilty, but she never talked with the hero and Jufen again. At the end of the story, Jufen told the hero: F** them off! Let's do our best in the exam and go to the 2nd High School together!
All in all, it's a cruel story among teenagers which took place in a beautiful lake village in 1988. Western people may find it is quite ridiculous for the punishment. Now these guys are at the age of 48. I am curious about how they feel about their childhood, especially for Yiqian.
04:59 UTC
Fantasy stories written by Mo Yin 默音
Recently I found the female 1980-born writer 默音's stories very interesting. In most of her stories, she played with tricks of time and space. She made a lot of puzzles at the beginning of the stories and then solved them unexpectedly. I will post my long comments after reading most of her books.
Moyin (默音, a pen name means "muted sound, or silent voice"）is a writer and translator born in Yun'nan in 1980. She moved to Shanghai in her tens and now lives in Shanghai. At the age of 16, she wrote and published her first science fiction. At the age of 18, she failed the university entrance exam and worked as a shop-assistant in the No.1 Ya-O-han shopping mall. After several years of struggles for the boring life as a shop-assistant, she kept writing and self-studying. Finally in 2010, she got a master degree in Japanese language in Shanghai Foreign Language University. After that she works as a translator on Japanese literature, and published five books.
According to her own experience, Moyin knows both of the wild rural area, Yun'nan, a remote west-southern province in China, and the international modern city, Shanghai. Her stories are always relating to the culture crashes between the two different areas. Sometimes you see a young boy from Yun'nan, knowing nothing about the modern life and trying to adapt himself to the modern city; sometimes you expect a wise old woman from Yun'nan, teaching the city people about what is the true wisdom.
Moyin is active on Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/web/@moyinsnow@o3o.ca .
Mastodon blog: https://writee.org/moyin/
There you will see her diary about life in Shanghai.
Also on Douban, the author/reader social network (you need a Chinese phone number to register!) https://www.douban.com/people/moyin2011/?_i=63054876WqtgOd
Her public weChat account: mychijiuqu 默音吃酒去（ Moyin Goes to Drink Some Wine）
There are a few articles on there about her experience, thinking, comments and diary.
Recommendations:
Three volumes of "1999-2006 memories in Shanghai" series:
一字十六春 One word, Sixteen Springs. The old name of this book is 姨婆的春夏秋冬： Four Seasons of My Grandmother's Sister
甲馬 Jia Ma, an Incredible Spell Paper
星在深淵中 A Star in Abyss
These three volumes describe people's life in 1999-2006 in Shanghai. They witness the changes of the city when they jumped into the millennium. These books are about people's real life, but there are many fantasies included.
How about you have a cool grandma who keeps dark family secrets and can tell the future? This is the novel of One word, Sixteen Springs (一字十六春). An old woman adopted a little boy and told him she was his grandmother's sister. The old woman was mysterious and held a lot of secrets about the boy's family. Finally you will find it is sad if you know the future but cannot make any change. The old woman was a cool watcher and showed Zen to young people.
In Jia Ma (甲馬), the hero came from a mysterious family in a remote town in Yun'nan. His family can use the supernatural spell papers, Jia Ma (甲馬), to influence people, and dig their memories. In his grandfather's generation during the WWII, his family met a few young students who were war refugees from Shanghai, and something bad happened. The hero travelled to Shanghai to solve the problems of his family, and dig the dark secrets haunting his grandfather's generation.
星在深淵中 is a Mystery fiction. In the 1980s, many young people moved to Shanghai to look for job opportunities and chances to change their life. In 1999, a woman who lived alone in her apartment was murdered. The only witness was an aphasia patient. The truth was held by the person who cannot speak. The detective had to tackle with this.
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猶在夢中 Still in Dream: A Collection of Five Fantasy Stories. In this collection, two of them are science fictions and three of them are fantasies. Two stories are of LGBT topic.
The five stories are:
A Chinese Character Component for "He" (人字旁) is Realisme with some fantasy elements. A boy living beside the sea saved a drowning little girl, and his family adopted that girl. He thought her was a mermaid, but something unexpected happened when they grew up.
Your Real Face (真實的模樣) is a science fiction. A young biologist met a mysterious woman in a remote valley. The woman was beautiful, but behaved like a beast and cannot speak. The young scientist took the woman back home and then involved in a conspiracy.
Still in Dream (猶在夢中) is a fantasy. A photographer took photos in a very remote village in Yun'nan. He happened to see a cruel cult ritual: a 15-year-old girl was left in a cave intentionally to "serve the God of the Dream." The man saved the girl and took her to modern city, and they were doomed with the supernatural power.
Soul Painting (魄繪) is a fantasy. A young woman was worried about her boyfriend and their relationship. Casually, her friend showed her a mysterious painting: a portrait of an Yun'nan girl made by the friend's father. The girl in the portrait seemed to have supernatural powers. In the portrait, the young woman saw her doomed relationship: her boyfriend was murdered. She wanted to do something.
Yesterday's Rose (昨日玫瑰) is a science fiction. A young man wanted to steal the laptop of a famous actress, and he stalked into her hotel room. However, when he came out of the room, he found that he was in a different spacetime, which was 26 years ago. There he found the truth of his mother, biology father, and adoptive father.
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