Who's got good books on China? I wanted to read Rebiya Kadaar's "Dragon Fighter" but I can't find online copies. I'm looking for anything historically/culturally/philosophical.
>>7839175
Books about china? What time period? I read wild swans last year. It was an excellent read.
>>7839179
Doesn't matter. I'm travelling there this summer and I want to get more acquainted with the country.
>>7839175
Kissinger's "On China" is pretty insightful for the political situation and contemporary influences on it
>>7839194
This actually seems pretty insightful. I'll look into it.
Taipei by taolin
Two things critical of modern China:
Dream of Ding Village
a depressing novel about the blood selling/AIDS scandal in rural China
The Inspector Chen Cao series
written by a guy who wrote his PhD on Chinese poetry and lives in exile in the US, a series of crime novels with a poetry-obsessed criminal investigator. Each case is about government corruption and cover-up, lots of politics, later books are more heavy on poetry.
>>7839238
Another idea:
The Three-Body Problem
was a recent "success" in the SF genre. It's pretty standard SF but the background of the Chinese Cultural Revolution is very interesting.
Then there are the novels of Can Xue, very modernist/post-modern, sometimes hyped on /lit/ but I haven't read much of her, yet, just received Vertical Motion
And of course, Mo Yan recently won the Nobel Prize, but I didn't like his stuff too much, I dropped it relatively quickly.
>>7839246
three body series is extremely western. it uses a lot of western elements, imposed on a somewhat chinese perspective. it's not ideal for understanding china. i love the series but i don't think it's helpful.
the best way to understand the chinese mindset is to read a lot of wuxia instead of a bunch of shit from white people/exiles.
you obviously haven't read much stuff on china.
>>7839271
You and your wuxia. Well, I did end up starting on Condor Heroes anyway, so keep the recruiting strong.
>>7839175
>Rebiya Kadaar
what the fuck is that? some uighur propaganda?
I was thinking of scanning Rose, Rose I Love You. It is a hilarious Taiwanese satire (honestly one of the funniest books i've ever read) supposedly one of the most famous books to ever come out of Taiwan
I've never seen it talked about here,nore have I seen it on any book torrent sites.
http://cup.columbia.edu/book/rose-rose-i-love-you/9780231112024
>>7839246
>>7839246
>It's pretty standard SF but the background of the Chinese Cultural Revolution is very interesting.
holy shit is it possible for a chink to write a book that isn't about the god damn cultural revolution? at least every book that gets translated into english is some whiney bitchfest about how their richgrandparents had to do manual labor or some other bullshit, just shut the fuck up, the cultural revolution in chinese literature is like ww2/holocaust (hoax) in western literature: if u want to get published and make money you know what i have to write
>>7839733
has anyone ever wrote a book about the cultural revolution that wasn't from the perspective of a whiney bourgeois forced to do an honest days work for the first time in their life? like from the perspective of a red guard hunting down landlords and other bourgeois rascals?
>>7839246
Has anyone on /lit/ read farther into Can Xue? What's her non fiction like?
>>7839751
i downloaded an epub of "big red book of modern chinese literature" and put it in my phone, it has "hut on the mountain" by her, i'll read it next time i get stuck waiting for something somewhere
Who was that Chinese poet touted around here as more creative than TS Eliot, or something? Also, are there more like him in China or anywhere else?
>>7839765
>reading chinese poetry in translation
a dubious task
>>7839175
Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War
by Stephen R. Platt
>>7839719
Yes, actually.
>>7839835
Thanks, sounds cool!
>>7839745
yea it exists.
>>7839733
but you'll never get it because the crap that gets translated is only the ones demonizing/vilifying EVIL COMMIE SOCIALISTS since it works well with the american/western narrative. so those are the only ones you hear about.
real chinese literature cares very little about the cultural revolution. white people care about it much more than chinese people.
>>7839765
hai zi
interesting but ultimately immature. died too young for us to accurately evaluate his work.
>>7839714
i say it to meme but it's also very true. jin yong's works have an immense influence on chinese values/perspectives. it's pop culture and "fluff" but it's also a great illustration of how confucian values are both a source of comfort and stress for chinese people, both today and throughout history.
>>7839238
I read this as
>the inspector Cao Cao series
and was very excited. Oh well...
>>7840104
>real chinese literature cares very little about the cultural revolution
Overall I agree that it's far more emphasised in the west, but I think you understate its importance in China. Scar literature and all that. Though probably largely passé now. Now, if only the war with Japan could become passé...
>>7840164
scar literature is completely unread today. war with japan is passe in literature as well, it was always more of a TV/radio thing.
again you only know about scar literature because you're from the west.
>>7839724
>supposedly one of the most famous books to ever come out of Taiwan
In terms of fiction that would be 'Taipei People' by Bai Xianyong.
>>7840200
>one of
Report from Xunwu is elite tbqh with you my friend
