Outstanding Chinese fiction?

[wobblythoughts]

Dear Somebody,

I am aware of a couple of other posts on the subject of bookish recommendations but I still felt like I should post my own.

I am looking for a novel written in Chinese (it is not imperative that it should be written by a Chinese since one of the best things I've read in English was written by a Russian) to enjoy and use to study Chinese with. Allow me to explain myself.

When I first came to China I was in a small provincial city and I came across a Harry Potter book in English. I was beginning to learn Chinese but very quickly found myself teacherless (aside from a dictionary and an acceptable book) and practically didn't have any contact with many people so I thought about buying the Chinese version of H. Potter and using this as a learning tool. I thought it was a good idea since I figured I could understand way more by looking at the literary translation of any given word or phrase than trying to communicate in survival Chinese with any productive member of Chinese society. Well, I still have both Harry Potters and still haven't read them.

Almost two years have passed since I added more weight to my life's luggage by buying that Chinese Harry, and, with some improvement in my Chinese (I've never studied in a school or in a goal-filled fashion though), I find myself wanting to read a Chinese book. I don't know what to pick up and I am not interested in reading Harry Potter in any language extinct or alive.

I would like to read a novel (it would be good if there is a nice English translation, but if there isn't, it's okay). A good novel, a modern one (written in the last century). I wouldn't want anything too cryptic (in style or content). I would want something that is equally enjoyable superficially as rich in content and meanings. I hate to say the following, but: it is essential that it has some kind of literary value. Something that you feel is simple and clear and beautiful and a masterpiece.

Perhaps I can better illustrate what I mean if I put myself in my parallel universe self's shoes: if I were learning English and wanted advice on a good book to read and learn with. I would probably recommend:

-Short stories or novels by Bukowski. For its direct and down-to-earth (perhaps it is better to say crawl-on-earth) language and situations.

-The Stranger, by Camus. It is in French and I've never read more than the first paragraph but this strikes me as the perfect balance of simplicity of statement and deepness of meaning. But I don't want to get it in Chinese. I would like a Chinese book.

-Lolita, by Nabokov. For its unbelievably palpable language and humour.

-Breakfast at Tiffany's, by Capote. For its freshness and simplicity.

Maybe it's good if it relies partly on dialogue.

I don't know. Something like this. I would appreciate it if you include a brief reason for recommending whatever you recommend.

Thanks.

Edited August 28, 2009 at 02:06 AM by wobblythoughts
Name cropping.

[dsrguru]

I don't know why, but the second I saw "one of the best things I've read in English was written by a Russian" I knew you were talking about Lolita. I never read the book, but the fact that Nabokov wrote the novel first in English (which was not his native tongue) remained in my head from the Wikipedia article. I guess I should get around to reading Lolita, but the subject matter just seems, um, bizarre.

Back on topic, I've seen a lot of suggestions to read children's books or comic books (I guess Chinese manga), but that doesn't seem up your alley. While Harry Potter doesn't have any real literary significance, the later books in the series (4-7) are an enjoyable read. I would suggest Dan Brown books if they have Chinese translations, but those don't have any literary value either. Does it have to be a classic or will fun-to-read thrillers suffice? I don't know the titles of any good books originally written in Chinese, so I can't help you there.

[gato]

-The Stranger, by Camus. It is in French and I've never read more than the first paragraph but this strikes me as the perfect balance of simplicity of statement and deepness of meaning. But I don't want to get it in Chinese. I would like a Chinese book.

Why not beyond the first paragraph?

You might have searched for past posts, but in case you haven't seen these. I think Wang Shuo and Wang Xiaobo would be right up your alley.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/10029-untranslated-writers-recommendations-please

Untranslated Writers - Recommendations, please

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/178-cool-chinese-characters12&highlight=xiaobo

What should I read?

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/5-how-many-characters-do-you-know124&highlight=wang+shuo

Starting 王朔

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/3868-wang-xiaobo-why-do-i-write&highlight=wang+shuo

Wang XiaoBo -- "Why Do I Write?"

www.csua.berkeley.edu/~mrl/WangXiaoBo/

Wang Xiaob (王小波)

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/4822-can-anybody-introduce-today-chinese-literature&highlight=wang+shuo

Can anybody introduce Today Chinese Literature?

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/12238-modern-and-contemporary-postmodern-literature&highlight=xiaobo

Modern and Contemporary (postmodern?) Literature

[Lu]

I also knew it must be Nabokov :-) I never dared read anything other than Lolita of him for fear that it would be less good.

I would not recommend any Dan Brown, simply because that is so completely rooted in European culture that one would quickly get lost in a translation. I dread the thought of how many transliterations there must be in that book.

For an easy to read, yet good, Chinese famous book with literary value, with not too much classical Chinese and some dialogue, I recommend 活着. It's been translated, too. And it's not too big, so you might actually finish it at some point in the future.

[liuzhou]

Fortress Besieged 围城 by Qian Zhongshu 钱锺书

Also available in translation.

[GaHanna]

When you mentioned Russian, I thought of Dostoevsky.

Like the previous post I would recommend Fortress Besieged by Qian Zhongshu. I arrived in China and picked this up from a bookstore. The English translation is fantastic with very few grammatical errors. It is very modern as a book and as you like Camus you will love it.

I have now started The Three Kingdoms. Yes, in translation, but at least I am getting the feel of Chinese culture.

[gougou]

Fortress Besieged 围城 by Qian Zhongshu 钱锺书

Should you decide to go ahead with that, you might also want to check out the discussions here.

[Sam Addington]

红楼梦 It is suprisingly modern (especially in theme, but also in language) and there is an excellent translation in Penguin Paperbacks. However, it is several volumes long.

Forget 围城 in my opinion. There have to be better modern novels out there! I for one enjoyed 骆驼祥子 (Rickshaw Boy) or any of Lu Xun's short stories. How about the Good Earth by Pearl Buck?

There must be something good that was written in this century too, but you'll have to ask someone younger than me. And more Chinese.

Midnight by Mao Dun is also good, though it is very socialist realism correct .... Still the story is compelling.

[skylee]

I agree with Sam Addington about 圍城.

I think this link (retrieved from a 2004 thread) has some reference value -> http://www.favorite100.com/fav100/fav100_new.shtml

[rob07]

I agree with Lu - for a first Chinese book I doubt you would do better than "To Live" by Yu Hua. While a completely different book in many respects, there is a lot about it that reminds me of The Stranger by Camus; both set out the story of a narrator who doesn't have the emotional response to the events he describes that would be expected of him, and who uses great economy of prose to tell his story.

Many thanks to Skylee for posting the link. As a Westerner who loves books, I found it great fun to go through the list and see the initially incomprehensible Chinese characters resolving themselves into the names of some of the books I most enjoyed, such as Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being and Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. It also made me ashamed in places - I've never read St. Exupery's The Little Prince, but it is apparently one of the ten most popular books in Taiwan! I'll definitely be going back over this list, as there were plenty of non-Chinese books I couldn't guess straight away.

The following list of favourite Chinese authors (not including any foreigners, even JK Rowling who is at no.2 on the other list) is also fun:

http://survey.news.sina.com.cn/voteresult.php?pid=15897

Does anyone have any comments on this list? Maybe try something by no.38?

[skylee]

According to the sina list in #10, the most popular Chinese writer alive is Louis Cha. And the most popular one ever is Cao Xueqin. I like the list.

[Lu]

红楼梦 It is suprisingly modern (especially in theme, but also in language) and there is an excellent translation in Penguin Paperbacks. However, it is several volumes long.

Forget 围城 in my opinion. There have to be better modern novels out there! I for one enjoyed 骆驼祥子 (Rickshaw Boy) or any of Lu Xun's short stories. How about the Good Earth by Pearl Buck?

While the Honglou Meng is a great book, it is very, very difficult to read. I read a few pages in a class in my 5th year of studying Chinese, and there was not one sentence that I could understand without extensive help of the teacher.

The Good Earth is a good book, but not a Chinese book (written by an American writer in English), so not sure if that qualifies.

I second Lu Xun, but think Huozhe is easier.

Edit: I love the diversity of that list! Internet writers next to ancient philosophers and modern poets.

[wthru]

i love reading chinese novels though im not a chinese. l've read "the marred face" by 鬼古女, Zhu Xian (kungfu fiction), Narcissuss by Zhang Yue Ran. all of them are translated into my language, vietnamese or english. now i desire to read more but cant find the english version of them such as "Ball Lightning (球状闪电) by 刘慈欣, Gui chui deng.....

anybody can recommend me a website or where can i read all of these novels in english version? thks alot in advance:help:help:help

[Sam Addington]

You guys are the best.

I for one was very pleased to see Chairman Mao on the list at 38! When I was a student of Chinese back in 1976 my professor (who knows what his history was!) copied all the texts of Chairman Mao by hand and handed them out to the class. For me, his handwriting (my professor's ... not Mao, though his calligraphy is also beautiful) will always be the standard by which I judge the handwriting of others, but I will also always enjoy the words of the Chairman. (I suspect his popularity will wane as people of my generation start to die off ....).

I was also pleased to see Confucius high on the list. He beats out Laozi, though I doubt he would in the West. (I recently came across Tzu, Lao in an American index. I got a good laugh out of that ... )

Unfortunately, I cannot connect all the author's names to their works or vice-versa. Another book I thought of recommending to our friend was "Journey to the West" 西游记 but there is no good English translation of the book (to my mind). It is also a bit difficult to read, though I had a great time trying to translate some of the first poems in the book. Talk about elaborate fantasies that put the Hobbit, for example, to shame. I should have placed a caveat on 红楼梦 as well ... you have to wade through some mean poetry to get to the meat. But the meat is well worth it. And David Hawkes translation is without parallel. I see that book is at the top of both Skylee's list and Rob's list.

[Jikolp]

Hi!

I´ve also bought Harry in Chinese... I can´t read it fully yet, but I often try to read my favourite parts. ;) Suprisingly, it goes better than I thought, but I´m still far from reading Chinese books.

Anyway, I discovered in the local library they have quite a nice collection of Chinese works and in a local English bookshop I could also find some reads by Chinese authors. Just a few I liked:

- Shan Sa: The Girl Who Played Go

- Su Tong: When I Was Emperor

- Qui Xiaolong: The Death of a Red Heroine (I especially enjoyed this one), A Case of Two Cities, A Loyal Character Dancer, etc.

- Jian Rong: Wolf Totem

- Jung Chang: The Wild Swans

- short stories by Zhang Ailing, Shen Congwen, Wang Meng, Yu Hua, Mo Yan, Tashi Dawa (he´s Chinese-Tibetan)

- Lin Yutang: A Moment in Beijing (I LOVE this book- gives a nice idea about family traditions, originally written in English)

- Gu Hua: A Small Town Called Hibiscus

As China related, I found Raymond Dawson´s book about Chinese civilisation nice and Keith Ladler´s book about "empress" Ci Xi was also really interesting.

- Pearl S. Buck: The Good Earth,

Sorry, I can´t remember more at the moment.... Hope you´ll find some "food-for-thought-and-eyes" books to read, enjoy! ;)

Edited November 6, 2008 at 04:33 PM by Jikolp

[rob07]

- Jung Chang: The Wild Swans (originally English, but still an interesting read)

- Lin Yutang: A Moment in Beijing (I LOVE this book- gives a nice idea about family traditions)

A Moment in Beijing was also originally written in English.

[Jikolp]

Of course, I know!! Just forgot to mention.... but I don´t really think that would lower the value of that novel! ;)

[Lu]

Anyway, I discovered in the local library they have quite a nice collection of Chinese works and in a local English bookshop I could also find some reads by Chinese authors. Just a few I liked:

(...)

- Pearl S. Buck: The Good Earth, others

While I really liked The Good Earth (finally, a historical China book that ends well), Pearl Buck is not a Chinese author, and by no definition I can think of do her books count as Chinese books.

And don't forget Anchee Min in that list, another Chinese writing about China in English. Personally I thought her book on Cixi was one of the worst books I ever read, but some people really like her work.

[Jikolp]

OMG, now everybody will list all the books I did not write separately from the Chinese ones? Okay, I edit it to make it clear. And I DID NOT state Pearl S. Buck as Chinese, I´m not so silly that I consider all the books written about Chinese topics written by Chinese authors... !!!

Anyway, list edited, to separate Chinese books from China related books. And I know you asked for Chinese fiction, but I thought I´d mention the other ones too, because of the China-related themes and I enjoyed them.

I´ve read Red Azalea by Anchee Min, but I did not list it, I think it sucks! It´s autobiographical etc.etc., but e.g. Jung Chang´s book about that period is way more better. On the back of Red Azalea they describe it as a heart-breaking book about the Cultural Revolution, but when that whining about Yan started I was thinking about putting down that book. Anyway, finished it off, but it was not a big deal.

[roddy]

There have to be better modern novels out there! I for one enjoyed 骆驼祥子 (Rickshaw Boy)

Just finished 骆驼祥子 - enjoyed it, and loved the descriptions of Beijing - the night he got robbed by the detective and the day he gets caught in the downpour stood out. Also the fact that I know many of the place names, but 西直门 is still a 门 and not a transport hub and nightmare to walk around. I think I liked reading about Beiping more than about 祥子, perhaps because the city didn't get trodden on every chapter.

到处好玩，到处热闹，到处有声有色。夏初的一阵暴热象一道神符，使这老城处处带着魔力。它不管死亡，不管祸患，不管困苦，到时候它就施展出它的力量，把百万的人心都催眠过去，作梦似的唱着它的赞美诗。它污浊，它美丽，它衰老，它活泼，它杂乱，它安闲，它可爱，它是伟大的夏初的北平。

I'd downloaded the audio book years ago, and the first chapters hang around on my hard drive and pop up on shuffle. I've never listened to it all the way through, but some of the first lines of the early chapters - 我们所要介绍的。。。正正的三年。。。。are imprinted on my brain.

Incidentally, does anyone know if I'm right in assuming that 西郊的白石桥 is the 白石桥 on 西外？ If so, strange to think that what was once 西郊 is now 三环内。