Chinese novels for laowais

[wushijiao]

Hi. What Chinese novels would you recommend that are:

1) somewhat culturally important (ie. Not complete trash)

2) relatively easy for foreigners (ie. simplistic, straight-forward writing style. No magical-realism or tremendous amounts of historical and cultural references.)

Thanks for your suggestions!

[pazu]

I think 錢鍾書's 圍城 is a good start, some words are difficult though.

[pazu]

Well... in case you want to preview this book,here's an illegal link:

http://www.easysea.com/xiandai/qianzs-weic/index.htm

(only the first nine chapters)

[wushijiao]

Thanks. I actually tried reading the first 10 or so pages of weicheng (because it's my girlfriend's favorite book). Yet, the elaborate descriptions and subtle humor made it a bit too hard for me now, but I think I'll try to pick it up again in a few months.

[skylee]

I quite like 余秋雨's works. They are not novels, but more like travel writing with plenty of stories, history, poems, all sorts of art thrown in. Currently I am reading his 文化苦旅. You can find some of the chapters here. 一个王朝的背影 is particularly good, though I believe it belongs to another of his collections called 山居筆記.

See if you can understand these essays.

[wushijiao]

Damn. Quite ironic. My former teacher gave me 山居筆記 to read. I read maybe three or four chapters, but eventually I found it was too difficult, with too many historical and litereary refrences. Of course, my goal in learning Chinese is too be able to understand books like that. I'll certainly try it again later. So, the only two people to reply to my post both suggested good books that I have already tried to read, and failed! Comical!

Anyway, I read 余华's 活着 quite a long time ago. Then I just read his 许三观卖血记， which were both interesting and easy for foreigners. I was able to plow throught the latter book in about a week and a half. Right now I'm about to finish "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coehlo, or 牧羊少年奇幻之旅．　Anyway, after that, I think I'll try to read 王朔，or something.

Any other suggestions?!

[confucius]

Lu Xun's works are easy to read. Get yourself started with the elementary "Kong Yi Ji" and work yourself up to "Ah Q"

[shibo77]

鲁讯's short stories should be easy enough. They are easy, slim and famous. I read them in Junior High First grade. «呐喊» contains some of his most famous ones. 孔乙己 can be a bit depressing.

-Shibo

[galitonwu]

I am a fan of LuXun. But LuXun 's works are very hard to understand.

At chinese middle school textbook , there are many LuXun 's works. the students consider those are more difficult to read.

[jj]

You might want to take a look at some of 周梅森's novels. They're often hard-boiled novels about corruption, but they give a bit of insight into the world of officials, as well as some of the struggles between the winners and losers of the reforms.

His most recent work is 国家公诉. His 中国制造 was also quite influential, you can find it at:

http://www.dtnets.com/st/xd/zhoumeisen.htm

[wushijiao]

Hey! There was an article about 周梅森 in the New York Times a few weeks ago. I might give him a try.

[skylee]

You may try to read 李碧華's novels. She is a very imaginative writer who is good at re-interpreting legends by adding unexpected twists in the stories. Many of her novels have been made into famous movies, most notably 霸王別姬 (Farewell to my concubine). They are very interesting, relatively short, and should be easier than 山居筆記 and 圍城 etc. I have all her novels, and you can find some of them on line -

秦俑 (movie directed by Zhang Yimou; leading actors Gong Li and Zhang Yimou)

誘僧 (movie directed by 羅卓瑤; leading actors 陳沖and 吳興國)

潘金蓮之前世今生 (leading actor 王祖賢)

青蛇 (movie directed by 徐克; leading actors 王祖賢 and 張曼玉)

梁山伯自白書 (this one is quite short)

滿州國妖艷-川島芳子 (leading actors 梅艷芳, 劉德華)

生死橋 (this one is quite long)

[Lu]

I found Wang Shuo not easy in translation, I think I would have missed the whole story if I would have read it in Chinese.

Lu Xun is readable, especially if you have a list with translations of difficult words.

[Yang Rui]

Ba Jin's Jia (translated into English as "The Family")is not too hard to read, and is a really good story.

It's also a massively important work of literature. If you liked 围城 but found the language too flowery, you should like 家 because it's set in a similar sort of period and deals with issues facing the Chinese around the May Fourth Movement.

[wushijiao]

Yang Rui- Thanks for suggeting 家. I think I will try that next...and then maybe 秋and 春. By the way, you're not the guy from "Dialogue"...because I love that show!

As for now, I'm reading Wang Shuo and mixing that in with newspaper reading, the listening to the radio, watching TV, reading textbooks, talking to people, and studying Shanghaihua.

[Yang Rui]

Sadly i'm not the guy from Dialogue, though he is a personal hero of mine. Maybe we should start a fan club.

[Meng Lelan]

Yang Rui's suggestion is excellent. All three novels by Ba Jin are an excellent starting point for the intermediate to early advanced student of Chinese. If vocabulary remains a weak point, I would also recommend Vivian Ling's readers in Chinese literature, where the entire original text is presented with explanation of difficult vocabulary.

[skylee]

wushijiao, I am just curious, if you've found 山居筆記 and 圍城 too difficult, whether you would find 巴金's 家春秋 easier to read. Please tell us when you have finished them.

[wushijiao]

Well, one of my problems as far as 山居筆記 is that I'm completely self-taught in Chinese. I came to China knowing "ni hao" and "Zhongguo", and that's about it. So without a teacher or a formal classroom, it's a bit hard to understand a lot of the refrences in a book like 山居筆記. Likewise, I've read 10-20 history books about China in English, but not one includes the 汉字 of all the pinyin or romanized names. For example, I can read someone like John King Fairbank and learn about people like Li Hung Chang, yet I don't know what the characters are for that name.

As far as 围城, I foolishly started to read that right after a seven month break from being in China, so my Chinese was a bit rusty. I'll hopefully get to it again this summer.

Like I've said before, I'd strongly encourage other foreigners like me to read 余华. He uses a simple vocabulary with a lot of repetition. Yet the stories are a bit allegorical and symbolic, so they're interesting.

I was a Spanish major in college, and I swear to God, every student goes from upper-level High School stuff to reading "Boom" literature. The "Boom" authors of Latin America were stronly influenced by Faulkner, Joyce, Fitzgerald, Borges and the like. So you go from reading fairly straight forward two or three page articles to reading 500 page novels that involve multiple realities, various non-linear periods of time, stream of consciousness, and a free flow form 1st to 3rd person narration. The literature is amazing, but by no means easy. Most people end up dropping out.

Anyway, I think the jump from reading shorter materials to novels and books is one of the crucial steps to language proficiency. In English I'd choose Hemingway or Orwell. Of course, many Chinese students start with famous 19th century stuff because it's public domain and thus cheap. Going from reading the China Daily to Jane Austen isn't easy. I'm rambling now...

[chausiku]

well, while i was looking for a greek version of 'journey to the west' in google, i've found this website http://home.jps.net/~chthonic/sue/fdchiclass2.htm

hopefully it helps