马书慧
Kareston Markley
Book Reviews
The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
The Tao of Pooh relates Taoist principles to the behaviors of a famous animated character, Winnie the Pooh. The book is broken into eleven parts, including a foreword and a backward. Author narrates as if he’s talking to the characters of the show and explain to readers how taoism works.
Cottleston Pie
The Cottleston Pie chapter was one of my favorites. It relates to an old taoist story about a tree that couldn’t be cut down by any carpenter; seemingly useless. At least that is what everyone says to Chuang-tse. He replies to them though by telling them that instead of thinking of the tree as useless lumber, they could be using the shade provided by its branches, taking strolls beneath it, or admiring it’s unique bark’s individual character. Chuang-tse says, “It is useless to you only because you want to make it into something else and do not use it in its proper way”. (Hoff 40)
Bisy Backson was another chapter I enjoyed, beginning when Rabbit goes to Christopher Robin’s house and sees a note left there saying that Christopher is out and will be “backson”, meaning back soon. The narrator retells another of chuang-tse’s stories, explaining to Pooh what a bisy backson is. It was a story about a man trying to avoid his shadow and his footprints. To get away from them he runs and runs until eventually he dies of exhaustion. Chuang-tse tells us though that if he had only stood still there would have been no footprints, and he could have easily avoided his shadow by resting in the shade.
In the chapter, That Sort of Bear, the author talks about usefulness and how each of us have a purpose in life. The Chuang-tse story told in this chapter is about a stone cutter. The stone cutter was unhappy with his position in life and while passing a wealthy merchant’s house he wished to be as wealthy as that man and to enjoy such luxuries. To his surprise, the man was soon transformed into the merchant! The story continues as the man keeps wishing to have positions with more and more power, until one day he ends up wishing to be a stone. He is transformed into a stone and is very content until one day a stone cutter appears and begins to chip away at the rock.
The stories in The Tao of Pooh have helped me see and understand the world in a new way. Chuang-tse’s stories are insightful and help to explain his taoist principles in a real life down to earth way.
The Chinese Way in Business by Boye Lafayette De Mente
The Chinese Way in Business is an overview of important things to consider when planning on doing business with the Chinese. It talks about key cultural aspects, in both Chinese business and in the typical Chinese personal life. Not only has it taught me key chinese phrases, but includes brief explanations about chinese behavior and viewpoints in business situations. As a student looking for ways to use my chinese language in the future, it was very interesting to learn about business relations between Chinese and American companies.
One important concept was “mianzi”, the importance of having face. The communist party (1948-1976) tried to eradicate the principle of face but it remains today a powerful force in chinese life. It is a bit abstract, but it has to do with where one perceives themself in society. It applies to others as well and how someone’s face is seen affects how they are treated. The fear the Chinese have of losing face or inflicting damage on another’s face, causes them to often have difficulty being candid and forthright. Therefore, the use of intermediaries in personal and business affairs is common. Some ways to lose face include being criticized by others, or being involved in a negative incident that becomes public; while ways to gain face include being praised by others, or demonstrating wisdom and goodwill.
Quotes
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“Foreign business people must keep in mind that the personal contacts they make are often the only guarantees they have in pursuing business goals, and that these contacts must be continually nurtured.” (De Mente 55)
This quote highlights an important difference between American business culture and Chinese business culture. American business is often more impersonal and a business deal is judged based on numbers and profitability. In China, De Mente says, you must make and use connections.
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Talking about important Chinese business concepts, “All languages are reflections of the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual character of the people who created them, and the older, more structured and more exclusive a society and its language, the more terms it has that are pregnant with cultural nuances that control the attitudes and behavior of the people.” (De Mente 125)
As a Chinese Language learner it is a constant challenge to not only be able to translate your word for word thoughts into Chinese, but to also be able to translate your true underlying meaning. There are so many cultural challenges when it comes to the deeper meaning of words in Chinese.
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Reading The Joy Luck Club has given me a view into what it feels like to a first generation American, and the differences and difficulties caused by having such split heritage. The book follows the relationships between four Chinese immigrant women and their American-born daughters. The book is split into three sections; the first tells about the mothers’ lives in China, the second tells a key story taking place in each of the daughters childhoods, and the third section is a present day view of the women's’ relationships and how they have reconciled with their mothers and their cultures. Not only does the book deal with the issues of immigrant families, but also with issues many women face. In the book readers are show both the mothers’ marriages and the daughters’, and both sets are looked at through the lenses of Chinese culture and American culture.
To me, this book was most meaningful in the discussion of the mother-daughter relationships. It was eye opening to learn more about the life and culture clash that many immigrant families have, but I can not pretend to truly understand these issues as my family has been in America for many generations. The mother-daughter relationships though, I can relate too. In the last section, the book details where the daughters are as adults and each girl’s chapter is about how they use their mother’s advice to fix their life and marriage; in the end finally understand their mother and her culture. I have had and still have conflicts with my mother, on ideals and personality alike. Hearing these stories and their eventual resolutions makes me feel better and more assured about me and my mother’s relationship; that someday after I’ve grown up some more I will be able to really see eye to eye with her.
Quotes
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“This feather may look worthless, but it comes from afar and carries with it all my good intentions.” (Tan 3-4)
This quote is central to the book, being part of the preface to the first section and especially the first mother’s story about her journey from China and the losses she experienced.
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“Thank you Little Queen. Then you must teach my daughter this same lesson. How to lose your innocence but not your hope. How to laugh forever.” (Tan 239)
This quote is in the preface to the third section. I chose it because it is a key theme in many of the mothers’ messages to their daughters. To grow up and take control of their lives while not losing themselves in the meantime.
A Daughter of Han - The Autobiography of a Chinese Working Woman
by Ida Pruit
The Story of Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai takes place before and as the Chinese empire falls and becomes the people’s republic of China. The story starts first with the description of the village Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai grew up in, and her family’s life before she was born. She describes her home and the other traditional Chinese homes, the K’ang beds heated by the same fires used in the cookstove. She describes how her father would spend the year away working, returning to the family at new year time to bring home his year’s earnings. We talked about this in class as well, when we learned about 民工. She tells about playing with the other neighbor children before the pain of her feet being bound kept her home. After that it was her maturing into a woman; she was finally able to grow out her hair.
An important turning point in the novel and the life of Ning Lao T’ai-t’ao was her wedding. Her parents did their best to choose a suitable husband for her, they consulted a matchmaker and the man she chose, Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai married. Her husband turned out to be an opium addict though, and whenever he made any money he spent it in the opium dens. In the movie, Farewell My Concubine, that we watched in class, this was a problem the one actor had as well. Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai gets a job herself and struggles to make money to feed her and her husband, while having to guard her earnings or else her he will steal them.
The next important event in Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai’s life is the birth of her children. Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai first has two daughters, the oldest was named Mantzi, the second Chinya. Her husband was often not at home, whether working to make money for opium or smoking opium so Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai took care of her daughters on her own, while her brother occasionally came back with some money. As the family continued to struggle her husband was desperate for money to pay for opium, and he sold the youngest daughter, Chinya. After that Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai left her “opium sot” and rented a room for her and her remaining daughter.
The time soon comes for Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai to find her remaining daughter a husband. The husband her daughter ends up with turns out to be no good, another “Opium sot”. Mantze often returns to live with her mother and eventually has a daughter of her own. Also in the meantime Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai’s husband come back to live with them now that he has calmed down and is not as addicted to opium. Ning Lao t’ai-t’ai has another son and raises him with Matze’s daughter, her granddaughter, Su Teh.
In the end after the husband has died and Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai lives with her son and daughter in law, she reflects on her life. Su Teh is a teacher at a local university, and Mantze lives close as well, and Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai is happy to have her people around her.
The book covers many deeply Chinese ideas throughout the story, the first being saving face. Later in life as her granddaughter Su Teh helps take care of her, Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai and she have an argument over money, but Su Teh is able to apologize without either of them “losing face”. Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai says “The money was for the children of my son. She is a good girl, my granddaughter.” (Pruitt 233) In this way Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai does not feel like she is accepting her granddaughters money, but is using it to spoil her grandchildren.
Another topic is that of fate, as Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai believes she has a very bad destiny that she cannot escape. As her and her daughter Mantze argue in her old age she again restates “Truly my destiny is not a good one. I was not born at an auspicious time. The eight words of my birth time are not good ones. My husband spoiled my youth, my son-in-law my middle years, and now it is my daughter who makes my old age unhappy.” (Pruitt 230) Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai blames her life’s hardships on the destiny assigned to her at birth and feels that it was inescapable.
