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alinabkl's review
adventurous
informative
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism and Violence
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Rape, and Sexual violence
youngneutrophil's review
5.0
For a variety of reasons, fiction from colonial Taiwan (1895–1945) is not well known beyond scholars of Taiwanese literature, colonialism, or Japanese empire. Orphan of Asia is not a good book so much for its plot, but for Wu Zhuoliu's exploration of the psyche of a colonized Taiwanese man. There are many, often competing implications to be drawn about colonialism, nationality, gender, race, and a whole swath of other issues, which has led to Orphan of Asia gaining recognition as one of the most important books of colonial Taiwanese literature—in my opinion, deservedly so.
meeners's review
3.0
my rating refers to the translation. it's serviceable and it reads well, but sometimes the english really tripped me up (especially with the poems).
side note: interesting and also kind of funny (as in funny-haha) that this book would be billed as "modern chinese literature from taiwan." you could contest like almost every word in that sentence!
side note: interesting and also kind of funny (as in funny-haha) that this book would be billed as "modern chinese literature from taiwan." you could contest like almost every word in that sentence!
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