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3.0 AVERAGE
3.0 AVERAGE
adventurous
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
Reading this book was an exercise in perseverance as I struggled with reading Chinese fiction after a decades-long break. There is something painful yet satisfying in figuring out the meaning of each Chinese character and how they combine to create 词语 and 成语 with much more complex meanings. Plus, I’d forgotten how a Mandarin sentence can comprise of absolutely nothing but 成语 with an insane amount of detail stuffed in. Indeed, reading Mandarin is completely different from reading English.
碧血剑【上】by 金庸 follows 袁承志 as he grows from a lad of ten or so to a young man making his 江湖 debut. Due to his polite nature and willingness to learn, he meets many highly-skilled masters who impart their skills to him, making him ridiculously over skilled at a young age. When he finally emerges from his isolated training ground, he puts his skills to good use, helping the downtrodden and fighting Manchurian invaders and their collaborators.
It’s probably obvious that I’m not exactly impressed by the plot so far. I get it, it’s an 武侠 story, it’s not supposed to be deep, but the convenience of plot lines and simple painting of characters does it no favours. There’s only so many times one can meet the right people to help one before it becomes unbelievable. Also, if 承志 is this powerful and well-loved at this juncture in the story, where doth my beloved character building lie? He’s a young man with a yet fully formed prefrontal cortex, how is he running around that mature and perfect?
Another thing that irked me was the portrayal of women. The female characters thus far have been willful and emotional brats, mysterious and alluring (male gaze ahem), mothering types, or childhood friends. That’s seriously all there is to their personalities. It barely passes the Bechdel test with only a one or two liner conversation between two female characters that did not revolve around a man. Still, I tried my best to ignore that because this book was written in a different time and probably for a different audience.
Rants aside, I have to say that I did enjoy the read during the times I managed to stop analyzing things. There is something comforting in escaping into a world where bruised egos were the biggest problems and everything could be solved with notions of brotherhood and respect. Plus, I do want to find out what’s next for 承志 or has 金庸 really written his main character into a corner of godlike stature. So stay tuned for when I pick up the second volume in this book!
Diversity meter:
Chinese characters
Orphan characters
碧血剑【上】by 金庸 follows 袁承志 as he grows from a lad of ten or so to a young man making his 江湖 debut. Due to his polite nature and willingness to learn, he meets many highly-skilled masters who impart their skills to him, making him ridiculously over skilled at a young age. When he finally emerges from his isolated training ground, he puts his skills to good use, helping the downtrodden and fighting Manchurian invaders and their collaborators.
It’s probably obvious that I’m not exactly impressed by the plot so far. I get it, it’s an 武侠 story, it’s not supposed to be deep, but the convenience of plot lines and simple painting of characters does it no favours. There’s only so many times one can meet the right people to help one before it becomes unbelievable. Also, if 承志 is this powerful and well-loved at this juncture in the story, where doth my beloved character building lie? He’s a young man with a yet fully formed prefrontal cortex, how is he running around that mature and perfect?
Another thing that irked me was the portrayal of women. The female characters thus far have been willful and emotional brats, mysterious and alluring (male gaze ahem), mothering types, or childhood friends. That’s seriously all there is to their personalities. It barely passes the Bechdel test with only a one or two liner conversation between two female characters that did not revolve around a man. Still, I tried my best to ignore that because this book was written in a different time and probably for a different audience.
Rants aside, I have to say that I did enjoy the read during the times I managed to stop analyzing things. There is something comforting in escaping into a world where bruised egos were the biggest problems and everything could be solved with notions of brotherhood and respect. Plus, I do want to find out what’s next for 承志 or has 金庸 really written his main character into a corner of godlike stature. So stay tuned for when I pick up the second volume in this book!
Diversity meter:
Chinese characters
Orphan characters