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teeggzz's review against another edition
4.0
"At this stage of my life, I wasn't going to sacrifice my artistic ambition and surrender myself totally to a man."
thebobsphere's review
4.0
Xiaolu Guo is one of my favourite authors so when I found out that she had written her autobiography, I HAD to have it. Now I finally got round to reading it and it is everything I could want.
The book is divided into different phases in Xiaolu Guo’s life; The first part is about how her parents gave her to her grandparents and details her life in a fishing village. The second part is about her return to her parents and life in a different area of China, the third part is her move to Beijing as a film student and the final part is about her scholarship to study film in London, where she still resides.
One cannot deny that Xiaolu Guo had an interesting life. Starting out illiterate until her return to her parents and subsequent schooling, the first part mentions the tough childhood trials she had to face and the slow realisation that China is a communist country and it did things differently. As she grows up the details become more sordid, with tales of abuse and grooming – although the western stereotype is that Chinese are mild mannered people, Xiaolu Guo proves otherwise. During her film school years there’s her discovery of underground art and her attempts to create and yet being stopped by the government. As for the London years we see her developing into the writer we know.
Family, politics, language, immigration and culture clashes all feature in Xiaolu Guo’s novels and one can clearly see that they reflect her life. Despite authors saying that authors do not put their lives in their books, Once Upon a Time in the East shows that the above statement is a myth.
The book is divided into different phases in Xiaolu Guo’s life; The first part is about how her parents gave her to her grandparents and details her life in a fishing village. The second part is about her return to her parents and life in a different area of China, the third part is her move to Beijing as a film student and the final part is about her scholarship to study film in London, where she still resides.
One cannot deny that Xiaolu Guo had an interesting life. Starting out illiterate until her return to her parents and subsequent schooling, the first part mentions the tough childhood trials she had to face and the slow realisation that China is a communist country and it did things differently. As she grows up the details become more sordid, with tales of abuse and grooming – although the western stereotype is that Chinese are mild mannered people, Xiaolu Guo proves otherwise. During her film school years there’s her discovery of underground art and her attempts to create and yet being stopped by the government. As for the London years we see her developing into the writer we know.
Family, politics, language, immigration and culture clashes all feature in Xiaolu Guo’s novels and one can clearly see that they reflect her life. Despite authors saying that authors do not put their lives in their books, Once Upon a Time in the East shows that the above statement is a myth.
celticthistle's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
charlie_bro's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Suicide, Death, and Sexual violence
Minor: Xenophobia
alyssabookrecs's review against another edition
5.0
A poignant read. Xiaolu Guo’s memoir is so beautifully crafted that it will be hard to put down because you simply get so attached to her story. And, as a fellow writer, I was even more attached to her journey.
sjgrodsky's review against another edition
5.0
I didn’t spend a full month on this book. Two other books got interspersed with this one. Once I settled down, I tore through it in four days or so.
I still cannot conceive of the utter brutality the author suffered. Abandoned, starved, neglected, beaten, raped, all before her teens. My, if this is what the Chinese call “civilization”, we will have to agree to disagree on the meaning of the word.
One reviewer described it as a Bildungsroman (the maturing of a creative personality). It is that, but “Life with PTSD” seems more germane. This is a person who was deeply traumatized when an infant. She seems cold, unloving, even ungrateful. But her first months of life misshaped her, making it impossible for her to feel the emotions most people feel. Asking her to express love or gratitude or admiration or affection is like asking a color-blind person to pick out the magenta ball from the bowl.
Most strange is that she has not a word of affection for her father. You can see that her father recognizes his girl as a creative personality like himself. He takes her to Beijing to sit for the film school admission exam. When she fails, he buys her the books she needs, supports her for a year as she studies, and takes her to Beijing a second time, when she is admitted. Isn’t that love? Doesn’t that demand recognition? Not from Xiaolu.
And yet you feel that Xiaolu does connect with her father as artist-to-artist. She takes him to the city in France where Van Gogh lived and painted, knowing that her father, a painter himself, would want to see the scenes that had inspired a painter he so admired.
She never forgives her mother or brother. Nor does she make any attempt to understand why they did what they did. It’s PTSD. She was so deeply brutalized as such a young age that she cannot overcome.
She is remarkably disinterested in connecting with her peers. For example: she shares the same tiny dorm room with three other girls. We do learn quite a bit about one, Mengmeng, who confronts Xiaolu’s rapist before attempting suicide. Xiaolu’s other roommates never even get named.
The most interesting parts, for me, were the paragraphs she devotes to her struggles with the English language.
-Chinese does not have verb tenses, and she never quite gets why we think they are necessary.
-Chinese uses ideograms — pictures — to express ideas, and the purely phonetic writing style of English lacks subtlety and nuance.
The attitude she expresses in these criticisms is typical of her attitude towards life: “This is hard. Why does it have to be so hard? Why are you being mean to me? Why isn’t life more beautiful?”
I still cannot conceive of the utter brutality the author suffered. Abandoned, starved, neglected, beaten, raped, all before her teens. My, if this is what the Chinese call “civilization”, we will have to agree to disagree on the meaning of the word.
One reviewer described it as a Bildungsroman (the maturing of a creative personality). It is that, but “Life with PTSD” seems more germane. This is a person who was deeply traumatized when an infant. She seems cold, unloving, even ungrateful. But her first months of life misshaped her, making it impossible for her to feel the emotions most people feel. Asking her to express love or gratitude or admiration or affection is like asking a color-blind person to pick out the magenta ball from the bowl.
Most strange is that she has not a word of affection for her father. You can see that her father recognizes his girl as a creative personality like himself. He takes her to Beijing to sit for the film school admission exam. When she fails, he buys her the books she needs, supports her for a year as she studies, and takes her to Beijing a second time, when she is admitted. Isn’t that love? Doesn’t that demand recognition? Not from Xiaolu.
And yet you feel that Xiaolu does connect with her father as artist-to-artist. She takes him to the city in France where Van Gogh lived and painted, knowing that her father, a painter himself, would want to see the scenes that had inspired a painter he so admired.
She never forgives her mother or brother. Nor does she make any attempt to understand why they did what they did. It’s PTSD. She was so deeply brutalized as such a young age that she cannot overcome.
She is remarkably disinterested in connecting with her peers. For example: she shares the same tiny dorm room with three other girls. We do learn quite a bit about one, Mengmeng, who confronts Xiaolu’s rapist before attempting suicide. Xiaolu’s other roommates never even get named.
The most interesting parts, for me, were the paragraphs she devotes to her struggles with the English language.
-Chinese does not have verb tenses, and she never quite gets why we think they are necessary.
-Chinese uses ideograms — pictures — to express ideas, and the purely phonetic writing style of English lacks subtlety and nuance.
The attitude she expresses in these criticisms is typical of her attitude towards life: “This is hard. Why does it have to be so hard? Why are you being mean to me? Why isn’t life more beautiful?”
victoriathuyvi's review against another edition
5.0
Wow, what a treat. Such a magnificent insight into the life of Xiaolu and the struggles of coming to terms with who you are admist clashing cultures and ideals.
chuck9997's review against another edition
5.0
Why I read it- Xiaolu Guo is officially on my favorite writer’s list. This book is her autobiography.
I often wonder how an author comes up with the events in their book. Which must be the exact moment that the inspiration strikes. This autobiography is the compilation of all those moments and also what lead the author to be there.
Xiaolu’s books have strong female protagonists. Women who are ready to flung themselves in the unknown, to do whatever it take to move away from their oppressed past. Knowing about her life gives the insight on how each of her heroine is plucked from her life journey. Childhood abandonment, sexual abuse, suicides, struggles of being an artist while living in a communist regime, we walk through it all. The futility of protests, the massacres, the constant state of fear when you are enlightened about your adversities is stifling in itself but was it better for people who in their ignorance knew nothing more than what was shown to them? People in her life dangle in those two categories.
The most distressing story for me was of Xiaolu’s grandmother. Given away in a child marriage merely in exchange for a bag of rice and few bags of yams, she never even had a name of her own. When the census officers visit their house for data collection, she states, unfazed, that she was known before marriage as Second Sister and after as “Guo Shi” i.e. wife of Guo.
With the world now boiling with unjustified hate, it is important to read and listen to the voices of those exiled from their communities. It gives an insight into the hidden and helps us empathize. For is there any other quality more human than empathizing with others?
I often wonder how an author comes up with the events in their book. Which must be the exact moment that the inspiration strikes. This autobiography is the compilation of all those moments and also what lead the author to be there.
Xiaolu’s books have strong female protagonists. Women who are ready to flung themselves in the unknown, to do whatever it take to move away from their oppressed past. Knowing about her life gives the insight on how each of her heroine is plucked from her life journey. Childhood abandonment, sexual abuse, suicides, struggles of being an artist while living in a communist regime, we walk through it all. The futility of protests, the massacres, the constant state of fear when you are enlightened about your adversities is stifling in itself but was it better for people who in their ignorance knew nothing more than what was shown to them? People in her life dangle in those two categories.
The most distressing story for me was of Xiaolu’s grandmother. Given away in a child marriage merely in exchange for a bag of rice and few bags of yams, she never even had a name of her own. When the census officers visit their house for data collection, she states, unfazed, that she was known before marriage as Second Sister and after as “Guo Shi” i.e. wife of Guo.
With the world now boiling with unjustified hate, it is important to read and listen to the voices of those exiled from their communities. It gives an insight into the hidden and helps us empathize. For is there any other quality more human than empathizing with others?
skzats_we's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
tense
medium-paced