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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
slow-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
While researching early methods of making and firing ceramics, specifically porcelain, I stumbled across this book. While there was scant info about the making of porcelain from the country that for centuries fashioned the world's best, I became absorbed for other reasons.
Huan Hsu, a journalist, and a first generation Chinese American, arrives in China to work at his uncle's tech company, but his real goal is to find his great-great grandfather's incredibly valuable porcelain collection, which the grandfather buried on his property before leaving ahead of the Japanese invasion.
Hsu is appalled at what he finds, he resents the Chinese, he barely speaks the language, which he despises, as much as he despises many of his relatives--and China, when he gets there. Before he can tackle his quest, that means learning enough of the language to interview his aging relatives, many of whom are in their eighties and nineties, children when it all happened. But it's not enough to learn the language, he also has to learn how to maneuver in Chinese (and Taiwanese) culture, which even after the horrors of the Cultural Revolution, still exhibits the thought patterns of old.
And so begins the story of his family, one relative at a time, one extended relation at a time--and one person at a time as the search both frustrates and widens. Everyone has reasons for what they tell him: his grandmother insisting he abandon the quest because it's dangerous, other relatives maintaining the treasure is long gone, vanished into Japanese pockets, into Kuomintang or Communist vaults, etc.
What the reader gets is a vivid history of what it was like to try to survive during the twentieth century, which was brutal for the Chinese people in a way that, sadly, isn't all that new. The impression that China still is very much an empire persists--and one person even iterates it, as Hsu and his interviewees delve into the past, and what it was like to run from the horror of Japanese atrocities just to later be persecuted by one's own government for utterly specious "reasons."
This is history one person at a time, building a picture that meshes with other books' descriptions of the culture and customs, from spitting in the street to how to handle officials and not have one's questions come back to bite you, or worse, your family.
As for what happened to the treasure, if you've been reading all the stories instead of skimming, you not only comprehend the seemingly abrupt ending, you are left thinking: yup, there it is.
Huan Hsu, a journalist, and a first generation Chinese American, arrives in China to work at his uncle's tech company, but his real goal is to find his great-great grandfather's incredibly valuable porcelain collection, which the grandfather buried on his property before leaving ahead of the Japanese invasion.
Hsu is appalled at what he finds, he resents the Chinese, he barely speaks the language, which he despises, as much as he despises many of his relatives--and China, when he gets there. Before he can tackle his quest, that means learning enough of the language to interview his aging relatives, many of whom are in their eighties and nineties, children when it all happened. But it's not enough to learn the language, he also has to learn how to maneuver in Chinese (and Taiwanese) culture, which even after the horrors of the Cultural Revolution, still exhibits the thought patterns of old.
And so begins the story of his family, one relative at a time, one extended relation at a time--and one person at a time as the search both frustrates and widens. Everyone has reasons for what they tell him: his grandmother insisting he abandon the quest because it's dangerous, other relatives maintaining the treasure is long gone, vanished into Japanese pockets, into Kuomintang or Communist vaults, etc.
What the reader gets is a vivid history of what it was like to try to survive during the twentieth century, which was brutal for the Chinese people in a way that, sadly, isn't all that new. The impression that China still is very much an empire persists--and one person even iterates it, as Hsu and his interviewees delve into the past, and what it was like to run from the horror of Japanese atrocities just to later be persecuted by one's own government for utterly specious "reasons."
This is history one person at a time, building a picture that meshes with other books' descriptions of the culture and customs, from spitting in the street to how to handle officials and not have one's questions come back to bite you, or worse, your family.
As for what happened to the treasure, if you've been reading all the stories instead of skimming, you not only comprehend the seemingly abrupt ending, you are left thinking: yup, there it is.
Under the guise of hunting for his family's long-lost, and valuable porcelain collection the author takes a step back into his family history, and that of China.
Huan Hsu is an American-born Chinese who had little interest in his family history, but became preoccupied with tracking down a lost hoard of valuable imperial porcelain that his great-great-grandfather had buried when the Japanese were advancing to his village.
His research took him to China - where he struggled with the language, the people, the customs and with prying some history out of his ancient grandmother.
This not-particularly-sympathetic look at modern China, it's more recent history, and the story of it's glorious and largely lost imperial porcelain is an engaging read and sheds light on some Chinese customs (like the production of fake goods) that many of us find difficult to understand.
Worth a read.
Huan Hsu is an American-born Chinese who had little interest in his family history, but became preoccupied with tracking down a lost hoard of valuable imperial porcelain that his great-great-grandfather had buried when the Japanese were advancing to his village.
His research took him to China - where he struggled with the language, the people, the customs and with prying some history out of his ancient grandmother.
This not-particularly-sympathetic look at modern China, it's more recent history, and the story of it's glorious and largely lost imperial porcelain is an engaging read and sheds light on some Chinese customs (like the production of fake goods) that many of us find difficult to understand.
Worth a read.
This book was a little slow with some typos that made me wish it was edited one last time, but overall a fine book. I was a bit disappointed by the ending but I found the context around Chinese porcelain interesting.
Quite liked. Anything having to do with the Chinese cultural revolution is fascinating to me. This took place in some of the cities Tyler served in in Taiwan. I would read about a city and Tyler was currently living there. So cool!
I loved this account of Hsu's exploration of his family's history in China, which is motivated by his interest in recovering potentially legendary porcelain that his great-great-grandfather's family buried during the Japanese invasion. It's a fascinating and sometimes funny account of modern China and also provides a solid 20th century history lesson.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
funny
slow-paced
The glimpse into Chinese culture and history showed me that the West has no idea what or who we're dealing with when taking about China.
The book was too detailed at times and bogged down.
The book was too detailed at times and bogged down.
As someone with a tiny droplet of knowledge on the end of dynastic China, I devoured the humanity of this book. It is very intense to hear about the struggles of Chinese people trying to navigate the turbulent world post 1949, particularly the turmoil of the cultural revolution. I thought this book was going to be about the author finally discovering his own Chinese heritage, but it was much more. And obviously, not really about the porcelain.