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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
Torn between 3 and 4 stars on this one (would like a 3.5 - definitely a C, possibly a B
When you get to the end of the book you are a little frustrated, one - for the lack of resolution in the author's quest; two - for feeling that you knew more about this author's family than porcelain.
So if you are seeking a book on porcelain, there are better reads out there.
However this is a good read for a book for someone who might be moving to China. It is a good book to give one an idea of the challenges one could face there and the explanation of some interesting phrases.
So it reads fairly well. As a student of world history I was familiar with most events so I wasn't needing more explanation, though some might need to get some more background information.
When you get to the end of the book you are a little frustrated, one - for the lack of resolution in the author's quest; two - for feeling that you knew more about this author's family than porcelain.
So if you are seeking a book on porcelain, there are better reads out there.
However this is a good read for a book for someone who might be moving to China. It is a good book to give one an idea of the challenges one could face there and the explanation of some interesting phrases.
So it reads fairly well. As a student of world history I was familiar with most events so I wasn't needing more explanation, though some might need to get some more background information.
This is a great approach to writing about China -- the author goes to find his family's buried porcelain and along the way provides history and art lessons related to China. He is a good story teller and was able to make really interested in the production of porcelain, which is something I never thought possible. I also learned a lot about colonial education and missions, as his family was impacted greatly by these two institutions. My biggest struggle with this book, and what keeps it from getting 3 stars is that it was incredibly difficult for this China newbie to keep things straight. Chinese names can be remarkable similar, especially to those who don't understand family structure and how that can be related in names. Hsu attempts to explain this, but his explanation did not go far enough to make it clear to me who he was talking about. I found the reading very slow going, primarily because I couldn't figure out who was related to who and if it even matter if I understood those relationships. I also found myself tripped up fairly often due to my lack of knowledge of Chinese geography.
After I finished the book, I noticed in the beginning that there was a map and a family tree. I may have had a different experience reading the book had I printed these out and had them next to me. For those readers who know almost nothing about China, I would highly recommend doing this before tackling the book.
After I finished the book, I noticed in the beginning that there was a map and a family tree. I may have had a different experience reading the book had I printed these out and had them next to me. For those readers who know almost nothing about China, I would highly recommend doing this before tackling the book.
emotional
informative
slow-paced
an interesting book which gives a good insight into Chinese history from a personal point of view and was told in a conversational easy to read style. However this book could be very confusing with regards to who is whom as many members of his family are referred to by their familial name (akin to auntie or grandma) but not distinguished as to which auntie it is that he's talking about. Also as I've seen mentioned in reviews before the ending is quite disappointing as there is no concrete answer as to whether the family's porcelain is still there or not. A great look into history and to learn more about porcelain but is the sort of book that would benefit from you making notes while reading it.
So, my enjoyment of this memoir comes from a weird point of view. Yes, I enjoy the history of an heirloom, the journey to track it down, and the historical background that surrounds it. I had really liked The Hare With The Amber Eyes. But also, as someone who has read a bit of Sci-fi and also loves to watch Sci-fi- this was great. In a lot of Sci-fi China is a big part of the environment. Its borders have stretched and it encompasses a large part of the world. The culture is prominent in many of these fictional future Earths. That being the case, it was fascinating to read Huan Hsu's experience in that country. His descriptions of the crowded cities and the even smaller areas of the country mirrored many of the worldsI have read/watched. There were just so many factors to make this book a great read.
Huan Hsu chronicles his journey to unearth his family's porcelain, said to have been buried during WW2. The treasure was then lost during China's Cultural Revolution. Although the surviving family members can't agree to what was owned and what became of the porcelain, Huan Hsu'S journey to for the truth has given him some great stories.
He learns his family's history and discovers a China he was completely unprepared for.
Huan Hsu chronicles his journey to unearth his family's porcelain, said to have been buried during WW2. The treasure was then lost during China's Cultural Revolution. Although the surviving family members can't agree to what was owned and what became of the porcelain, Huan Hsu'S journey to for the truth has given him some great stories.
He learns his family's history and discovers a China he was completely unprepared for.
The Porcelain Thief is by an American-born Chinese who relocates to China in a bid to find out what happened to his ancestor’s porcelain collection several decades earlier. He takes a job in Shanghai, working for his uncle’s business, and painstakingly interviews his relatives to help him reconstruct some of the family history. The sections with his redoubtable grandmother are particularly fine – she leads him a merry dance, telling him so much about some things, so little about others.
The narrative switches back and forth from his travails in present-day China to the travails of his family in the previous century, but Hsu keeps the two in equilibrium and writes with clarity about Chinese history and Chinese porcelain. His account feels disconcertingly honest at times, to the point where he doesn’t seem very likeable – his sexist comments on the dating scene in Shanghai, for instance; his ingrained hostility towards his cousin Richard (not a kindred spirit). This authenticity is the hallmark of the final section of the book, where there is definite bathos in a scene where the characters go digging up random sections of vegetable patch. Well worth reading, and full of interesting detail, but it does point up rather harshly the difficulties of pursuing this kind of quest.
Review first posted at http://asianartbrief.com
The narrative switches back and forth from his travails in present-day China to the travails of his family in the previous century, but Hsu keeps the two in equilibrium and writes with clarity about Chinese history and Chinese porcelain. His account feels disconcertingly honest at times, to the point where he doesn’t seem very likeable – his sexist comments on the dating scene in Shanghai, for instance; his ingrained hostility towards his cousin Richard (not a kindred spirit). This authenticity is the hallmark of the final section of the book, where there is definite bathos in a scene where the characters go digging up random sections of vegetable patch. Well worth reading, and full of interesting detail, but it does point up rather harshly the difficulties of pursuing this kind of quest.
Review first posted at http://asianartbrief.com
I really wanted to like this book and I completely admire the author, but it seemed long and drawn out. If you care about in-depth porcelain knowledge then maybe this is the book for you. It also provided some interesting perspectives about modern China and the his struggle of repatriation.
The last three generations of Huan Hsu's family have suffered every upheaval of Twentieth century China. His great-great-grandfather Liu was a wealthy landowner and porcelain collector during the last decades of the Qing dynasty. He and his children and grandchild experienced the fall of Imperial China, the depredations of the Japanese during World War II, the evacuation of the Kuomintang, and the rise of Mao and the Cultural Revolution. His memoir, The Porcelain Thief, is ostensibly about Hsu's attempts to find his family's cache of porcelain. The book is more about Hsu's attempts to reconcile his relatives recollections with China's history than about reclaiming lost family heirlooms...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.
Huan Hsu is a talented young writer who's produced an engaging profile of modern urban and rural China, and a scan of its recent history. The device is a search for porcelain collected by his great grandfather and even though the mystery is never really solved, it's a good narrative. The book could be shorter, and the level of detail can be a bit much, but it's a good effort.
This review is based on an ARC copy.
Huan Hsu grew up in Utah trying to be as un-Chinese as possible. After becoming interested in porcelain after seeing an exhibition of it, he's told to ask his mother about her family's collection.
The family story goes that his great-great-grandfather had a large collection of porcelain, including from the imperial kilns, which he buried in the garden before fleeing as the Japanese approached his village. Hsu is driven to go to China and do what he can towards digging for the porcelain, while also finding out more about his family's history.
The book is a mixture of Hsu's experiences in China, the history of porcelain, the personal history of his various relatives, some of whom never left China and some who fled to Taiwan when the Communists took power, and the history of 20th century China in general (often viewed through a relationship to porcelain).
While the title is rather misleading (there's really nothing about theft mentioned except in an abstract way), I really enjoyed the book. I liked Hsu's writing style, the mix of histories, and Hsu's growing appreciation for his family and for China in general. It ends incredibly abruptly, and there's not much narrative arc, but I would recommend it to pretty much anyone with even a slight interest in China. The stories of his various family member's lives during the tumultuous 20th century was what most interested me.
Huan Hsu grew up in Utah trying to be as un-Chinese as possible. After becoming interested in porcelain after seeing an exhibition of it, he's told to ask his mother about her family's collection.
The family story goes that his great-great-grandfather had a large collection of porcelain, including from the imperial kilns, which he buried in the garden before fleeing as the Japanese approached his village. Hsu is driven to go to China and do what he can towards digging for the porcelain, while also finding out more about his family's history.
The book is a mixture of Hsu's experiences in China, the history of porcelain, the personal history of his various relatives, some of whom never left China and some who fled to Taiwan when the Communists took power, and the history of 20th century China in general (often viewed through a relationship to porcelain).
While the title is rather misleading (there's really nothing about theft mentioned except in an abstract way), I really enjoyed the book. I liked Hsu's writing style, the mix of histories, and Hsu's growing appreciation for his family and for China in general. It ends incredibly abruptly, and there's not much narrative arc, but I would recommend it to pretty much anyone with even a slight interest in China. The stories of his various family member's lives during the tumultuous 20th century was what most interested me.