Scan barcode
A review by clintasha
臺北人 by Pai Hsien-yung
4.0
can’t lie this was a nice read!!! i can’t believe my first book of 2023 is a chinese one literally who would’ve thought not me!!! i actually really liked it because im a sucker for tragic nostalgic stories done right and they’re all centered around all sorts of different people with different pasts & different dreams!!! i also love learning about history & culture through actually interesting fiction so kudos 白先生 congratulations you got me to actually finish a chinese novel. do you understand the impossibility of the feat you have accomplished. it is truly very, very impressive
this book unfortunately counts toward 20% of my public exam grade so im just gonna talk about every story briefly to make sure i have a good grasp of the content okay here we go:
永遠的尹雪艷：it’s giving gaslight gatekeep girlboss!! honestly it’s somehow even more impressive that she’s not entirely cold & unfeeling towards everyone and she’s instead actually really hospitable & friendly which just adds to the overall creepiness since her actions speak louder when they actually matter, like how she only stops working for one night when 王貴生 gets executed. there are hints that she cares on a deeper level, like how she attends 徐壯圖’s funeral knowing she’d be judged for it, but then again maybe she just wants attention lmao you can never tell. (i also thought it was such a power move she was standing in the middle of the chaos like regina fkn george she made his wife FAINT LMAOOO) nevertheless, there is definitely a strong sense of tragedy in her life: she has the fame & money but she ruins every man’s life she touches (輕者家敗，重者人亡) and in the end she’s alone like she’s always been. though it’s less obvious, there is also the theme of not being able to let go of the past in her story: she hangs onto that fame from shanghai & tries to recreate it w/ her 公館 in 臺北, and even 吳經理 was a 常客 there. one different thing about her vs the other characters in this book is that she doesn’t seem to age which is inch resting
this book unfortunately counts toward 20% of my public exam grade so im just gonna talk about every story briefly to make sure i have a good grasp of the content okay here we go:
永遠的尹雪艷：it’s giving gaslight gatekeep girlboss!! honestly it’s somehow even more impressive that she’s not entirely cold & unfeeling towards everyone and she’s instead actually really hospitable & friendly which just adds to the overall creepiness since her actions speak louder when they actually matter, like how she only stops working for one night when 王貴生 gets executed. there are hints that she cares on a deeper level, like how she attends 徐壯圖’s funeral knowing she’d be judged for it, but then again maybe she just wants attention lmao you can never tell. (i also thought it was such a power move she was standing in the middle of the chaos like regina fkn george she made his wife FAINT LMAOOO) nevertheless, there is definitely a strong sense of tragedy in her life: she has the fame & money but she ruins every man’s life she touches (輕者家敗，重者人亡) and in the end she’s alone like she’s always been. though it’s less obvious, there is also the theme of not being able to let go of the past in her story: she hangs onto that fame from shanghai & tries to recreate it w/ her 公館 in 臺北, and even 吳經理 was a 常客 there. one different thing about her vs the other characters in this book is that she doesn’t seem to age which is inch resting