Good Chinese Wife

Good Chinese Wife
Author: Susan Blumberg-Kason
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2014-07-29
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1402293356

A stunning memoir of an intercultural marriage gone wrong When Susan, a shy Midwesterner in love with Chinese culture, started graduate school in Hong Kong, she quickly fell for Cai, the Chinese man of her dreams. As they exchanged vows, Susan thought she'd stumbled into an exotic fairy tale, until she realized Cai—and his culture—where not what she thought. In her riveting memoir, Susan recounts her struggle to be the perfect traditional "Chinese" wife to her increasingly controlling and abusive husband. With keen insight and heart-wrenching candor, she confronts the hopes and hazards of intercultural marriage, including dismissing her own values and needs to save her relationship and protect her newborn son, Jake. But when Cai threatens to take Jake back to China for good, Susan must find the courage to stand up for herself, her son, and her future. Moving between rural China and the bustling cities of Hong Kong and San Francisco, Good Chinese Wife is an eye-opening look at marriage and family in contemporary China and America and an inspiring testament to the resilience of a mother's love—across any border.

China's Second Continent

China's Second Continent
Author: Howard W. French
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2015-02-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0307946657

A New York Times Notable Book Chinese immigrants of the recent past and unfolding twenty-first century are in search of the African dream. So explains indefatigable traveler Howard W. French, prize-winning investigative journalist and former New York Times bureau chief in Africa and China, in the definitive account of this seismic geopolitical development. China’s burgeoning presence in Africa is already shaping, and reshaping, the future of millions of people. From Liberia to Senegal to Mozambique, in creaky trucks and by back roads, French introduces us to the characters who make up China’s dogged emigrant population: entrepreneurs singlehandedly reshaping African infrastructure, and less-lucky migrants barely scraping by but still convinced of Africa’s opportunities. French’s acute observations offer illuminating insight into the most pressing unknowns of modern Sino-African relations: Why China is making these cultural and economic incursions into the continent; what Africa’s role is in this equation; and what the ramifications for both parties and their people—and the watching world—will be in the foreseeable future. One of the Best Books of the Year at • The Economist • The Guardian • Foreign Affairs

Bird Talk and Other Stories by Xu Xu

Bird Talk and Other Stories by Xu Xu
Author: Xu Xu
Publisher: Stone Bridge Press, Inc.
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2020-05-19
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 1611729394

Xu Xu 徐訏 (1908-1980) was one of the most widely read Chinese authors of the 1930s to 1960s. His popular urban gothic tales, his exotic spy fiction, and his quasi-existentialist love stories full of nostalgia and melancholy offer today’s readers an unusual glimpse into China’s turbulent twentieth century. These translations--spanning a period of some thirty years, from 1937 until 1965--bring to life some of Xu Xu’s most representative short fictions from prewar Shanghai and postwar Hong Kong and Taiwan. The Afterword illustrates that Xu Xu’s idealistic tendencies in defiance of the politicization of art exemplify his affinity with European romanticism and link his work to a global literary modernity.

Slow Boat to China and Other Stories

Slow Boat to China and Other Stories
Author: Kim Chew Ng
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2016-03-01
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 023154099X

"Dream and Swine and Aurora," "Deep in the Rubber Forest," "Fish Bones," "Allah's Will," "Monkey Butts, Fire, and Dangerous Things"—Ng Kim Chew's stories are raw, rural, and rich with the traditions of his native Malaysia. They are also full of humor and spirit, demonstrating a deep appreciation for human ingenuity in the face of poverty, oppression, and exile. Ng creatively captures the riot of cultures that roughly coexist on the Malay Peninsula and its surrounding archipelago. Their interplay is heightened by the encroaching forces of globalization, which bring new opportunities for cultural experimentation, but also an added dimension of alienation. In prose that is intimate and atmospheric, these sensitively crafted, resonant stories depict the struggles of individuals torn between their ancestral and adoptive homes, communities pressured by violence, and minority Malaysian Chinese in dynamic tension with the Islamic Malay majority. Told through relatable characters, Ng's tales show why he has become a leading Malaysian writer of Chinese fiction, representing in mood, voice, and rhythm the dislocation of a people and a country in transition.

Fear and Other Stories from the Pulps

Fear and Other Stories from the Pulps
Author: Abdullah Achmed
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2005-08-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1592242375

Achmed Abdullah's name was once synonymous with adventure. He published dozens of novels and hundreds of short stories in the pulp magazines of the early 20th century, thrilling millions of readers throughout the world. He wrote with authority about exotic peoples and places because he had lived a life filled with adventure, serving in the British army and travelling extensively to exotic locales before settling down to a literary career. Here is the first new book of Adbullah's stories in almost seventy years, sampling a broad range of his work. "A Charmed Life" tells of one life-changing night in India, when a white man glimpses and beautiful woman in danger and acts to rescue her. "Framed at the Benefactor's Club" is a fascinating, intricately plotted mystery set in Manhattan. "The Yellow Wife" is a chilling look at Chinese life in Chinatown. "Bismallah!" is a light adventure in Africa, as crooked traders try to put a successful rival company out of business. "Light" is a surprisingly effective supernatural tale. "A Yarkand Survey" tells the story of a corrupt governor who is sent on a survey mission that might cost him his life -- if he isn't careful! And "Fear" is the tale of two thieving white men in Africa and the weird fates that awaited them. Ranging from mystery to adventure to outright horror, from the streets of New York to the rooftops of Calcutta, from London's Chinatown to the jungles of Africa, here are tales of men caught up by plots and mysteries beyond their wildest imaginings! Features a new introduction by pulp scholar Darrell Schweitzer.

Second Wife and Other Stories from China

Second Wife and Other Stories from China
Author: Rhona Baptiste
Publisher:
Total Pages: 124
Release: 2001
Genre: China
ISBN:

" In this collection of short stories, Rhona Baptiste describes her experiences in China since coming to teach at a Junior Teachers' College in Guangzhou....." -- Cover.

Love Stories in China

Love Stories in China
Author: Wanning Sun
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 439
Release: 2019-07-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000497232

This book explores how political, economic, social, cultural and technological forces are (re)shaping the meanings of love and intimacy in China's public culture. It focuses on a range of cultural and media forms including literature, film, television, music and new media, examines new cultural practices such as online activism, virtual intimacy and relationship counselling, and discusses how far love and romance have come to assume new shapes and forms in the twenty-first century. Love Stories in China offers deep insights into how the huge transformation of China over the last four decades has impacted the micro lives of ordinary Chinese people.

The Ugly Wife Is a Treasure at Home

The Ugly Wife Is a Treasure at Home
Author: Melissa Margaret Schneider
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2014-08-15
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1612346944

"The ugly wife is a treasure at home" is not just an idle expression in China. For centuries, Chinese marriage involved matchmakers, child brides, dowries, and concubines, until the People's Republic of China was established by Mao Zedong and his Communist Party in 1949. Initially encouraging citizens to reject traditional arranged marriages and instead wed for love, the party soon spurned "the sin of putting love first," fearful that romantic love would distract good Communists from selflessly carrying out the State's agenda. Under Mao the party established the power to approve or reject proposed marriages, dictate where couples would live, and even determine if spouses would live together. By the 1960s and 1970s romantic love became a counterrevolutionary act punishable by "struggle sessions" or even imprisonment. The importance of Chinese sons, however, did not wane during Mao's thirty-year regime. As such, in a world where nobody spoke of love, 99 percent of young women still married. The Ugly Wife Is a Treasure at Home draws the reader into the world of love in Communist China through the personal memories of those who endured the Cultural Revolution and the generations that followed. This collection of intimate and remarkable stories gives readers a rare view of Chinese history, social customs, and Communism from the perspective of today's ordinary citizens.