February 2012
3 posts
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To people interested in learning about the Tiananmen Square Massacre, don’t pick up “Last Kiss at Tiananmen Square.”
It is a shit book.
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The Girl Who Played Go (Shan Sa)
The book advertises itself as a love story between a Chinese girl and a Japanese soldier during the occupation of Manchuria and the invasion of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War (something that I, as a Chinese girl, feel very strongly about), but it’s at once so much more and so much less than that. (Spoiler heavy.)
I had initially picked up the book because it’d gotten good...
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Someone should do a genderbent Julius Caesar. They really really should. Especially exploring the power dynamics between Brutus/Portia and Caesar/Calpurnia.
Also a racebent one set in feudal Japan would be awesome too. Just saying.
January 2012
3 posts
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Silver Phoenix (Cindy Pon)
So I’m not even halfway through Silver Phoenix yet and I’m beginning to feel like it’s a waste of my time.
I mean, I bought it because how many fantasy novels are there set in fantasy-ancient China? Like, there’s Avatar (tv series, I know) set in fantasy-pan-Asia (and it’s not even written by an Asian, which I take issue with, because cultural appropriation, but I do...
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Legend (Marie Lu)
I finally, finally got my hands on this book, and damn, it was worth it.
Characters:
I found both Day and June to be wonderfully likable characters: they were smart, resourceful, and lively, though to be completely honest, they were both Mary-Sues to the max.
They’re both absolutely gorgeous (Day, despite being ethnically mostly Mongolian — which I appreciated, especially that...
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Things I Hate About Books #1
One of the things I absolutely detest about books set in the non-West (and by this, of course, I mean everywhere that is not Europe or the United States — since what is the “East” and the “Middle East” are only such as defined by Europe and America — we do live on a sphere, after all) and are about PoC (aka everyone who isn’t white) are the names. God, the...
December 2011
6 posts
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The King of Attolia - Megan Whalen Turner
I will never stop fangirling Irene. Or Gen. Or Helen or Sophos or the Magus. But mostly Irene. Because she’s one of my favourite Strong Female Characters Who Are Not Walking Hypersexualised Stereotypes. The other would be Maria Thorpe.
Where to begin with KoA? Where, oh where to begin? Probably by saying that you’ll never be safe from spoilers in this series. The Thief spoils KoA,...
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Are butterflies a cross-cultural symbol of...
IDK. After finishing Standoff, I treated myself to watching Ma Jiangle’s The Butterfly Lovers — and if you have any standards whatsoever, please don’t watch it. It’s awful. Absolutely awful.
But it got me thinking — the resurrection thing I can understand, in regards to the metamorphosis of the butterfly (it actually reminds me of the significance of the lotus in...
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Standoff at Tiananmen - Eddie Cheng
Can I have a congratulatory pat on the back? BECAUSE I. HAVE. FINISHED! Though how much I actually remember is a different story.
Trying to collect my thoughts about it is something of a different story, because had one thing gone differently, I might not even exist. So obviously, it’s something I feel strongly about, something I feel strongly connected to, beyond just the “human...
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The Importance of Being Ernest - Oscar Wilde
Coming as someone who is not actually a fan of Oscar Wilde’s writing (okay, fine, the only other thing I’ve attempted to read was Dorian Gray, and I could never get into it) so much as his person as portrayed through modern media (so shoot me), I loved The Importance of Being Ernest. (Also, I haven’t really thought critically about it yet — I know it’s a satire, etc,...
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The Significance of the West in "The Great Gatsby"...
+ Turner’s frontier thesis (if you look really hard). Just a few thoughts. (I was going to write an essay about this, but it is, to be honest, too much work, and I don’t want to end up re-re-rereading The Great Gatsby and turning into a sobbing mess over it again.)
It is interesting to consider that the American Western frontier has always been considered something of a manifestation...
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I don’t want to keep reading Standoff but my mom says she wants me to talk to/interview Eddie Cheng or Feng Congdie and I want to at least know the proceedings & Wikipedia is so unhelpful on this topic.
And Youtube videos dissolve into a paraphernalia of politically-charged ignorance (and honestly, it’s a really sensitive topic to my family and I don’t think I can stomach...
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“‘I am bound to you by a chain of iron unbendable, unbreakable…Even death shall...”
– Guinevere to Arthur -The Kingmaking by Hellen Hollick (via starry—eyed)
November 2011
12 posts
15 tags
my problem with white authors who write ethnic...
[NOTE: this is my personal opinion and i am in no way, shape, or form seeking to represent all poc. i can only be representative of myself. i speak about books about china/chinese culture because i am chinese, and that’s the culture i was raised in, and that’s the culture i know. in addition, i do not dislike all white authors or like all authors of colour, nor am i trying to tell...
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suckmyalcott reblogged your post: Why I hate people who hate Amy March (spoiler alert)
YOW, this is partially directed…my ‘Amy sucks’ post.
This was less directed at you (although I think that last point was pointed at you? I don’t quite remember) and more directed at a lot of the senseless, illogical hating I see on TvTropes and the Little Women tag (Amy ruined Jo’s life, Jo...
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Why I hate people who hate Amy March (spoiler...
This instead of my reading Standoff at Tiananmen.
But I was in Barnes and Nobel the other day, and this one book caught my eye — it was one of those “let’s go back in time to a fictional novel!” pieces — you know. The kind that’s been done and overdone with Romeo and Juliet (which usually completely misses the point of the play in the first place) —...
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Standoff at Tiananmen -- Slow Going
I don’t know if it’s the writing or the topic or a lack of time or what, but it’s taking me a surprisingly long time to get through Eddie Cheng’s Standoff at Tiananmen. I mean, half the time I’m just confused (wait, was the Shen Tong or Wuer Kaixi or Liu Geng or who?) because he’s taken a herculean task in trying to tackle such a complex topic and condensing it...
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I want to write something about white authors...
And I’m wondering a few things:
How fair would I be? I know now that my feelings are valid, whatever they may be, based on my experiences as an ethnic minority, but I hate to sound confrontational or douche-y, nor am I trying to be judgemental or stop people from writing what they want to write.
How draining would it be? Every time I write something like this (whether it be cultural...
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The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera)
I have to admit I returned the book to the library before I was finished because I was bored to death with it. (In other words, that’s my excuse to myself about a short and shallow review. I’ll probably come back to this book when I’m older though. And after all, that’s what this whole idea is — to catalogue/express opinions on every book I read. So for...
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Betraying Season (Marissa Doyle)
A few years ago (actually, I feel like it was only earlier this year, so it might have been a few months ago) I checked out the Bewitching Season, to which this was a sequel, and to be honest, I could not stand the main character, Persephone, so I put it down.
I have to say that I like Pen (Penelope) a lot more than her twin, but the book itself is only middling. It’s on par with a lot of...