The way to understand my soul 

往事并不如烟
 --by 章诒和
    这本书已经成为中国和海外华人圈子里的畅销书了。最早听说这本书是在<<今日>>杂志上连载的“最后的贵族”这一篇。写的是康同璧母女。 后来买来了书，读了全部的六篇，最喜欢的还是“最后的贵族”这一篇。说最喜欢，既包括喜欢张诒和的文笔，更多的是喜欢康同璧母女这对人物。文革的事情对于我们这些文革后出生的人来说实在是没有任何的印象，所以看起来自然和经历过文革的人的感受不同。没有他们那么深切，也少有共鸣。 “性格即命运”，这话在她们母女身上真是印证了啊。贵族到底是什么样子的，这大概是现代人很想要知道的。事实是，现在的中国已经没有贵族了，连贵族阶层都彻底的消亡了。很多西方学者认为一个社会需要有一个“meritocracy"的阶层，这些人不用担心衣食住行，受过良好的教育，他们将是许多社会生活的推动者和典范，他们中可能涌现一些纯思考者和理想主义者。中国有钱阶层到是越来越壮阔，但是没人算是贵族。一夜之间暴富不是没有可能，要真成为贵族不会少于三代的积累。我们的革命把八旗的贵族推翻了，把军阀的贵族打倒了。共产的革命把工商业的贵族革了尾巴，文化革命把精神上的贵族也统统扫地出门了。我们还剩下什么呢，没有贵族的平民社会。

中国之毁灭 --中国生态崩溃紧急报告 (China's Ecological Winter)
  --by 郑义    (available at www.mirrorbooks.com )
     It's such an alarming book. Before reading the book, I'm aware that the ecological situation in China is not optimistic. Everybody knows the pollution, the shortage of forest and farm land, drinking water shortage, ill weather conditions and huge energy and resource waste in factories. Nevertheless, I never realized that the situation is on the edge of total demolition. We are so short sighted. We exploit whatever resource we can reach, we use them all.  We leave nothing for the next generation. Absolutely nothing except huge debts to the nature. We tell ourselves that "it's fine, there will always be something left." But based on the current consumption rate, will there be anything left for the next generation? It comes to such a point that even immediate remedy wouldn't reverse or slow down the deterioration.  After reading the book, I'm not surprised to hear about so many flood, muddy wind and record-setting high temperature in China. It will come, sooner or later. We will bear the result of our own behavior. Maybe not us, we're lucky that we may not be long living. Our offspring will surely bear the evil-fruit of our behavior. Our children will cry out that they prefer to bear the huge foreign debt as the Americans than to bear the huge debt from mother nature. 
    The author collected all his data in Princeton's East Asian Library. How sad it is that all these information about China is not available in China, it can only be seen in some other place. 

李鸿章传 (Biography of Li, Hongzhang)
 --by 梁启超
      Li, Hongzhang is a very controversial character in modern Chinese history. He was appointed minister of foreign affairs, later prime minister. I view him as a standing post which holds the sky for the royal family. He has made extraordinary progress in terms of learning from the western world and using western technologies to strengthen the Chinese society.  Every small step forward is extremely difficult in a conservative government that doesn't welcome changes.  Among the people on the stage, he was a character different from any other. Indeed, at that time, none of the players are the same. Some promote total westernization, trying to overthrow the royal family and build a republic. Some stand by the royal family strongly and push the royal family to establish new policy to adapt to changes. It's a bazar time, but also an excited era. Li also made his mistake, one of them was fatal which made the tiny neighboring country win the war. He is disliked by the government because he doesn't have complete obedience. He's disliked by the people, because he has to represent the government to sign those humiliating treaty. But he was the post that holds everything together. When he collapsed , the imperial temple collapsed with him. 
    The author of the book was a great scholar. This was one of his best articles. He put the person in context horizontally and vertically and his writing is especially concise and tasteful. 

       从两个蛋开始 (From two eggs)
      -- by 杨争光

 Disgrace
  -- by J. M. Coetzee
     I fell in love with the book. Despite the slightly sophisticated vocabulary, the book grasp me tightly. We're too easy to assume that everybody else live just like us. We assume that they have what we have, they laugh at what we laugh, they cry when we cry, they live their everyday life just like we do. Until somebody shows you how different life can be. Being an author from South Africa, Coetzee told a story in a different setting. Stories can be vastly different if we change the location of where they happen. Lives are non-identical everywhere. We can never fully understand somebody else's life without living it. Don't assume and have some respect. 

         First, Break All the Rules
          -- by Marcus Buckingham, Curt Coffman

       Who moved my cheese
        -- by Spenser Johnson

       The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
        -- by Douglas Adams

 All About Lily Chou-Chou (movie)
    I saw this movie last summer in Shanghai Film Festival. It was the most impressive movie among all the selections. The soundtrack of the movie is surprisingly beautiful. It's why I thought about the movie now. It's such a pity that I can't find a soundtrack CD of the movie. Young people in China becomes more and more fond of Japanese youth movie recently. The freshness, innocence are so vividly portrayed. In comparison, there has been quite a while that no fresh youth movie is in Chinese theater. 

       www.rpbridge.net 

          Bridge site. Recently I've cultivated myself another hobby -- Contract Bridge. It's quite challenging and fun.

        The importance of being earnest 
        -- by Oscar Wilde     

   I had read a lot of modern English literature in the class. This drama by Oscar Wilde certainly pressed a mark in my mind. Very witty, very irony, very English. Exaggeration in drama sometime makes it more appealing than novel.

    

   [Back]