Book Reviews: L.A.Times may 25,2008

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

The most recent issue of the L.A Times Book Review section has two very interesting reviews:

"Beijing Coma", by Ma Jian, reviewed by Christine Smallwood, and "China's New Confucianism: Politics and Everyday life in a Changing Society", by Daniel Bell and reviewed by Michael Levitin.

"Beijing Coma" focuses on the Tiananmen massacre. According to Smallwood "...Ma wrote "Beijing Coma" in part to preserve a past that the party has largely wiped out." Ma explains that "...'since the events of Tiananmen, the generations that have followed have no history'". "..'The only memories they have are those that have been poured into their heads by the party.'"

Levitin sees "...the core of Bell's book is speculation on the long-term effects of the Confucian revival. "..'It is not entirely fanciful to surmise that the Chinese Communist Party were be relabeled the Chinese Confucian Party in the next couple of decades.'" He remarks "...that 'new left' intellectuals envision the eventual replacement of Marxist ideology with something like a Confucian Socialist Republic."

Interesting food for discussiion. What will China's society and government be like 20 years from now?[Edit by="mwhittemore on May 28, 3:57:08 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

My school has purchased several class sets of Thousand Pieces of Gold, by Ruth Anne Lum McCunn. The back cover reads in part:

Lalu's father calls his 13yr old daughter his treasure, his "thousand pieces of gold," yet when famine strikes northern China in 1871 he is forced to sell her. [. . .] This masterfully told biographical novel was adopted into the American Playhouse motion picture starring Rosalind Chao. . . .

I'm thinking of using it in my class--if only as a springboard for other disscussion. Has anyone read this novel or seen this film?
-Laura

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