Thursday, September 17, 2015

Book Review - "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Marie Remarque




This book was first published in 1929, and by the time the German Nazis came to power in 1933, it became a banned book and printed copies were burned (the excuse being that it was a betrayal of the German front-line soldier). The author subsequently went to live in Switzerland and in 1938 was stripped of his German citizenship.

The novel is a heartrending account of trench warfare during the First World War told in first-person from the perspective of the narrator, a nineteen-year old German soldier who has just been drafted into the army along with several of his schoolmates. Throughout the story, the reader is let in on the narrator's intimate thoughts and emotions about the horrors of death and bodily wounds, the necessity of hardening of the senses for the sake of survival and sanity, the dependence on solidarity as a means of escape from constant agony of terror, and the futility of war itself. I loved the author's generous sprinkling of imagery in his descriptive prose.

".....our bodies are like thin membranes stretched over barely repressed madness, holding in what would otherwise be an unrestrained outburst of endless screams."

"Because one thing has become clear to me: you can cope with all the horror as long as you simply duck thinking about it - but it will kill you if you try to come to terms with it."

"We didn't break; we adapted. The fact that we were only twenty helped us to do that, even though it made other things so difficult. But most important of all, we developed a firm, practical feeling of solidarity, which grew, on the battlefield, into the best thing that the war produced - comradeship in arms."

"How pointless all human thoughts, words and deeds must be, if things like this are possible! Everything must have been fraudulent and pointless if thousands of years of civilization weren't even able to prevent this river of blood, couldn't stop these torture chambers existing in their hundreds of thousands. Only a military hospital can really show you what war is."

When I closed the book, I couldn't help asking the question: do we ever learn from history?


Saturday, September 12, 2015

Empress Wu Zetian Hardly an Exemplary Chinese Female Role Model


British broadcaster BBC Two has aired two episodes of a 4-part documentary series which records the history of women from the bronze age right up to the present. I watched Episode 1 "Civilization" on Youtube last week and have just watched Episode 2 "Separation". Since Episode 2 is almost entirely about China and Chinese women, with a little about Japan, Vietnam and Korea, I've embedded below the Youtube clip of this episode for sharing.

I have a couple of brief comments on this episode. Firstly, in the opening scene, the renowned Song dynasty painting Along the River during the Qingming Festival (清明上河圖) by Song painter Zhang Zeduan is featured. The narrator erroneously says that the painting is a "fantasy image of the world the Emperor wanted his China to be". Of course her focal point on the insignificant and inferior role of women, who are conspicuous by their absence, is not incorrect. However, the painting is by no means a "fantasy image". It is in fact a realistic depiction of the landscape and real life, both rustic and urban, inside the capital Bianjing (now Kaifeng in Henan Province) during the Northern Song era. Details of daily life activities that are portrayed in the painting are corroborated by Song literary writings, the most eminent of which is a memoir written by Meng Yuanlao, titled The Eastern Capital: A Dream of Splendor (東京夢華錄).

While I completely agree with Dr. Foreman's view that Confucianism cast a long shadow on Chinese women's status in the family and in society, I'm baffled by her elevating Empress Wu Zetian to a female role model status. I do understand her motive in trying to paint the Empress in a meritocratic light from a feminist's angle, but the whitewashing of her vileness and brutality is, in my view, not warranted at all. Wu Zetian was by all accounts a viperish and vengeful mass murderer, not sparing even her own infant daughter and adult son (if what most historians believe to be true is in fact true). Perhaps picking Empress Wu as an exemplary female role model is less than ideal. I would've chosen Mongolian-born, free-spirited Qing Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, who ruled not by power and suppression, but by educating her imperial offspring about open-mindedness, compassion and tolerance.

On the whole though, I find both Episode 1 and Episode 2 of the documentary informative and educational, and would highly commend Dr. Foreman for her efforts.










  

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Book Review - "The Odyssey" by Homer


The version that I read was the Robert Fagles translation and I liked the simplicity and the music of the language. It was like a fantasy story told in the lyrics of a song. I enjoyed both the verse-like form and the roller-coaster narrative, some episodes of which incidentally called to mind similar scenes in the Chinese classical novel Journey to the West (for example, the episode about Nymph Calypso keeping Odysseus a captive is very similar to the scene where a lair of seductive spider spirits want to capture and enslave the monk Xuanzang).

I've always been intrigued by Greek mythology. The way the gods and goddesses of the heavens interact with each other and with the mortals strikes me as illogical and unreasonable sometimes, and at other times compassionate, egalitarian and fair. The odd message seems to be that even the powerful immortals are full of flaws much of the time, let alone helpless mortals. There is a distinct humbling quality to it.

This fundamental work in the Western canon of literature is a must-read for classics lovers as well as fantasy and mythology aficionados.

I look forward to reading The Iliad, to which The Odyssey is a sequel, and I'm going to select Fagles' translation. Some years ago I watched on TV the movie "Troy" with Brad Pitt as Achilles, and I loved it.

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Chinese History and Me


In my school days, Chinese History was my favorite subject, apart from Chinese Literature and English Literature. Over recent years, I've developed a passion for reading historical fiction set in different parts of the world. While doing research on Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang for my historical epic, which I've just finished writing, my passion for Chinese History was rekindled. For me as a writer, the distant past is a hidden treasure trove of countless riveting human stories, in particular China's dynastic past.

Several years ago I read Xiao Jiansheng's Chinese History Revisited (中國文明的反思), which I found emotion-evoking as well as thought-provoking. I've just stumbled upon an English translation of the Foreword to the book and would like to share an excerpt of it:-



"In the 1980s, when I was writing the biography Xiong Xiling, Chinese Premier of the Republican Period, I started to systematically re-examine Chinese history. In those days just after China's reforms started, many continued to view history in terms of class struggle, forcing it into this straitjacket of revolutionary proletarian struggle even though it did not apply. Everyone was either a revolutionary or reactionary, even though these overly simplistic distinctions were clearly irrelevant. I reacted against this kind of analysis, and thought a more deeply thought analysis of Chinese history was needed.

Over the past twenty years, studies of Chinese history have improved much. But, on many major questions, the official versions of Chinese history have not made major improvements, and it could be said that they are even incoherent and inconsistent. Many Chinese are unwilling to take a hard look at Chinese history; this means that they do not have a clear understanding of our accomplishments, and are not able to learn from our own mistakes. There is not a clear consensus on what we should throw away, and what we should keep and preserve. As a result, what should have been discarded has been kept, and the core assets of our culture have been thrown away and treated as garbage.

For example, in ancient Chinese times, Laozi's (Lao-tzu) philosophy of respecting and following the ways of heaven, and governing without force; the Confucianists' philosophy of love for fellow humans and treating others as one would have them treat you; the Moists philosophy of universal love, equality and anti-violence were pushed aside as being overly idealistic and unrealistic. Instead violent authoritarianism and the way of the marshes (translators note: local powers which took over local responsibility for order when central authority was weak) were instead praised and prospered. Because the best parts of Chinese culture were not preserved, Chinese culture and civilization did not develop on a healthy path.

Every people needs to have a correct understanding of its own history and culture. Only through this understanding can it judge what is good and what is bad, setting it on a healthy path of development. It is very hard for a people which does not have a clear grasp of its past to have a bright future. If it does not have this understanding and consensus about its past, how can it face the future with confidence?

Even to this day, most Chinese view the Spring and Autumn Warring States period as a chaotic and dark period in Chinese history. If it was indeed such a dark period, then why was this a period where many competing schools of thought and philosophy competed in an open market of ideas? Why did so many philosophers, political and military theorists, scientists and writers flourish during this period? Why did Chinese society grow so much on the political, economic, and cultural levels all at the same time?

Even to this day, many view the Emperor Qinshihuangdi's political unification of China in the Qin Dynasty as a great political act, even though it was a violently totalitarian state. But these people fail to ask that if the Qin unification was such a great act, then why was it that China no longer produced such great political thinkers such as Laozi, Confucius and Mencius? Why has China been condemned to cycles of violent change which have repeated regularly for more than 2,000 years? Why did the Chinese live so miserably under the Qin Dynasty? And why did the Qin Dynasty have such a short life, and in the end, collapse so violently?

Even to this day, many view the Song Dynasty as authoritarian, corrupt, backward and weak, negating any of its contributions. But they forget to ask that if the Song Dynasty was so authoritarian, corrupt, backward and weak, why was it one of the leading cultures and civilizations of its time? Why did it produce gunpowder, the compass, movable type printing, just to name a few of its accomplishments? Why did Song political thought and its bureaucracy focus on worrying before the rest of the people, and celebrating after the rest of the people? Why did the Song produce the great concept of 人生自古誰無死,留取丹心照汗?

Even to this day, many praise the rules of the Qing emperors Kangxi and Qianlong as great periods of Chinese imperial history. But they forget to ask that if this was indeed such a great period in Chinese history, why was it that only 41 years later, China would come under attack from Britain, giving up Hong Kong to British rule, and having to recognize unequal treaties which humiliated China? Why did China become the sick man of Asia, with Chinese men wearing their hair in pigtails like idiots? Why did Gong Zizhen write 九州生氣持風雷,萬馬齊喑究可衰,我勸天公重抖擻,不拘一格降人才。

Now, many Chinese speak of a "revival of the great Chinese culture and civilization". But when they speak of this, have they really thought through what this great Chinese culture and civilization really is? Where has this greatness shone through? What are the parts of this civilization which they want to show? Who is really clear about this, and understands the real issues? If we are not even clear about what are the great parts of our own culture, then how can we even begin to talk about revival?"