Reviews
Books
Inside the Forbidden City
An Inspirational Tour of the Forbidden City by Yang Zi provides readers with an insight into the world's biggest and most intact imperial palace.
Like previous books, Yang Zi again introduces the history and sights through an unlikely protagonist: an ant with a young girl's face.
The author tries to convey an air of repression that the emperors, concubines, maids, eunuchs and other people must have felt when living inside this enormous complex with little greenery.
The artist does a good job of depicting the details of the architectural splendor, while revealing some interesting historical anecdotes.
Many gates in the Forbidden City have no thresholds, because the Last Emperor Puyi ordered them to be removed, so he could ride his bicycle freely throughout the compound.
This book is quite different from the picture albums that discuss history with a straight face. While the artist's strong opinions show on many aspects, it is still a worthwhile tool for better understanding the country's paramount landmark.
An Inspirational Tour of the Forbidden City in English by Yang Zi, Foreign Languages Press, 78 yuan ($10) Liu Jun
Living in heaven
Painter Zhou Wenyong does a good job documenting the traditional ways of earning a living in Suzhou, of East China's Jiangsu Province.
Suzhou is known as a "heavenly city" in history because of it ethereal scenery, fertile lands and rich folk culture. However, fast urban development has driven many of the old folk artists out of business.
With his ink and brush, Zhou seeks to record the disappearing grassroots art forms. While sometimes repetitious in setting, the 100 mini-paintings provide glimpses into how the common residents in the "Oriental Venice" once lived.
Unlike traditional ink and water paintings, Zhou incorporates Western techniques such as lighting and perspective in his works. "The old ways of living in Suzhou are in strong contrast with the modern industrial life, as the former features the beauty of age and simplicity," says Zhou.
The Old Lifestyle in Suzhou, in English, by Zhou Wenyong, Foreign Languages Press, 2006, 78 yuan ($10) LJ
Fat of the land
"Why [do] Americans eat so much bad food on purpose?' This question provokes novelist Barbara Kingsolver's determination to live solely on local food (home-grown if possible) for a year.
She wants to eat local produce, to return to cycles dictated by the weather rather than by Wal-Mart. The emphasis on waiting, acceptance and renunciation is almost religious. Growing your own involves negotiating the swing between dearth and glut.
As Kingsolver walks through the year, her partner, Steven, contributes campaigning sidebars about slow-food activism and industrial perfidy, while her eldest daughter cooks up some rather tasty recipes. They may all be singing to the choir.
Her best writing is evocative, but the struggle to produce all this food is surprisingly straightforward. So, thank goodness for the recalcitrant turkeys and their wayward mating habits.
Kingsolver may rhapsodize, but on livestock she refuses sentimentality, drawing firm lines between pets and dinner. When the turkey chicks arrive, she's worried that her young daughter plans to name the birds, until she hears the names: Mr Thanksgiving, Mr Dinner, Mr Sausage...
The kitchen is even more central to this book than the field, as Kingsolver extends all the domestic skills that won her a 1972 Betty Crocker Homemaker of Tomorrow award.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver, with Steven L Hopp and Camille Kingsolver, $16.17
The Guardian
(China Daily 07/10/2007 page20)
