Reviews

Books

Father-son guidance

Four years ago, young novelist Sun Rui's maiden work and his vivid depiction of puppy love work Living Like Grass (Caoyang Nianhua) reportedly sold more than one million copies. In his latest work I Am Your Son (Wo Shi Ni Erzi), Sun tackles the evolving, subtle father-son relationship in a single parent family in Beijing spanning three decades.

"If you are going to have a baby boy in your family, this novel might function as a guide book to a successful father," the Beijing native says jokingly.

"Or, you may view it as an account of the 'battles' and final reconciliation between a father and son, which seems to me an inexhaustible theme many writers and filmmakers have got their hands on."

The book is based partly on his own experience. With a deft use of humorous Beijing dialect, the 27-year-old writer portrays, in a matter-of-fact manner, his protagonist Yang Fan as a Beijing boy who is self-centric, precocious, rebellious but fragile in face of setbacks.

However, what impresses one most might be the father Yang Shulin, an easy-going lathe operator in a small factory who ends up being laid off.

I Am Your Son, by Sun Rui, Changjiang Literature & Arts Publishing House, 23 yuan ($3), 2007 Zhu Linyong

On the dance stage

For lovers of Chinese culture, researcher Jiang Dong's Contemporary Chinese Dance, newly published in English, might be a useful tool. With plenty of pictures, the book offers readers a panoramic view of a myriad of local dance genres and major works.

Dance is believed to have evolved for some 5,000 years in China. The book puts Chinese dance into three categories: folk dancing, classical dancing and Chinese ballet. Each genre is explained on their origins, the attributes, typical works, notable dancers, choreographers, and influential troupes. For some famous dancing works, the author also offers synopses.

Popularly dancing works in recent years on China's TV or stage are all included in the book. Among them are the glamorous Kwan-yin with a Thousand Hands, performed by a group of disabled Chinese dancers; Zhang Yimou's stage version of the award-winning movie Raise the Red Lantern; the poetic dancing pieces by Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan; and experimental works choreographed by Hong Kong artist Willy Tsao.

Contemporary Chinese Dance, by Jiang Dong, New Star Press, 98 yuan ($13), 2007 ZLY

Not the president's men

Every American generation looks at history through the lens of its own preoccupations. If a book on those towering World War II generals Dwight Eisenhower, George Marshall and Douglas MacArthur had been published in the late 1960s or early '70s, at the zenith of anti-Vietnam War sentiment, many readers would have found it (in a catchphrase of the time) "not relevant." How about now?

Well, it would be difficult for even the most nonpolitical reader to scan more than a few pages of Stanley Weintraub's 15 Stars or Mark Perry's Partners in Command without grimly noting the gargantuan difference between those sunlit accounts of our World War II commanders and the more troubling reports about the United States generals in the Iraq war.

These books are both competent studies. Neither breaks any notably new ground. Yet, though told before, the story of such incandescent, flawed men and their rivalries, tensions and triumphs will always attract readers. And as we absorb the worst news from Iraq, these two books allow us to ponder the crucial relationship that exists between a president and his top commanders.

15 Stars: Eisenhower, MacArthur, Marshall: Three Generals Who Saved the American Century, by Stanley Weintraub, Free Press, $19.80, 2007

Partners In Command: George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower in War and Peace, by Mark Perry, The Penguin Press, $19.77, 2007.

The New York Times Syndicate

(China Daily 08/21/2007 page20)