I'm starting to devour books and movies related to China, so please let me know if you have a good one to recommend. Lisa See is my current favorite author and I'm re-reading her novels with a greater sense of understanding. I have a long list of Chinese movies on my Netflix queue.
I have also, inexplicably, decided that now is the time to learn to cook Asian food. Now, when I finally have Thai food at my fingertips. When I have the center of Vietnamese food right next door. When I have so much free time. Don't ask me why, but I finally stopped being intimidated by the long recipes with unfamiliar ingredients and bought an Asian cookbook. I made my first Thai coconut curry a few weeks ago, and it was darn good! I am getting really excited about exploring Asia, one meal at a time.
Today I ventured to Grand Mart for the first time and came home with some basics for my first few meals (the cookbook explained the ingredients and helped me know what to choose and where to find it- super helpful).
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The kids, after years of pickiness, are starting to branch out and at least TRY things. I'm determined to have them eating some Chinese food before we arrive- otherwise, it will be a rough cultural entry. And they are doing pretty well in their Chinese classes!
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Life is good in our neck of the woods. Hope the same for all of you.
5 comments:
I have a couple recommendations for you!
Books:
Wild Swans by Jung Chang (Covers basically the last century of Chinese history as told through the lives and experiences of the author, her mother, and her grandmother.)
Life and Death in Shanghai by Cheng Nien (This is the first of (now) many memoirs of life during the Cultural Revolution, and this is by far the best-written. The author is very well educated, and she not only shares her personal experiences, but she adeptly ties in the whole political story behind why everything was going on.)
The Private Life of Chairman Mao by Li Zhisui (After reading this, I never again bought a kitchy piece of Mao memorabilia, as he was truly one of the worst dictators in our world's recent history.)
Chinese Lessons by John Pomfret (The first few chapters cover the author's classmates' experiences during the cultural revolution. Afterwards, though, he follows his classmates' lives through the 90s and now, and it's amazing to see how the red guards and those whose primary "education" consisted of studying Mao's book and learning from the peasants are now the ones running modern-day China.)
Movies:
Hero (Though the Emperor speaks in Classical Chinese, which won't help your Mandarin much. It's a cool movie, though)
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Lots of Kung Fu talk, so it's not quite as useful for language study. But beautiful Chinese storytelling)
To Live (Okay, this is part of my obsession with recent Chinese history. It's the story of a family through the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Fascinating, and the first movie I ever cried through the subtitles. Good language practice.)
The Road Home (A sweet romantic story, less intense than so many other Chinese movies. It's a great look at normal life in the countryside, though. Good language practice.)
Okay... those are the ones I highly recommend. I've seen others and read others, but these are the ones that stand out to me. And you can see I'm a little fascinated/obsessed/horrified by the last century or so of Chinese history.
And we still need to get together! :)
Thanks for all the suggestions Chelsea! I just saw To Live last week in area studies- oh my goodness, I was wiping away the tears. I understood barely a word, so I'm planning to watch it again in a few mos. Wild Swans is a good one for history. I haven't read/seen the others- thanks again! And yes, I just can't seem to find a weekend that is not crazy!
Henry Kissinger, On China.
Rob Gifford, China Road.
I must be crazy...I posted a message with a question about having your husband as an EFM and can't remember where I wrote it!
Hello,
I just recently started reading your blog, and I am interested in becoming a FS officer. I am doing a research paper for one of my high school courses regarding this occupation. It would be amazing if I could ask you a couple of questions related to this career. Is there any possible way I could reach you outside of this comment box if I were to interview you? Thank you so much!
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