Recommended reading
If you want to learn more about China by reading, here are some of my favorite books:
Red China Blues by Jan Wong, a Chinese Canadian who went to China as a teenager, then returned for college, staying on through the Cultural Revolution. She came back as a foreign correspondent for a Toronto newspaper and wrote one of the best accounts of the Tiananmen massacre. She is very easy and entertaining to read. River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler. He spent two years as an English teacher. Good reading. China Live by Mike Chinoy, CNN’s Beijing bureau chief during the Tiananmen massacre. Easy to read, very riveting account of what happened, as well as what it was like to cover news iin the Middle Kingdom. Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China by Paul Theroux. An interesting readable account of train travel in China just a few decades ago. Travel then bears no resemblance to the trains of today. The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. A classic. What else can you say? Yak Butter & Black Tea by Wayne Brackenbury. His report of traveling through southwestern China. A good read. The Long March by Ed Jocelyn and Andy McEwan. I worked with the authors on my second tour of duty at China Daily. I came back to the United States; they went on to retrace Mao Zedong’s route in the Long March through China in the 1930s. |
Marching with Mao by William Lindesay. I worked with Will my first year at China Daily. He retraced the Long March route at least 20 years before Ed and Andy. Same route, but very different approaches to the walk. Wild Swan: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chiang. This is the story of Chiang’s grandmother, who was a concubine to a warload; her mother, who lived through the cultureal revolution, and herself. A really good autobiographical read. _____________ Check out the Chinese history page for recommended reads on my favorite history books. _____________ You can buy these books and others I recommend from Cheryl’s China Amazon.com store. |
Music
The Chinese make beautiful music. I really enjoy their pop music from the 1990s — the slow, dreamy ballads of unrequited love, and the peppy tunes which incite us to get a move on. Of course, I don’t understand a word they’re singing; I just find the music easy to listen to.
Speaking of easy listening, these two songs are very famous in China, and are among by favorites:
Yellow River Concerto is stunningly beautiful when played by a philharmonic orchestra. It is probably the most famous piece of music ever written in China. It was written to rally the Chinese people following the Japanese invasion of their country in 1937. I first heard when Richard Clayderman played at Beijing's Capital Gymnasium. He was accompanied by 12 young women, wearing long pink formals and playing erhus.
Butterfly Lovers Concerto is another beautifully written piece. Chen Lu skated to this piece in a couple of Winter Olympics ice skating competitions.
You can buy these CDs from Cheryl’s China Amazon.com store.
Speaking of easy listening, these two songs are very famous in China, and are among by favorites:
Yellow River Concerto is stunningly beautiful when played by a philharmonic orchestra. It is probably the most famous piece of music ever written in China. It was written to rally the Chinese people following the Japanese invasion of their country in 1937. I first heard when Richard Clayderman played at Beijing's Capital Gymnasium. He was accompanied by 12 young women, wearing long pink formals and playing erhus.
Butterfly Lovers Concerto is another beautifully written piece. Chen Lu skated to this piece in a couple of Winter Olympics ice skating competitions.
You can buy these CDs from Cheryl’s China Amazon.com store.
Contact Cheryl
Copyright 2012 by Cheryl Probst. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2012 by Cheryl Probst. All rights reserved.