Melody's Reading Corner: Chinese Fiction

Showing posts with label Chinese Fiction. Show all posts

Melody

Hello! What've you been up to while I was away for a little blogging break? I hope you've read some good books, or have done something fun and memorable. Me? I'd had a little vacation with my family at Kuala Lumpur, doing nothing but eat, shop, explore and sleep. I didn't read despite I brought two books with me. I know, it's unbelievable for a book lover but I was too tired to do anything after a day's outing (all those walking about . . . which was a good thing. Or maybe I'm getting old, haha.) Anyways, I'd had fun and now that I'm back, I've lots of catching up to do . . . such as reading, commenting and blog-hopping (and of course, other routine stuff in life.) And speaking of reading, I've several (it's an understatement) library books which I'd borrowed before and after my vacation trip. I don't know if I'm able to finish them all before the due date, so we shall see.

My current read is a combination of mystery, fantasy and romance titled (神都听见了吗?) (Did God hear it?) by Song Ya Shu (宋亚树). The story centers around two protagonists, a forensic pathologist and a numerologist specialises in feng shui and warding off the so-called otherworldly evil spirits. Their path cross when a death involving dark magic was suspected, and despite their personality and opinions clash, they soon realise that they need each other to help the police find the perpetrator as more similar cases began to arise. I'd finished reading the first book and am almost done with the second book of this duology. I loved it a lot and I'm hoping this would be translated into English in the near future. (Don't you love those covers?)

Off topic and out of curiosity, do you read the author's afterword (or acknowledgement and any other information) first before reading the book? I do, and I especially love to read about the author's thoughts and experiences when writing about that book. I'd only stop reading when there are warnings of spoilers ahead. What about you?

Finally, I'll be doing a last buddy read with Lark before the year ends and the book is Lock Every Door by Riley Sager. Of course, we'll be doing more joint reading in the coming year and I'm always looking forward to them as it's so much fun reading together with a friend. I'll end this post with a few pictures from my vacation.

© 2019 Melody's Reading Corner (https://mel-reading-corner.blogspot.sg/), All Rights Reserved. If you are reading this post from other site(s), please take note that this post and the attached pictures have been stolen and are used without permission.

Labels: Books, Chinese Fiction, General, Reading, Vacation 8 comments |

Urban Legend II bk. 8: The Devil Fish [都市传说第二部8: 人面鱼]

Melody

奇幻基地 | January 2019 | 320 pgs

Source: Library

This is book 8 of the second urban legend series by Ling Jing (笭菁). All her books read as stand-alones and her stories are based on various urban legends added with some imaginations and other elements of her own.

Note: The main characters in this series are different from the first series as the author felt a change for new blood is necessary to offer a new and different perspective.

Urban Legend origin: This is a well-known Taiwanese urban legend happened in 1995. A group of five men was grilling a fish they caught and before consuming it, they heard a voice asking them, "Is the fish meat tasty?" To their horror, they realised the voice came from the fish and what most terrifying was, they could see the shape of an old woman's face on its body.

Summary: After the horror of the urban legend episode, the Taiwanese were wary of consuming fishes for a while but there are still some people, especially tourists, who are fascinated by the tale and are keen to visit the place where the event happened. When a group of visitors finally witnessed the devil fish, this sparks the curiosity of the citizens if there's a hidden message behind this strange occurrence, especially if it doesn't come in one but tonnes and tonnes of them could be seen swimming near the shore; some even bearing the faces of their deceased loved ones. Out of reminiscence, some families began to keep those who remind them of their late family members as pets, but little do they know that they've unleashed an unthinkable nightmare upon themselves.

My thoughts: After reading this book, I did a little Googling and found a few videos which show the said devil fish. I've to admit it did look a little like there was a human face on its body. Onto the book, aside from all the horrors, it also states a bit about the environmental issues and how pollutions are threatening the lives of the sea living animals. I think this is one of the important subjects we've to look into and reflect upon alongside with the global warming issue. Overall, I thought this was actually quite a sad story, whatwith the environmental issues and the characters who are reminded of their deceased loved ones.

Note: This is a scheduled post as I'm currently taking a short break off of blogging. Comments and blog-hopping will resume once I'm back from my break. Have fun and happy reading! 📚

Labels: 3.5 stars, Book Review, Chinese Fiction, Horror, Mystery 6 comments |

Urban Legend II bk. 5: The Collector [都市传说第二部5: 收藏家]

Melody

奇幻基地 | May 2018 | 304 pgs

Source: Library

This is book 5 of the second urban legend series by Ling Jing (笭菁). All her books read as stand-alones and her stories are based on various urban legends added with some imaginations and other elements of her own.

Note: The main characters in this series are different from the first series as the author felt a change for new blood is necessary to offer a new and different perspective.

Urban Legend origin: Anatoly Moskvin, a Russian philologist, historian and linguist, was arrested in 2011 for exhuming several dead girls bodies (aged between three and fifteen) from local graveyards before mummifying the bodies himself, had them dressed up and posed them around his home.

Summary: Young girls are being abducted and despite the police searches and investigations, they came up with nothing. It's as if these girls had vanished into thin air. When a member of the urban legend society discovered that the tomb of her late niece was being vandalised, it didn't cross her mind that someone was trying to dig up the body until the members stumbled upon a dark shadow behaving suspiciously around the graveyard one night. Their discovery led them for further investigations, and they soon have a suspect who seemed to fit the bill of the bodies stealer but they couldn't dismiss the thought that things have been going on too smoothly for them. Did they catch the wrong person?

My thoughts: This was such a horrifying story! And I don't only mean the dead bodies but the thought of someone going all the way of digging and dressing them up and treat them like live persons! Super creepy! That said, the story also added a mystery angle so aside from the horrors, the reader wouldn't know about the perpetrator and his motives until towards the end. I thought I'd guessed the perpetrator correctly but apparently I was in for a good surprise. Once again, the author has portrayed the meticulous and resourceful side of the characters and I've to say I like them more as I follow the series.

Labels: 4 stars, Book Review, Chinese Fiction, Horror, Mystery 10 comments |

Urban Legend II bk. 4: Food Delivery [都市传说第二部4: 外送]

Melody

奇幻基地 | February 2018 | 304 pgs

Source: Library

This is book 4 of the second urban legend series by Ling Jing (笭菁). All her books read as stand-alones and her stories are based on various urban legends with some imaginations and other elements of her own.

Note: The main characters in this series are different from the first series as the author felt a change for new blood is necessary to offer a new and different perspective.

Urban Legend origin: Hong Kong, 1989. An eatery received a food order call and had one of their staff to deliver the food. However, the boss discovered some hell bank notes among the stack of money he'd collected the next day. The same incident happened the following day and thinking the staff was playing a prank on him, he decided to make the delivery himself and had ensured it's genuine money he collected. He kept the money aside from the others but the next day what he found was, as you guessed, hell bank notes. He reported this incident to the police and this led to the discovery of four corpses in the apartment. But what most shocking was although the forensic concluded these bodies had been dead for a week, the food found inside their stomach were recent. And the hell bank notes had the fingerprints of the same deceased. The report later revealed they died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Summary: When one of the characters encountered the same incident as the urban legend origin, the members of the Urban Legend Society decided that they'd visit the delivery address again for further investigation. However, the place couldn't be found. Before this, there are news of some delivery staff who had gone missing and they wondered if the two are related. When they did find the place again, they discovered there's more than meets the eye surrounding the death of the deceased and their guess is murder. But they didn't realise that they'd stepped into another dimension until later and they've to find their way back or they'd be trapped within forever.

My thoughts: This story was scary from the origin's perspective. Imagine the eatery's boss suspected nothing and have the staff continued to deliver the food, does that mean the case will never surface? Onto the fiction, I think the feature of the other dimension connects well with the urban legend origin. What appeared to be a supernatural event became a horrific murder case and I liked how they're all interlinked and solved in the end. My verdict is, you can never know what humans are capable of doing and in some ways they're more terrifying than ghosts.

Labels: 4 stars, Book Review, Chinese Fiction, Horror, Suspense Thriller 6 comments |

Urban Legend II bk. 2: The Cursed Commercial [都市传说第二部2: 被诅咒的广告]

Melody

奇幻基地 | May 2017 | 272 pgs

Source: Library

This is book 2 of the second urban legend series by Ling Jing (笭菁). Ling Jing had completed twelve books in her first series and this second series is still ongoing with the ninth installment as the latest. Each book read as a stand-alone although there will be character developments as the series go (but not much of a big issue if you ask me). Ling Jing's books are based on various urban legends added with some imaginations and other elements of her own.

Urban Legend origin: A tissue commercial from Japan aired in 1986 was taken down after theories revolve around the cast and crew dying mysterious deaths.

Summary: A well-known actress, including the crew of staff, suffered a mishap respectively after shooting an apple juice commercial. Before the shoot, an assistant claimed he heard someone running on the staircase but no one was seen around the area upon checking. Thereafter, accidents began to happen. A group of students, who are members of the "Urban Legend Society" in their University, decided to look into the case and discover something horrific that happened in the studio awhile back.

Note: The main characters in this series are different from the first series as the author felt a change for new blood is necessary to offer a new and different perspective. On top of that, people do grow up and change, don't they?

My thoughts: I don't know why but this made me think of the Japanese movie, The Ring. The similarity between these two is that the cursed video tape (in this case the shooting of the commercial) will lead victims to encounter unfortunate incidents. But, what made this story refreshing is the author blends urban legend with a mystery case which may or may not be supernatural and the creepy/suspense factors were intense. Each character portrays their strengths and weaknesses and these give readers some ideas what's their personality traits are like (also how one or two of them have some kind of specialty, e.g. one has sixth sense, and another is a female professional martial arts fighter - she's fearless and has a sharp observation skill in terms of combat as well as critical thinking. I didn't mention that she's the rose among the thorns and she's my heroine.) My verdict - this is a great series for those who enjoy urban legend tales with a twist. And I hope there'll be an English translation version of them in the near future.

Labels: 4 stars, Book Review, Chinese Fiction, Horror, Suspense, Urban Legend 8 comments |

《在晴朗的日子分手》- 陈德贤 (Breaking Up on a Sunny Day by Chan Takyin)

Melody

ISBN-13: 9789881753267

Publisher: 天苑文化

Published: 2008

Format: Paperback, 228pp

Source: Author

《在晴朗的日子分手》除了讲述男女之间的爱情故事以外，其实它也包含了亲情，以及一个关于气味和味道的故事。

女主角蓝莉喜欢穿Lolita style的服饰；为了喜爱的服饰她在一家化妆品牌柜台当推销员。除了推销产品，她的梦想就是到英国念化妆课程。自小她就恋上了一种气味；这个气味使她联想到父亲的气味。虽然她不知道她的亲生父亲是谁，但是她在母亲接客的大多数男人中都嗅到了这个气味，所以就认定了它就是父亲的味道。

另一位女主角尤儿则喜欢吃蛋糕和甜点。除了爱吃，她更喜欢做甜点。自小因一场无情的车祸而丧失了母亲；她最难忘的事情便是当天和母亲到一家酒店品尝一块蛋糕。对她来说，那是件最幸福不过的事。从此她就一直在寻找记忆中那幸福的味道。

男主角林正 (注: 因为是繁体版，读者不知怎么拼男主角的名字。既然他的名字有个‘正’字在下，所以就干脆叫他‘林正’了。) 的职业是名小提琴和钢琴教师。为了这份工作，他不惜劳累奔波到学生们的住家教课。他在一次偶然中遇见了蓝莉，而蓝莉因他的气味而恋上了他。两人就这样顺其自然地走在一起。

尤儿为了自力更生而搬离住家出来租房子。可以说是种缘分吧，尤儿看了蓝莉的租赁广告后就这样地搬进了蓝莉家，成了她的室友。两人的感情本来融洽，但慢慢地她们的感情因林正而起了变化。爱情可以令热恋中的情侣快乐，但它其实也可以带给一对恋人痛苦，例如说对爱情的不安和缺乏信任。而蓝莉就是这个例子。但一个人很爱一个人时，自然而然地他/她很在乎对方，有时候甚至超乎了极限。要取得平衡，谈何容易。

林正本来对尤儿没什么特别的感觉，但他发现和尤儿在一起的时候那种感觉很自在，没有一点儿的压迫感。而且，尤儿对以后的事不抱太多的假想，一切凭感觉和自己快乐而去做每件事。但这并不意味着她对林正的感觉是草率的。她其实也对这份感情付出过的。

三人的感情纠纷，就围绕在寻找气味和味道之间。爱情是什么？幸福又是什么？我想，我在读完这本书后已大概有了答案。与其说是答案，不如说我对爱情和幸福有了更深一层的了解；原来这两者并不是我们想象中的那么复杂和难以追寻。

It has been a while since I read a Chinese novel, thus when the author contacted me and asked if I wanted to do a review for her two books, I said yes and on top of that, I was intrigued by the blurbs.

Though Breaking Up on a Sunny Day is a romance, there is also a theme between a mother and daughter relationship, and a story about scent and taste (read further and you’ll know why).

Lan Li has a passion for Lolita fashion. In fact, she loves them so much so that she joined a cosmetics brand which has the same style for their uniforms. Aside from this passion, her dream is to visit England and to pursue studies on makeup and cosmetics there. Since she was a child, she had a liking for one particular scent; this scent reminds her of her father though she has no idea who her father is. Many men who came to look for her mother shared this same scent and thereafter she would link this scent to her father as it always make her think about him.

You Er, on the other hand, has a passion for cakes and desserts. Not only she has a passion for those, but she loves making cakes and desserts too. One of her most unforgettable moments from childhood is having tea at a hotel with her mother and they were both sharing a pot of tea and a slice of cake. Unfortunately, her mother died in an automobile accident right after they left the hotel. Her mother’s death shattered her and through memories she vows to find that happiness she had had with her mother.

Lin Zheng, the hero in this story, is a teacher who teaches violin and piano. He would travel around Hong Kong to conduct lessons at his students’ home and though the job is hectic at times, he is quite satisfied and happy with his life. He and Lan Li met each other during a chance encounter and it is through him that Lan Li has found the scent that she has been looking for all this while (Lin Zheng would help out at his father’s barber’s shop at times). Needless to say, they fell in love shortly after.

You Er moved out from her father’s house to find freedom and independence. Through an advertisement, she rented a room from Lan Li and they became good friends. However, their relationship changed after You Er met Lin Zheng .

You Er didn’t mean to fall in love with Lin Zheng initially, and likewise Lin Zheng has no special feelings towards You Er, but after the time they have been together as friends their relationship started to blossom. Although Lin Zheng loves Lan Li, he finds he is more at ease with You Er as compared to the woman whom he thinks he is in love with.

Breaking Up on a Sunny Day tells a bittersweet love story between three people and lead readers to wonder about the complexity (and simplicity?) of love. Through the thoughts and behaviours of these three characters, this story highlighted the feelings and the dilemmas many couples face when they are in a relationship, e.g. if you love a person, how do you ensure that the love and attention you are giving to the other party is just right and not overwhelming? Is it even possible to create a balance and find the happiness that you want? Perhaps. But I have to say I have a better understanding of love and happiness after reading this book, and I think maybe those two aren’t as complicated and hard to achieve as we have thought.

Labels: 4 stars, Chinese Fiction, Contemporary Romance 2 comments |

告白〔漫画版〕- 湊佳苗 Confession by Kanae Minato (Manga)

Melody

ISBN-13: 9789571352558
Publisher: Reading Times
Published: October 2010
176 pgs
Illustrator: Marumi Kimura
Translator: Huang Bi Jun
Source: Personal Library

Shocked and speechless. These what sum up my reactions towards this manga after I finished reading in one sitting last evening.

If you were a teacher, what would you do if you found out that the murderer(s) of your child happens to be one of your students? Would you let their fate to be decided by the law, or would you seek revenge yourself? Between ethics and justice, which would you choose?

The story begins with teacher Yuko Moriguchi giving a farewell speech to her class of junior high students on her last day of employment. She talks to them about life and how one should value their life before she move on to her personal history, as she began to disclose how much it has deeply affected her after the death of her 4-year-old daughter. Truth be told, Yuko's purpose of sharing her personal account is not to gain sympathy from her students, for she already has a plan mapped out for two students in the class whom she believed have murdered her daughter. She has successfully planted the seed of fear to these two students by confessing that she had contaminated their milk with HIV virus. At this point, you might be wondering why those two students managed to get away from the crime scot-free. It is because they are under age 14 and they are protected by the law.

If you think she has seeked her revenge right there and put an end to the story, then you are in for a surprise for what happened thereafter I could only describe as explosive and mind-boggling. The story goes on to explore the minds behind these two students, Shuya and Naoki, and how they came about the plan of murdering Yuko's daughter. Reading about their agendas sent chills down my spine, but what most astounded me is finding out about their yearnings and how one circumstances have led to another is beyond my comprehension.

"以憎恨来报复憎恨是没有用的。有一天他们一定会知错的。相信他们，你才有办法重生啊！"
(Translated: There is no use in seeking revenge. One day they would know their mistakes. Believe in them, and you will be able to find and live your life.)

There was one passage (as above) which I liked, as it reminds me of a famous quote by Mohandas Gandhi - "An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind." But of course Confession is not only a story about revenge, but a psychological one which makes us to think and take a deeper look into humanity and the social problems we face today. Confession has been made into a film and it has been selected as the Japanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards. I hope there will be an English edition of this story next. And as for this manga edition, I can only say that Marumi Kimura has totally left me in awe of her work.

Labels: 4.75 stars, Book Review, Chinese Fiction, Manga 7 comments |

我的爱如此麻辣 - 张小娴

Melody

ISBN-13: 9789868635425
Publisher: Motif Press Co., Ltd
Published: August 2010
285 pgs
Source: Personal Library

当爱重返身边, 才发现,
你, 一直都在。

好久, 好久没好好地坐下来享受读着张小娴的书了。每一回读她的书籍, 都会被她细腻的文笔深深感动着。那种感觉, 久久都会停留在我的脑海里, 挥之不去。她的文笔, 象施了魔法般把我带进她的故事世界里, 让我觉得故事里的人、事、物仿佛都在我的身边。我想，这就是张小娴的魅力吧。她的故事总能触动着我的心。

在〈我的爱如此麻辣〉中，她以一贯细腻、流畅的文笔，再一次把读者带进她的爱情世界里。故事中的女主角叫夏如星；她的生活本来过得无忧无虑，但自从父亲得了血管瘤离开人世后，她的人生开始起了变化，从此也改变了她对所有人世间的看法。因为父亲是开麻辣火鍋店的，本来对烹饪一窍不通的她，为了保留父亲所留下的麻辣火鍋店，决定下定决心要把麻辣火鍋店的生意做好，而另一个原因就是麻辣火鍋曾给父亲留下美好的儿时回忆。为了这些，她不想辜负他。

为了找寻麻辣火鍋的秘方，夏如星竟无意中发现爸爸藏了大半輩子的秘密。原来除了她，夏如星发现父亲在另外兩個相隔萬里另有两个女兒！这个突如其来的发现简直是晴天霹雳，令夏如星不知所措。但夏如日和夏如月毕竟是她的姐姐，夏如星没有理由不把父亲的死讯告诉她们。就因这事故把夏家三姐妹相聚在一起；她们的共同点就是经营父亲的麻辣火鍋店，使它起死回生（父亲在世时，生意本来一落千丈，负债累累）。

除了夏家三姐妹的故事，〈我的爱如此麻辣〉其实是记载了夏如星和青梅竹马李浩山信件交换的种种心情。夏如星透过这些信件，与浩山分享着她生活上的所有点滴，包括她和姐姐们如何相遇和在一起的心得。虽然隔著萬水千山（浩山在马拉威当义工，夏如星则在香港），但浩山的信总为她带来温柔的慰藉，更让她领悟到人生其实可以很简单，只看个人如何对待各自的生活与目标。浩山曾对夏如星说，人与人的相识相遇，都是因缘聚合，而缘分是永不流逝的餐宴。他的这番话不止深深地烙印在夏如星的心里，更深深地感动了我。没错，如果我与你没有因缘，我们如何在这茫茫人海中相遇又相知呢？

It's been a while since I have read a Chinese novel; and even if I do read them I don't do a review on them because my main focus is on English novels. However I have to make an exception here simply because I loved this book so much! (Correction: I love all Amy Cheung's books because her writing is beautiful and poetic; and her stories always touches my heart.) For this English review, I will take a different approach from the Chinese in including the spoilers.

Through letter writing style, My So-Called Spicy Love (roughly translated) tells a story of a gal named Xia Ru Xing and her life after the death of her father. Her mother had died many years ago due to breast cancer and though her life with her father was simple and filled with hardship, but at least she is happy. After her father's passing, she is left with nothing but her father's spicy hotpot eatery. Not wanting to disappoint him and knowing that her father had a deep passion for his business, she decides to take over the business but first she has to find out the secret recipe for her father's famous spicy hotpot.

It is also during this time that she found out that her father actually had married two other women from overseas and had two daughters with them. Ru Xing decides to tell her two elder sisters about their father's death, after all the man whom they loved would no longer return. The two sisters met up at Ru Xing's place in Hong Kong since they lived in different countries (Taiwan and Szechuan in China), and they decide to work together for the eatery business.

Ru Xing has a childhood friend named Li Hao Shan. He is working as a volunteer at an orphanage in Malawi, Africa for about two years. Ru Xing and Hao Shan will write letters to each other to share about their life. Ru Xing always find comfort in his letters because he never fails to make her smile, even though the distance has brought them apart. Hao Shan also shares with her about his experience looking after the AIDS orphans, and Ru Xing finds herself she has a lot of things to learn from him, after all his experience in Malawi has helped him see things in a new light. Through him, Ru Xing also learns about fate and other things that made her think. However, the joy is a short-lived one as Ru Xing soon finds herself diagnosed with breast cancer. Will her last letter reach Hao Shan? And does Hao Shan has the chance to see her for the last time? Amy Cheung has left an open ending with these questions for the readers to find out for themselves.

If you ask me how I think of the ending, I'd say it would most likely be a sad ending. I got this verdict after reading most of Amy Cheung's previous work and having recognising her signatures to their endings. However, I hope this is not the case in this book because it'd be too sad to see this lovely couple being torn apart by distance and illness.