The boy from Fujian
Sep. 8th, 2025 09:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiBook Review: Sounds of the River, by Da Chen
An interesting memoir of Da Chen's teenage and twenty-something years, mostly in the 1980s. Descended from a landowning family, the Chens were out of favour during the Cultural Revolution, but as it ended, the teenager Da Chen obtained a place at the Beijing Language Institute to study English. This volume begins as Chen leaves his home village of Yellow Stone for the big city. Part of his story is universal - coming of age, making new friends in new places, encountering triumph and tragedy. Initially his city-dwelling fellow students look down on the country boy, but he studies hard, and makes friends with foreign students who are outsiders as well. Chen further finds obstruction because he is insufficiently politically astute, and there is a darker side, with progression dependent ubiquitously on bribing professors and officials. Written with the distance of time, Chen's writing sparks anger against the corruption, but not bitterness. Even with the obstacles, he finds opportunities to learn and grow, working both for government-arranged tours and giving private tuition, leaving an impression of humanity perennially battling against an unthinking system.
An interesting memoir of Da Chen's teenage and twenty-something years, mostly in the 1980s. Descended from a landowning family, the Chens were out of favour during the Cultural Revolution, but as it ended, the teenager Da Chen obtained a place at the Beijing Language Institute to study English. This volume begins as Chen leaves his home village of Yellow Stone for the big city. Part of his story is universal - coming of age, making new friends in new places, encountering triumph and tragedy. Initially his city-dwelling fellow students look down on the country boy, but he studies hard, and makes friends with foreign students who are outsiders as well. Chen further finds obstruction because he is insufficiently politically astute, and there is a darker side, with progression dependent ubiquitously on bribing professors and officials. Written with the distance of time, Chen's writing sparks anger against the corruption, but not bitterness. Even with the obstacles, he finds opportunities to learn and grow, working both for government-arranged tours and giving private tuition, leaving an impression of humanity perennially battling against an unthinking system.