Customer Reviews

Four Sisters of Hofei: A History

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This would be a great book for someone interested in qualitative information about life in old china. It was well-written and not so uninteresting - but it is not a novel or a story. There was no dialouge and only a little plot, and so it's best for a history person as opposed to someone who likes Pearl Buck or Amy Tan.

Annping Chin narrates the tale of a family of 4 daughters in this book and each chapter is devoted to a part of the life of a member of the family. There is very little dialogue and lots of dry narration. It could do with more photos and perhaps structured in such a way that it is an interview session between the author and the various characters. The only interesting part is the story of the marriage of the 3rd daughter to Shen Congwen, a well-known Chinese author. It provided some valuable and unknown insights into the minds of Shen.

I have just seen a Chinese translation of the work in a bookshop a few days ago. I wonder whether Chinese readers will find this take too superficial.