Customer Reviews

Sounds of the River: A Young Man's University Days in Beijing

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Da Chen's "Sounds of the River" is a sequel to his first autobiography "Colors of the Mountain," which deals with his university days studying English at Beijing. "Sounds of the River" picked up where "Colors" ended. Chen wrote about the difficulties that he faced as a country boy travelling to a big city like Beijing and how he had trouble adjusted to living among the city folks. Once in Beijing, Chen realized that he needed to start from zero as he had difficulties comprehending and speaking English. Since he did not come from either a political background or a city, he was constantly looked down by some of his teachers and fellow classmates. However, Chen managed to survive as he studied hard and was determined to succeed. Later, Chen realized that he wanted to leave Red China and pursued his "American dream." (Not going to give it away here on how he had finally left China)

I really enjoy his second book. I was very mesmerized by "Colors of the Mountain" and wanted to know what happened next. I enjoy his quirky observations of life on campus and the people that he encountered such as - the department's dean who needed to be bribed with oysters and lycees, his roommate Bo who was into high fashion, as I find them colorful and interesting. "Sounds of the River" is well-written as Chen is able to express his thoughts vividly to his readers. There are many funny moments and there are times that you can't help but relate to his ordeals. Some readers might also appreciate his poetic expressions. I think readers who are interested in this book should definitely start with his first, as it is crucial to know his family background, and experience to fully appreciate "Sounds of the River."

Da Chen describes in aching detail his uphill battle to get his foot in the door of Chinese higher education with it's exposure to greater intellectual challenges and the potential for higher rewards. This book takes up from the point of his childhood described in "The Sounds of the River" in a flyspeck provincial village to the big city life of the capital Beijing. The persecutions visited on Da and his family due to their former lives as "landlords" continue with beatings, insults and threats of death or expulsion from school. Navigating the corrupt eductional system, living on pocket change, driving yourself into sleeplessness and bleeding ulcers, figuring out who and how to bribe in order to make it from day to day under Communist rule are explained and illustrated. Mr. Chen made an appearance at the Decatur Book Festival yesterday and my reading of his books was prompted by the opportunity to meet this extraordinary individual. His fluency with a brush and flute-explained in "Colors of the Mountain"-was evident. Do yourself a favor and delve into his books and into another world.

Da Chen writes about his college years at the Beijing Language Institute. Although the story of the naive countryside dweller moving to the big city is an old one, but Da Chen makes this story fresh and entertaining. However, Beijing at this time was still quite backwards compared to Western cities or even Beijing of today, yet the gap with rural life at that time was already enormous. The hurdles of getting used to all the novelties of college life, dealing with the arcane and corrupt communist rules, and the drive to earn a scholarship to go to the United States all make for an engaging story.

Alas, Chen Da's SOUNDS OF THE RIVER is not quite the knockout that his earlier COLORS OF THE MOUNTAIN was.

This second, presumably concluding, volume in his autobiographical series was - to me - primarily valuable in it's details of Chinese university life. Certain aspects were familiar - the eclectic group of friends would be familiar to anyone in the world with some university experience, and his lengthy discussion of the more baroque machinations deep within the administration of a Chinese university was equally fascinating.

At times the melodrama level ran a bit high - this was not always true, and I can think of one major event (involving a roommate) that is written about in a touching fashion. However, certain other occurences would seem to be a bit too befuddling for Chen to wax introspective over, and I was more interested in his thoughts than simple recountings of certain of these events.

Still, Chen paints a largely very appealing self-portrait, and his attempts at balancing universality and communicating cultural specifics and experiences (further developing this, I note that Chen has adapted these autobiographical writings into a third volume for younger readers, an entirely approriate move) is to be lauded.

-David Alston

An excellent reflection of the moods and challenges of late adolescence and early adulthood, combined with the special cultural mosaic of recent Chinese times. I enjoyed this autobiographical book quite a lot, although I did find it less engaging than his first work. Still, I enjoyed his first work, Colors of the Mountain, so much that I wanted to follow Da Chen into his college days. The bureaucracy, tips and tricks of the society, students, and school are described well, handled in ways that make them engaging and interesting. I agree it seems on occasion melodramatic, but feel this characteristic simply reflects well the tensions experienced by these young people as they proceed into work and/or college days: full of serendipity - or lack of luck, hormones, happiness, failure, love, disappointment, success, discipline or sloth, greed or generosity, bureaucracy and favoritism.

Da Chen's sequel to his first memoir, Colors of the Mountain, picks up where is his first book left off. His strength is in setting the scene and allowing the reader to feel if they are living the journey themselves.

His descriptions and metaphors are complex and enjoyable. Reading his book made me feel like I was watching a movie He is able to create suspense and make the reader laugh along with him as he tells his story. This is well-worth the read for someone trying to understand China after the communist revolution.

I really enjoyed this whimsical memoir of the intellectual and social journey of a young man from the countryside of southern China as makes his way through university life in the big city, and through the years after the end of the Cultural Revolution in China. It is the only memoir of university life of this type that I have encountered so far in the course of a lot of reading about China, and the only one that describes university life in China so well. It has been very interesting to see aspects of university life that we know in a different and western context, in a country and time that are so very different from ours in the U.S.

I enjoyed the first book "Colors of the Mountain" so much that I regret to have read this one. Although might be inaccurate in some small details, the touching/inspiring story told by Colors of the moutain is overall believable. A lot of dialogues and events in this book, however, are simply too outrageous to be possible. Seems the author tried too hard to win the readers by making these unbelievable dialogues and twists. In so doing, nevertheless, the story lost its credibility. I also found the protaganist became disappointingly not-lovable. You can't BLAME a person who plans every second to get self-advancement. However, you won't like him and unfortunately this book is pretty much about this kind of self-struggling.