I became interestedin what I would loosely term ‘China studies’ in a roundabout way. In fact, I believe I can pinpoint the origin of my interest to Philip K. Dick’s novel The Man in the High Castle, which features the ancient Chinese oracle, the I Ching. Sometime after that, I obtained a copy of the I Ching myself, and thus began to use the Oracle quite frequently. I never became a compulsive user of this book, as I will often go several months without touching it, but the more I have read, the more I have realised that the I Ching really is a book of immense wisdom. I suspect that it’s much more useful as a tool for personal growth than as one for divination.
From the I Ching, it was natural to take an interest in the philosophy of Taoism (often spelt Daoism), and specifically the writings of Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi). One day, I need to review what is one of my favourite books of all time: Wandering on the Way: The Early Taoist Parables of Chuang Tzu, translated by Victor Mair. I reviewed this on Amazon once, but I need to look at it again. From Chuang Tzu and Daoism, I began to take an interest in Chinese history, and thus read several general histories on the subject. The best of those I have read is A History of Chinese Civilisation by Jacques Gernet.
Somewhere along the way, I picked up copies of four epic Chinese novels: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West, The Dream of the Red Chamber and Outlaws of the Marsh. I am yet to read the latter two, and I couldn’t get more than 600 pages into Journey to the West (it’s around 2000 pages in total), but I read Romance of the Three Kingdoms cover to cover. It’s hard to say exactly what influence this extraordinary books has had on me, but I suspect it has a fair bit to do with the genesis of my novel The Kingdom of Four Rivers.
My reading of Chinese history had initially been limited to much more ancient times, but I finally made it up to the twentieth century, and thus I read with horror about Mao Zedong, the Chinese Communist Party, the Long March, the Great Leap Forward, the Tiananmen Square massacre, and a host of other atrocities with a genuine sense of sadness. Jung Chang’s biography of Mao, Mao: The Unknown Story is quite possibly the most depressing book I have ever read.
One voice of rebellion against the tyranny of the Chinese government is that of Ma Jian, a writer whose work I have come to appreciate very much. His travel narrative Red Dust is a must read for anyone wanting to understand modern Chinese life, and while I didn’t think as much of his short novels Stick Out Your Tongue and The Noodle Maker, his magmum opus Beijing Coma is an important book indeed. I’m always on the lookout for writers with the aggression and fire of Ma Jian, but I’m yet to find any I like as much.
And so now I devour anything with a Chinese bent to it that I can find. This doesn’t mean I’ll read anything. There’s an awful lot of dross on China out there. You can read my reviews of a few books on ‘China studies’ by clicking on the China category on the bottom right side of this page. The picture below is of Ma Jian.
