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98th out of 2,288 books
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Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
by
Dai Sijie
In this enchanting tale about the magic of reading and the wonder of romantic awakening, two hapless city boys are exiled to a remote mountain village for reeducation during China's infamous Cultural Revolution. There they meet the daughter of the local tailor and discover a hidden stash of Western classics in Chinese translation. As they flirt with the seamstress and secr...more
Paperback, 184 pages
Published
October 29th 2002
by Anchor
(first published October 29th 1999)
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Imagine for a moment that all the books you own are taken from you, pulped or set ablaze, labeled as libelous, unworthy to what your new home now thinks and practices. What would you do? How would this make you feel? Then, as if the act of destruction upon your books was not enough, you, too, are taken to a place where you can be re-educated. All the mysteries or romances or science fiction or literary fiction that you one vigorously pumped into your brain was now going to be methodically re...more
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A charming book, written with astute quickness, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is both erudite and approachable. It is full of details that absolutely make the scenes pop with vividness, but it does not dawdle over what is not necessary. It is a story with a point.
Which is where this book falls apart. Despite its captivation of the reader, its quick pace, its interesting plot, this short novel begins to come apart when perspectives are suddenly shifted (why?) and then agai...more
Which is where this book falls apart. Despite its captivation of the reader, its quick pace, its interesting plot, this short novel begins to come apart when perspectives are suddenly shifted (why?) and then agai...more
I chose this excerpt from the book because it seems to sum up the changes seen in the characters:
“Picture if you will, a boy of nineteen still slumbering in the limbo of adolescence, having heard nothing but revolutionary blather about patriotism, Communism, and ideology and propaganda all his life, falling headlong into a story of awakening desire, passion, impulsive action, love, of all the subjects that had, until then, been hidden from me”
There is a series of revoluti...more
“Picture if you will, a boy of nineteen still slumbering in the limbo of adolescence, having heard nothing but revolutionary blather about patriotism, Communism, and ideology and propaganda all his life, falling headlong into a story of awakening desire, passion, impulsive action, love, of all the subjects that had, until then, been hidden from me”
There is a series of revoluti...more
One of the reasons why I join bookclubs is to encourage myself to read books I wouldn't normally read, to get me out of my comfort zone. And one of the hopes of any bookclub I think, for me at least, is to find a gem, a book that you had never wanted to read but, having read through coercion, have been spellbound by. This is that book. Descriptions of it that I'd read when it was first released had turned me off - it sounded boring - but with such low expectations I was so into this story that I...more
I very much liked this book. I first watched the movie, and loved it so much I bought the DVD. When I found out it was based on a novel, I was quick to buy that too. The imagery in this book is beautiful. I had just returned home from asia before I read Chinese Seamstress, and had to literally put the book down for a few moments while I reminisced over the beauty of the rice fields and weather-battered people and houses that I came across in Malaysia. This book is so vivid, the scenes took ...more
This is a gentle, magical book, quite unlike any other I have ever read. The author really gets into the minds of the two boys and the seamstress and the tiny, colourful life they create together despite the poverty of mountain village and the oppression of the Cultural Revolution. The ending is just perfect too.
I thought this would be great (well, the cover was beautiful and it did have Balzac in it) but I was really unimpressed by it. It was a story and nothing more. I can't figure out why it's selling like hot cakes. Oh well.
On its surface, this book has all the ingredients for a really interesting read: a fascinating historical period, potentially interesting characters, and the frequently quite compelling topic of the use or function of literature within literature. Unfortunately, I felt like Sijie failed to live up to the greatness of his own project.
The Cultural Revolution is supposedly the force that propels this story forward. It is, after all, the reason for which the main character and his be...more
The Cultural Revolution is supposedly the force that propels this story forward. It is, after all, the reason for which the main character and his be...more
كثيرا ما كتب عن الرئيس الصيني ماو وأغلب ما كتب يصوره بشخص سادي مزعج. ولكن ألم يعيد الرئيس ماو للصين سيادتها واحترامها بغض النظر عن الأفكار الشيوعية التي تبناها؟
الكتاب كله يتحدث عن التغيير الجذري الذي يمكن أن تحدثه الثقافة في الأفراد. بالنسبة لي أحببت أكثر التغيير الذي أحدثه إعادة التأهيل على الشباب الصيني. أحيانا أتمنى إعادة تأهيل النشء الجديد في صحراؤنا الخصبة
الكتاب كله يتحدث عن التغيير الجذري الذي يمكن أن تحدثه الثقافة في الأفراد. بالنسبة لي أحببت أكثر التغيير الذي أحدثه إعادة التأهيل على الشباب الصيني. أحيانا أتمنى إعادة تأهيل النشء الجديد في صحراؤنا الخصبة
There was a legendary writer in the Hungarian literary world, István Örkény, who beyond doubt is one of the finest absurdist (writer of absurd prose) in the world. He wrote a collection of short stories - really, really short ones, so much so that the title of this legendary book is One Minute Stories (available in English as well). One of the most beautiful pieces is about the magic of literature - although the original Hungarian title is "Ballad about the Power of Poetry" (check it o
...more
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2.5 stars, really. I'm being generous. This was an easy (though hardly light) read. It was generally interesting, but I never grew to care deeply about the characters. The horror of the Cultural Revolution was not made especially real to me. The Little Seamstress herself was utterly underdeveloped. The dialogue was unrealistic: no one speaks in such a manner. There is an abrupt but brief shift in narration toward the end of the book, for no apparent reason; the fact that a particular event is ...more
Set during the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution under Mao Zedong, the book is largely a story of the power of storytelling. T wo teenage boys have been sent to live in the country (their parents are class enemies) on a mountain known as Phoenix in the Sky. Told mostly from the point of view of one of the boys (although this changes toward the end), it is the story of how in the midst of carrying buckets filled with excrement on slippery trails, they find a stash of books owned by another bo...more
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A 50BookChallenge recommendation, I signed up for a Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Bookcrossing bookcircle a month or two ago & received it in the mail earlier this week.
This novel is a simply-told story about two young men, sent to the Chinese countryside for "reeducation" during the Cultural Revolution. They work long hard hours, but still make time to savor the culture of their former bourgeois life: the main narrator plays his violin and Luo, his friend, rete...more
This novel is a simply-told story about two young men, sent to the Chinese countryside for "reeducation" during the Cultural Revolution. They work long hard hours, but still make time to savor the culture of their former bourgeois life: the main narrator plays his violin and Luo, his friend, rete...more
I'm not sure what i was expecting from this book, but i was disappointed by what i got. Not because it was a bad story, on the contrary, it just lacked the emotional aspect i thought it would/should have. These two boys were sent away from their homes, their families and their former education, and neither one --the primary narrator and latter his friend-- had nothing to reflect on, but the fact that they discovered some forbidden books?
I was hoping to feel their loss in their being...more
I was hoping to feel their loss in their being...more
A charming little story as cute as the red shoes on the cover. Touches on a lot of serious and sobering historic themes, specifically the surge of Communism in China, but ultimately is a universal coming-of-age story about two best friends and the love triangle that forms between them and a village girl. I especially liked the ending as I did not foresee the novel taking such a surprising turn to reflect upon the girl's development, which ultimately turns out to be the most substantive of all. A...more
حتى غير القرّاء ، يتغيرون تغييرا جذرياً بالقراءة
كيف حدث هذا مع الخياطة الصغيرة ياترى؟
قصة خفيفة قوية المعنى ..أحببت بساطتها
"لسنا محظوظين
ففي السن التي صرنا نجيد فيها القراءة لم نجد أمامنا مانقرأ"
Thanx Dr(;
كيف حدث هذا مع الخياطة الصغيرة ياترى؟
قصة خفيفة قوية المعنى ..أحببت بساطتها
"لسنا محظوظين
ففي السن التي صرنا نجيد فيها القراءة لم نجد أمامنا مانقرأ"
Thanx Dr(;
"The Cultural Revolution of Chairman Mao Zedong altered Chinese history in the 1960s and '70s, forcibly sending hundreds of thousands of Chinese intellectuals to peasant villages for "re-education." This moving, often wrenching short novel by a writer who was himself re-educated in the '70s tells how two young men weather years of banishment, emphasizing the power of literature to free the mind. Sijie's unnamed 17-year-old protagonist and his best friend, Luo, are bourgeois doctor...more
I always heard such rave reviews about this book when I was working at Barnes and Noble but for some reason never read it until now. I can't say that I share the rave reviews. It's a rather small book, under 200 pages with the pages themselves being very small. I think I didn't care for it that much because I didn't feel like there was much depth to it. The story centers around 2 teenage boys in China who are sent to a small town in the country for "re-education". They also keep i...more
A surprisingly interesting novel. Once you open the book you begin to realize that it is interesting in its way and grabs your attention. This book was recommended to me by a friend of mine saying it would be a different type of book for me and that I'd enjoy it. The story is a story that has probably been told in different forms millions of times but something everyone continues to learn from regardless.
The story is about two teenage boys who go to the mountains because their parents ...more
The story is about two teenage boys who go to the mountains because their parents ...more
Due giovani figli di borghesi, e pertanto nemici del popolo, vengono spediti in un villaggio sperduto sui monti per la "rieducazione": sono gli anni Settanta in Cina. I due amici, che vengono ben presto assegnati a tutti i lavori più pesanti e disgustosi di una civiltà ancora completamente contadina, sanno di non avere più di un 3% di possibilità di tornare a casa loro.
Un giorno, in visita presso un altro ragazzo, assegnato alla rieducazione presso un villaggio vicino, essi scopro...more
Un giorno, in visita presso un altro ragazzo, assegnato alla rieducazione presso un villaggio vicino, essi scopro...more
Elizabeth Beckman
added it
Balzac and the Chinese Seamstress follows the reeducation of two young boys in Mao’s China. Mao is the revolutionary leader, the common person who rose above to rule his beloved country. Part of his background translated into a love for the common peasants and an expectation of the country to follow their values. To be reeducated meant that “city youth,” or sons and daughters of “class enemies,” were shipped off to remote countryside villages to absorb the preferred culture of the peasants.
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I had a dream about this book yesterday, when I was about one-third in: a dream that the book was over already. I wasn't sorry about it, just surprised, like "oh, really, that's it? Well... okay."
So this, basically, turns out to be the first reflection I have after finishing this book. It's a very short novel, more like a novella, about two friends from Chengdu getting reeducated in remote mountains near Tibet during the cultural revolution. The Little Seamstress is their love in...more
So this, basically, turns out to be the first reflection I have after finishing this book. It's a very short novel, more like a novella, about two friends from Chengdu getting reeducated in remote mountains near Tibet during the cultural revolution. The Little Seamstress is their love in...more
Rating: 3.5* of five
I don't, like so many others, think this book is brilliant or even particularly original. I do think it's fascinating as a cultural document of a time and a place that I know zero about and find very intriguing.
The Cultural Revolution was inconceivably vast, like everything else about China. The notion, from whence we shall never know, that Mao had of causing all the haves to be reduced to the status of have-nots, and the resulting collapse of anything...more
I don't, like so many others, think this book is brilliant or even particularly original. I do think it's fascinating as a cultural document of a time and a place that I know zero about and find very intriguing.
The Cultural Revolution was inconceivably vast, like everything else about China. The notion, from whence we shall never know, that Mao had of causing all the haves to be reduced to the status of have-nots, and the resulting collapse of anything...more
The author Dai Sijie provides an insight into the re-education policy of Chairman Mao, something he himself was subjected to before immigrating to France. The program, quite simply, removes the children of intellectuals, state enemies and "stinking scientific authorities", as the narrator's parents were classed, both being doctors and sends them out to be re-educated along Revolutionary ideals.
Set in the early 1970's, two young men are sent to Phoenix Mountain to be re-educat...more
Set in the early 1970's, two young men are sent to Phoenix Mountain to be re-educat...more
This story is cute, kind of odd, and without much plot or character development. Dai Sijie's first novel tells the story about two teenage boys sent to the mountains in China for "re-education" under the Maoist regime. Sijie himself was re-educated from 1971 to 1974, which is when this novel takes place. While Sijie builds tension very well he never really delivers. Towards the end the perspective changes for what feels like absolutely no reason and I found myself saying, "what?!"...more
This book tells of the power of literature to impact people's lives. Also, since it is set in China during the late 1960s and early 70s' "re-education" that occurred under Chairman Mao, it has shown me a particular aspect of history that I had never before known.
That said, I did not enjoy the book. It reads more like a parable or a short story than a novel. In the first place, the characters are not very well-fleshed out. Moreover, the novel is told in the past tense ...more
That said, I did not enjoy the book. It reads more like a parable or a short story than a novel. In the first place, the characters are not very well-fleshed out. Moreover, the novel is told in the past tense ...more
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is about two teenage boys Luo and the narrator. The book is during the times of the Cultural Revolution. They are sent away to the mountainside to be reeducated because they're parents are considered enemies of the communist state. While they are being reeducated, they meet the daughter of the local tailor, the little Chinese Seamstress. Both of the boys immediately fall in love with her. The two boys meet another boy named Four-Eyes. He is also being ree...more
Iris SanGiovanni
added it
I enjoyed this book. The moment I began reading the book I was immediately transported to another land and immersed in a unfamiliar culture. The first chapter described the current situation as opposed to describing the boys’ background which it then did in the second chapter. I liked that the author chose to do this because I immediately was drawn into the book, whereas, presenting the background history first would perhaps have bored me. The author wrote with such description that he painted...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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| Words & Wine ...: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress | 1 | 2 | Jan 04, 2012 01:40am |
Dai Sijie was born in China in 1954. Because he came from an educated middle-class family, the Maoist government sent him to a reeducation camp in rural Sichuan from 1971 to 1974, during the Cultural Revolution. After his return, he was able to complete high school and university, where he studied art history.
In 1984, he left China for France on a scholarship. There, he acquired a pas...more
More about Dai Sijie...
In 1984, he left China for France on a scholarship. There, he acquired a pas...more
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“I was carried away, swept along by the mighty stream of words pouring from the hundreds of pages. To me it was the ultimate book: once you had read it, neither your own life nor the world you lived in would ever look the same.”
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“In the end we had changed the position of the hands so many times that we had no idea what the time really was.”
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