Speedtribes's review
Lost in Translation
by Nicole Mones
Speedtribes's review
Lost in Translation by Nicole Mones
Speedtribes's review
rating:
bookshelves:
chinese,
novels
** spoiler alert **
This book is a well written predecessor to her very excellent "The Last Chinese Chef". China that isn't some sort of Orientalist exotic place, yes! A realistic view and excellent expression of the relationship-based cultural style in relation to Western interpretation/misinterpretations, yes! Chinese men with sexuality, yes!
My biggest issue with the book, however, lies with the main character: a lost woman dealing with the aftermath of her racist politician father and her childhood as an icon for White Supremacists. She tries to atone by fleeing to the other side of the world and throwing herself into scrubbing off her whiteness and becoming... Chinese. The problem is that she's going about it in an incredibly wrongheaded manner, and despite denials to herself that it isn't the case, she is suffering greatly from a case of "Exotic Orientalism". And, as everyone around her continues to tell her, Chinese isn't a state that one can become. It isn't a haircut...more
My biggest issue with the book, however, lies with the main character: a lost woman dealing with the aftermath of her racist politician father and her childhood as an icon for White Supremacists. She tries to atone by fleeing to the other side of the world and throwing herself into scrubbing off her whiteness and becoming... Chinese. The problem is that she's going about it in an incredibly wrongheaded manner, and despite denials to herself that it isn't the case, she is suffering greatly from a case of "Exotic Orientalism". And, as everyone around her continues to tell her, Chinese isn't a state that one can become. It isn't a haircut...more
