Tigers and Butterflies: Selected Writings on Politics, Culture and Society

by Han Suyin

Book by Suyin, Han

Genres: Nonfiction

247 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Han Suyin (Pinyin: Hán Sùyīn) is the pen name of Elizabeth Comber, born Rosalie Elisabeth Kuanghu Chow (Pinyin: Zhōu Guānghú). She was a Chinese-born Eurasian author of several books on modern China, novels set in East Asia, and autobiographical works, as well as a physician. She wrote in English and French. She died in Lausanne, Switzerland in 2012.

Reviews

[Zen Cho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Borrowed from David Wingrove after a discussion at a creative writing workshop.

I found some of the essays in this really interesting -- mostly the ones on Malaysia, less so the ones on China (which predominate) because I am brutishly ignorant about China and any and every aspect of its history, economics, etc. It is interesting to hear a non-Western voice, particularly one that doesn't always agree with the conclusions you usually hear in Western media. (I mean, Han was educated in England, I think, and now lives in Switzerland, and also her mom was Belgian, but she grew up in China and spent a lot of time in different Asian countries.)

Han is a lot more readable when she isn't writing love stories.