Bkwmlee's “Revisiting My Roots” Challenge

[Bkwmlee]

I was born in Hong Kong and even though I grew up here in the U.S. (my family immigrated here when I was barely a year old), I’ve always had a fascination with Chinese history, literature, and culture – my ethnic roots. Growing up, I’ve always felt like I was immersed in 2 cultures simultaneously (American and Chinese), which I am grateful for, as I was able to experience the “best of both worlds” so to speak and it has shaped me into the person I am today.

My fascination with Chinese culture led me to major in Asian and Pacific Studies in college (my emphasis was in Chinese history and literature), where I got the chance to do a deep dive study not just of my own country and heritage but also that of surrounding Asian countries such as Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, etc. Unfortunately, after I graduated, I didn’t get the chance to put much of what I learned into practice, as the reality of life and work took me on a completely different path. Until recently, most of what I read and studied back then I didn’t remember a whole lot anymore, but a few months ago, I was cleaning out one of my closets and found most of the college textbooks I had kept from that time period. One of the books was an old Chinese literature anthology that I had used in one of my classes and as I was flipping through the pages, I was reminded of how much I loved those literature classes and learning about my culture in general.

This gave me the idea of doing a “revisiting my roots” challenge where I would like to read (and in some cases re-read) as many classic works of Chinese literature as I can, starting from ancient times up through the 20th century (have to cap it at 20th century so as not to overwhelm myself, at least psychologically, lol). Of course, this is a challenge that will take me years (maybe even decades?) to complete and in all honesty, I might not even be able to complete it before I die, but I’m definitely up for trying!

I’m going to start off with re-reading the short stories and novellas from the Chinese anthology I have and then work my way back from there. Somewhere along the line, I also intend to tackle “the 4 great classical Chinese novels”: Water Margins(aka Heroes of the Marsh), Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West, and Dream of the Red Chamber. Throughout my studies, I’ve read excerpts from these novels, but have never read them in their entirety, which is something I’ve always wanted to do. This part will definitely be a huge undertaking due to how massive those texts are (if I remember correctly, I think each novel is at least 1000 pages if not more), so I won’t give myself pressure on when to start or how much to read – I’m planning to work through these gradually as I go.

I’m still working on setting this up properly so for now, this thread is just a placeholder. Once I figure out how to best organize this challenge, I’ll come back and update it further.

[Pink]

That sounds like a great long term challenge. I'll be interested to see which other books you choose. Good luck :)

[Laurie]

Your challenge sounds fantastic, and I'm sure you could take a lifetime if you choose. I look forward to seeing your books and impressions of them.

[Mick]

Do you read them in English or Chinese? I would guess that if you were born in Hong Kong, you might speak Cantonese - but these works would be Mandarin, I guess.

It does sound fascinating. When I was at school (in Liverpool, England) I had many Chinese origin friends and.managed (with a lot of help) to read some Cantonese - all gone now, I'm afraid.

[Bkwmlee]

Thanks Pink and Laurie! :-)


Hi Mick! I actually read in both languages. Yes, I do speak Cantonese, but I'm also fluent in Mandarin -- I learned it as part of my studies in college. Yea, it's definitely easy to forget alot of the language if you don't use it often (that's how I am with French -- took 4 years of it but can barely speak a word of it now.)

For this challenge, I actually haven't decided whether I'm going to read the Chinese or English translated versions yet. Of course, I read faster in English, since that's my first language, but I'm also not a fan of reading translated works when I know the original language, since there is bound to be something that gets lost in translation...I would rather read the work in its original language to get the full effect of what the author is trying to convey. I'm thinking I'll probably end up reading a combination of both though -- some in Chinese and some in English.

[Jon]

Bkwmlee wrote: "Water Margins(aka Heroes of the Marsh), Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West, and Dream of the Red Chamber. Throughout my studies, I’ve read excerpts from these novels, but have never read them in their entirety, which is something I’ve always wanted to do. This part will definitely be a huge undertaking due to how massive those texts are (if I remember correctly, I think each novel is at least 1000 pages if not more)"

Yeah, my English translations of Outlaw of the Marshes and The Story of a Stone (aka Dream of the Red Chamber) weigh in at four and five volumes respectively of 300+ pages each.

Gonna be following this challenge with interest.

[Bkwmlee]

Thanks for the confirmation, Jon! Definitely going to hold off on those 4 classics for now! :-)

I’ve decided I’m going to separate this out into 2 main categories: Ancient Classics, which would be anything written prior to 1900, and Modern Classics, which would essentially be anything written in the 20th century. For Ancient Classics, I will probably end up breaking the time frame down further and capping it at a later time (to make this challenge more attainable for one and also depending on availability of texts from those time periods).

Based on my reading plan for the next few months, I’ve got a long list of other books to get to, so for this challenge, I think I am going to start with the “low hanging fruit” (popular authors and easily accessible books) and work my way back from there.

Below are the first books I’m planning to read for this challenge, which I anticipate will take me at least through the summer:

Ancient Classics (pre-1900s)

The Art of War (孫子兵法）by Sun Tzu - published in 450 BC (reading in English -- this would be a re-read for me)

The Story of the Western Wing (西廂記) by Wang Shifu – published around 1300 (will be reading in Chinese)


Modern Classics (1900 to 1999)

Naked Earth (赤地之戀) by Eileen Chang – novel published in 1954 (reading in English)

Call to Arms (吶喊) by Lu Xun – collection of short stories published in 1922 (have both Chinese and English versions – might read both depending on time)

[Bkwmlee]

I realize I totally neglected this challenge this year (looks like I signed up for one challenge too many) so I've decided to focus my efforts on this one next year. Also, my choice of books is going to change a little bit due to a few new books that I was able to acquire the past couple months (a few Chinese classics that I'm looking forward to reading). Since I plan to start some time in January, I'll come back and update / re-organize this thread a bit around that time.

[Pink]

Good luck for next year!

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

That has happened to me also. I've totally ignored several challenges.

[Bkwmlee]

Thanks Pink and Katy! :-). Yea, I think I got a bit over ambitious with the challenges this year (I signed up for 6 of them this year but looks like I’ll only be able to finish 2). Definitely scaling back next year and focus on finishing the remaining ones from this year.