Read 10 Words (link to Amazon) by Yu Hua last summer for the ASDP China summer institute. I expected it to be practical introduction to the Chinese language and linguistics, but the thoughtful and personal recollection and exploration of Chinese…
A Loyal Character Dancer: Inspector Chen Mystery
This book is also available at Amazon cheap, and in Kindle ebook. I particularly like how this book teaches lessons in essential Chinese vocabulary. (For more details and resources see China Composition Wiki here). Loyal is on the cover, and…
Inspector Chen Cao: Qiu Xiaolong’s Mystery Series
The Inspector Chen mysteries by Qiu Xiaolong came highly recommended by retired JCCC librarian Andrea Kempf. I approached the first novel, Death of a Read Heroine, skeptically and read resistently for for the first 30 or 40 pages, but have…
In America, there are no small eggs.
We do something illogical with in American culture regarding our language used to describe sizes. An Ivy League educated linguist I worked for in Taiwan used to ponder about this, and ask me, “Why, in America, don’t you have small…