books – Perfect Leaves

Intermediate & Advanced Mandarin Resources

大家好！

You’ve taken the plunge into learning Mandarin and have decided to continue. It was no easy task, but you’ve grasped the concepts of pinyin, radicals, and characters. I salute you. If you haven’t started yet and you came here looking for suggestions, try my post on resources for Mandarin beginners.

For those who are ready to take their Mandarin to the next level, I have a treat for you. Here are the intermediate and advanced Mandarin resources I’ve come across over the years. I’m including links to amazon in the post simply because I find it easiest to find books there. Amazon is not paying me for the reviews, but the advertisements do help keep this blog running.

Graded Chinese Reader Series by Shi Ji

The Graded Chinese Reader is excellent for people who may not be the most comfortable reading Chinese, but are willing to give it a shot. There are six books, ranging from 500 words to 3000 words. Each new book feels like leveling up in a video game, and you can jump in at any point because the books are a collection of short stories. The books are written in simplified characters, and there is pinyin on top of the characters so you can still read characters you are unfamiliar with. For those that don’t want to read pinyin, the book comes with a piece of plastic that allows you to hide the it and just read the characters. The Graded Chinese Reader also comes with CDs (I know, CDs are dying but Chinese CDs are worth the buy, in my opinion) so readers can test their listening comprehension. I haven’t collected them all yet, but someday I’ll add them to my permanent library. As far as I know, these books only exist for simplified characters. If anyone knows of reading resources for traditional characters, I’d love to hear about them!

Pleco by Pleco Software Incorporated

Pleco is the only pocket-sized Chinese dictionary you’ll ever need. Was that a sensationalist sentence? I think it was. Available for free in both Apple and Android app stores, this app allows users to input English, pinyin, audio, images, handwriting and characters (both simplified and traditional) to search the dictionary for a translation. Parts of speech are color coded, and there is a flashcard function for people who would like to create personalized vocabulary lists. There are a few paid functions on Pleco, but in the three years I’ve been using it I haven’t needed them. In fact, I’m not even sure what the paid functions are. I prefer to view the app in “night mode” because the colors are more distinct against a black background, but the default background is white and the user can toggle night mode themselves. This comprehensive app makes a reliable study buddy, but does not translate full sentences. Rather, it translates each phrase separately. Still, the app can be used offline which makes it very helpful.

Chinese Breeze Series by Peking University Press

I admit that I do not have a ton of experience with Chinese Breeze. I came across the series while updating the catalog information for my school’s library, and made a mental note to share them with my readers. There are three levels (each level is a different color), ranging from 300 words to 750 words. The books are lightweight and come equipped with CDs. Stories in the Chinese Breeze series are often based on ancient and contemporary Chinese classics, though the vocabulary has been modified to fit the level of the reader. Personally, I don’t think it’s worth it for the individual to buy all the books in a level when the Graded Chinese Reader series is an anthology (I prefer the anthology format), but these books are excellent for classrooms because they are thin and portable. Students can borrow them from their teacher, or the teacher can assign a specific book as part of the curriculum. Like the Graded Chinese Reader series, these books are written in simplified characters.

The Routledge Advanced Chinese Multimedia Course: Crossing Cultural Boundaries by Lee, Liao, Jiao, and Wheatly

This was actually the textbook I used for my advanced Chinese course. The chapters are hefty and the content helps students understand mainland Chinese culture. My version of the book was written in simplified characters, with traditional characters alongside the relevant definitions in the vocabulary list. I believe a traditional character version of the book exists as well. At a minimum, there are links to bonus content in the book, and if my memory serves me well that content included traditional character “translations” of the text. As with many Chinese books at this level, there is a CD that comes along with the textbook. Each chapter contains a reading, a vocabulary list, a few grammar explanations and a little culture note (in Chinese). An advanced self-learner could use this book on their own, but it doesn’t hurt to have a native speaker or a teacher explain the differences between some of the synonyms. Some of the characters in this book are for use solely in literary Chinese, while others are used only in colloquial Chinese. Sometimes the book denotes the difference, but it’s helpful to have some one around to correct you. So far, there are two editions of this book, but the differences between editions is minor (in class, students using the older edition only needed to copy the handful of added vocabulary into their books, otherwise the content was the same).

Yabla English/Chinese/Pinyin Dictionary

I would consider Yabla to be the online counterpart to Pleco. It functions much in the same way as the app, but it lives in the browser on the internet. While writing essays, I prefer to use Yabla because it will show synonyms in both languages, which allows users to choose between characters with different shades of meaning. I’m the kind of person who chooses words carefully (when writing essays, perhaps not so much while blogging), so this level of detail really helped bring my essays to life. Yabla also has a pinyin chart, which is good for either beginners trying to learn Chinese or experienced students who need a review. There isn’t much I can say about Yabla that isn’t encompassed in Pleco, and Pleco actually has more functionality, but Yabla’s word bank is much larger than Pleco’s. If I can’t find a word or phrase on Pleco, I usually turn to Yabla (I stay away from Google Translate).

I’ll keep my eye out for more Mandarin resources, but because I’ve graduated from uni, I’m no longer enrolled in Chinese courses. Still, I like to read, and have started to branch out into Chinese-language Literature, so perhaps there will be full-fledged reviews of Chinese books on here (in English, for the sake of simplicity and expediency).

Screaming in a Chinese Hotel Room

Content warning: adoption, unhealthy relationships, drugs

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

By: Lisa See

Before I go into my review, let me give a little bit of background about myself, which might help you all understand my reaction to the The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane. Never a fan of coffee, I grew up drinking tea. Because tea leaves are somewhat expensive in the United States (and they weren’t readily available where I lived until recently), I learned to settle for teabags. Later, around my second year in university, I happened upon the Tianshan Tea City in Shanghai, China. I returned every week during the winter break, and every month during the following semester, learning how to brew tea from a gaiwan (a bowl-like tool for brewing tea) and tasting the differences between types of tea. I left China for about a year after that, and my tea education stagnated. When I returned, I picked up where I left off, this time to learn as much as I can before I had to leave again. Slowly, I’ve been differentiating not just between types of tea, but between different blends of a single type. Just before coming across The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, I started to experiment with pu’er tea.

I picked up my first Lisa See novel, Shanghai Girls, in high school, and read it over the course of a weekend. Ever since, See has been one of my favorite authors, and she may or may not have influenced my eventual decision to study in China (even I’m not sure at this point). When I learned The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane was up for grabs on NetGalley, I jumped at the chance to read it. Fortunately, I was selected as a pre-reader, and I honestly can’t recommend the book enough.

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane is primarily about Li-yan, an Akha (a particular Chinese minority; China has 55 ethnic minorities) girl from a tribe on Nannuo Mountain. The mountain is now well-known for its pu’er tea, but during the beginning of the story, the people on the mountain had no idea what pu’er is, and the type of tea was itself relatively unknown. As a result, Akha people live in poverty. Their families and their spiritual traditions are all they have (that and a plot of land allotted by the Chinese government). In the beginning of the novel, Li-yan expressed doubt about her tribe’s traditions. When I first started reading, I really thought the novel was going to be about a girl who stops living by her cultural rules and moves to the west to sell her culture as a commodity. I’m so glad The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane didn’t go in that direction.

In Akha tradition, each action can result and either bad or good fortune. As Li-yan goes through life, she tries to understand what is happening to her based on the way she has behaved in the past. The book focuses not only her life, but also on the growth and production of pu’er tea. A less-skilled author might have handled these sections dryly, but See writes them in such a way that they seamlessly flow into the pace of the novel. As a tea nerd, I especially enjoyed this information, but even those who don’t drink tea will learn a lot about it from reading this book.

At one point–and I can’t say when or why without including a spoiler– the novel branches off into a substory, with its own characters. One of the characters in the sub-story has something to do with a couple characters in the main story, but otherwise the storylines remain completely separate. Despite the difficulty of juggling two completely different plots, Lisa See manages to pull it off. She avoids inconsistencies while giving characters depth. She made me truly care about each of the two main characters, and I also formed opinions about some of the supporting characters. See’s superb writing style, quick pace, and excellent word choice kept my eyes glued to the book. I went to read a chapter before bed and before I knew it I had read three.

The only criticism I have about The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane is the way it ended. Throughout the entire novel, I found myself surprised by what happened next (at one point, I was whisper-screaming, “NO, NO, OH MY GOD, NO!” in my hotel room. I’m so glad I was alone), but the last few pages or so were too predictable. I suspect this happened because See wanted to quickly wrap up the loose ends, but because of the way the novel ended, it would have been nice to have experienced a little bit more of the emotional atmosphere for the two main characters. I actually would have preferred to hear about the events from Li-yan’s perspective as well as the other character. As it is, I didn’t feel like the novel had a tight ending. I actually even flipped the page after the last sentence expecting to find another chapter.

That being said, the rest of the novel is fantastic. Of the 384 pages, only the 2 of them disappointed me. Fans of Lisa See will surely enjoy her latest book. For those who haven’t yet read anything by the author, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, is an excellent starting point.

Find the book on Amazon | Goodreads

An English Palestinian Searches for Her Lost Father

jasmine falling cover

Jasmine Falling
By: Shereen Malherbe

This review was originally published on Muslimah Media Watch.

Jasmine Falling by Muslimah Media Watch’s Shereen Malherbe recounts the story of Jasmine, a young English girl who, in order to receive her inheritance after her mother dies, searches for her father in his native Palestine and winds up discovering not only the family she left behind, but also the culture to which she belongs.

As clichéd as the phrase may be, reading Jasmine Falling sent me on an emotional rollercoaster. Within the span of just a few pages I would find myself vacillating between pitying Jasmine for her loss and being downright angry with a fictional character for the decisions she makes: for example, Jasmine’s decision to get drunk in Palestine (a foreign land for her) with a guy she hardly knows, even though going to the bar had nothing to do with her mission, upset me so much I briefly stopped reading, then realized I was angry out of concern. I know people who’ve done the same thing Jasmine did, and I know the unfortunate consequences of their actions. Despite my frustrations with some of the protagonist’s choices, by the end of the novel, I was overwhelmingly happy for Jasmine, because she “found what her heart wanted.”

When I took a step back from the book after reading it, I realized I got way more involved with the characters than I normally do. As I read, I quoted the book and narrated Jasmine’s life to those around me (mostly my mother, who eventually began asking me for updates in Jasmine’s life) which speaks volumes (pun intended) about how well-written the novel is. Though written in accessible prose, the sentences are woven in such a way that the reader feels almost part and parcel of the action, of which there is plenty.Jasmine Falling is almost overwhelming in its back-to-back twists and turns, but each new plot element follows naturally from the one that preceded it.

Religion plays a more central role in Jasmine Falling than the title would suggest. Malherbe’s novel is peppered with references to Islam, but the book doesn’t feel “Islamic,” nor do the references disrupt the flow of the story. In fact, the references propel the story as Jasmine goes down the path of growth and self-understanding. The adhan (call to prayer) in the countryside provides a cadence against which readers can measure the passage of the day. The Arabic greetings provide a layer of authenticity to the novel. Jasmine’s gradually increasing usage of phrases such as “alhamdulillah” and her slow recollection of Islamic teachings she learned as a child (and abandoned as a teenager) artfully indicate her growth of character.

Despite the elements of Islam in Jasmine Falling, there are several themes in the novel that may appeal to a non-Muslims just as much as Muslims. My mother, who is a sixty-year-old Christian, was just as eager to hear about Jasmine as I was to read about her. Jasmine appealed to my mother’s sense of adventure. Those with ties to Middle Eastern culture will enjoy that aspect of the novel. Third culture children (people who grew up in a culture different from that of their parents) and people whose parents are from two different places but they themselves only grew up in one would enjoy Jasmine Falling the most. Much of Jasmine’s internal conflict centers around cultural reconciliation. She grew up in England, and after her father disappeared, her mother essentially ignored Jasmine’s Palestinian half. Jasmine, who remembers her father, felt the emptiness, but decided to immerse herself in English culture. When she goes to Palestine, she is filled with a mix of nostalgia for the old sights and smells and regret at having let her roots slip away.

Reading this novel certainly made me realize how important it is to acknowledge and celebrate all of the cultures in which I was raised. I’m both more proud to be black and less hesitant to call myself American. Just as Jasmine realized the rejection of her father’s culture left her flailing for grounding, I have begun to realize that the food, the media, and the traditions I grew up with make me who I am. Trying to stifle the minority culture (black) to better conform to the majority culture (American) split my personality unnecessarily, and left me generally confused. My new-found embracement of my hyphenated identity is perhaps indicative of why I enjoyed it so much: Jasmine, in a way, is me.

Though Jasmine’s reason for going to Palestine was not a happy one, the novel is not very grim. There are dark moments, as there are in most novels, but Malherbe managed to strike a balance between the uplifting moments and the somber ones. Jasmine is a youthful, audacious character, almost to the point of recklessness at times. She follows her instincts and is not afraid to speak up when she witnesses injustice. It was refreshing to read something about a Muslim woman that didn’t paint her life as exceedingly difficult, and that didn’t involve her overcoming some form of culture-based oppression that she blamed on religion.Jasmine Falling will remain on my shelf for some time to come, and I hope to find more books worthy enough to join it.

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Click here to read an interview with Shereen.

The Prayer Rug

prayer rug image — 2015. Black Rose Writing. 155 Pages.

The Prayer Rug
By: H.M. Hymas

This review was originally published on Muslimah Media Watch.

I really wanted to like this book. I love to hear lesser-told narratives, and this one checked all the boxes: it features a female protagonist and Muslim characters. More specifically, the characters are Iraqi, and I’ve never read a story that features Iraqi people. In short, The Prayer Rug follows Reem and her family as they struggle to maintain their sense of home in Iraq while it is being invaded by American Forces. Reem clings to her prayer rug—whose rhythmic presence is not as central to the novel as one might expect—as a symbol of faith, struggle, and progress. Unfortunately, the book fell flat. The writing is clumsy, the “plot twists” are obvious, and the characters feel more like caricatures.

In terms of word choice, The Prayer Rug was pretty easy to read. The phrases are short and the words are simple. So simple, in fact, that I found myself getting bored. Hymas frequently repeated words and phrases, a device that would have worked well had the repeated words come from the same character’s mouth, but the phrases seem to be playing round-robin throughout the book, which is not only confusing but also uninventive. Rather than letting the events of the novel speak for themselves, Hymas uses character commentary to move through the plot. As a result of the repetition and transparency, I quickly learned which phrases signaled an upcoming tragedy or plot reversal. Several times, Reem comments that “Today is going to be a good day,” right before tragedy strikes. The attempts to the reader away from the plot “twist” are painfully obvious. Reem makes daily trips to the market. The first time she goes, she pauses to ask herself, “Will the market be safe today?” Reem then explains that the market is often the target of terrorist activity. The second time Reem goes to the market, a couple of chapters later, she once again pauses to ask, “Will it be safe today?” before reiterating the dangers of the market. The reiterations seems to imply that readers cannot retain information for longer than a couple of pages. Inevitably, the market becomes the dangerous place it’s worked up to be, and of course Reem doesn’t see it coming, despite being aware of the possibility.

Throughout the novel, characters changed so quickly and so frequently that I often found myself re-reading previous passages to make sure I understood them correctly. For instance, in one chapter, Reem checks the road for explosive devices while taking her children to school. She notes that her children are so used to the exercise they no longer ask her about it. In a later chapter, though, Reem pauses to assess a public area for danger (I’m being intentionally vague here to avoid spoilers) and her daughter asks why she stopped. Through Reem we discover that her daughter has only known the war, and that Reem’s older son has spent the majority of his life in the warzone. Still, her son doesn’t seem to comprehend the dangers of walking recklessly in the road and consorting with strangers. When his parents discuss who is fighting and why, it seems as if he is hearing this information for the first time, despite his being a teenager. While it is possible that he would be ignorant of the specifics of the war, Reem and Azzam (her husband) discuss the war so frequently I find it hard to believe their son hasn’t learned anything about it during his lifetime.

Perhaps the thing I found most appalling about the book was the blatant political agenda. We get it; the war in Iraq ruined people’s lives. Show us, don’t tell us. The characters repeated some version of the phrase “things were better before the Americans came” ad nauseum. Even as they repeated this mantra, they continued to detail the terrible reign of Saddam Hussein. This dual treatment leaves readers in limbo. On the one hand, readers are supposed to believe that the American occupation in Iraq ruined the lives of the Iraqi people. On the other hand, they are supposed to believe that Saddam Hussein was the one who ruined the lives of the Iraqi people. One gets the impression that Iraq would be better off with no governmental system, but history tells us that doesn’t work either.

Fortunately, Reem herself is a somewhat respectable character. She is depicted as a pious, loving wife and mother, who does everything she can to ensure the safety and relative comfort of her family, even if it means making sacrifices. Of all the characters, Reem seems the most human. She suffers grief, pain, and fear, but she also enjoys hope, joy, and thankfulness. Like the other characters, Reem’s character is deficient in the areas of dialogue and thought narration, but Hymas succeeded in creating a strong female Muslim leading character. Though Reem depends on her husband to provide an income for the family, she is neither oppressed by, subservient to, nor entirely dependent upon him. Reem makes it clear both to her family and to the reader that no matter what happens to her on Earth, she will always be able to turn to God.

I was excited to see some Islamic thought peppered throughout the book: why we pray, why we fast, why we (some of us) wear hijab. Regrettably, these aspects were dropped into the story, rather than woven in, and Hymas only touched on the basics without addressing the shades of meaning and variations in practice. In a book that spends so much time talking about Sunni/Shi’a conflict, discussing the differences would have been easy. While the differences aren’t exactly integral to the plot, having some idea why Reem’s family (who is Sunni) might be persecuted by her predominately Shi’a neighbors would have deepened the narrative. On some level, I’m glad the author didn’t attempt this; based on the shallow plot and poor characterization, I can tell he wouldn’t have done the topic justice.

Frankly, I’m glad I received this for free, in ebook format. The cover, title, and subject matter would have lured me into buying the book and I would have been frustrated I wasted my money. I cannot openly recommend this book because it has serious structural issues, but at the same time I’d like to recommend it to readers because it’s a book that deals with both women and Islam, and the world needs more of those narratives. Even horribly constructed narratives are welcome, because they encourage discussion. Hopefully, in the future, those narratives will be something worth reading.

I received a free copy of the H.M. Hymas’s The Prayer Rug from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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