The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'A beautifully executed, moving debut about the articulation of love.' --The Times, 14 September, 2010
'A sensitive and moving exploration of what happens to a marriage when love is lost in translation' --Marie Claire, 3 September, 2010
'The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai is an eminently readable part-allegory of China's views on national identity and belonging, foisted Americanisation and external temptation. I look forward to Ruiyan Xu's second novel'
'A sensitive and moving exploration of what happens to a marriage when love is lost in translation' --Marie Claire, 3 September, 2010
'The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai is an eminently readable part-allegory of China's views on national identity and belonging, foisted Americanisation and external temptation. I look forward to Ruiyan Xu's second novel'
'[Xu's] writing is delicate, evocative and eloquent' --The Sunday Express, 29 August, 2010 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Review
'An engrossing novel that will enchant you from beginning to end' David Ebershoff, author of The 19th Wife 'Beautifully executed and moving' Sunday Times 'A sensitive and moving exploration of what happens when love is lost in translation' Marie Claire 'A compassionate and perspicacious examination of the nature of human relationships' Daily Mail
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This story is about a Chinese man who suffers a head injury, as a result of which he loses the ability to speak Chinese, finding himself only able to communicate in English.
The success of this book for each individual reader is determined by how much that reader cares about the 2 main characters - the doctor and the patient. Both have faults but are not unlikeable. I also found their situations very believeable. The problem was that I didn't care what happened to them. I did finish the book but several times I was tempted to put it down.
What kept my attention was the lovely writing with the descriptions of life in Shanghai - this is wonderfully written, providing an evocative picture of both expat and local life in the city.
It is a well written book with a beautiful atmosphere - more time should have been spent on the characters.
The success of this book for each individual reader is determined by how much that reader cares about the 2 main characters - the doctor and the patient. Both have faults but are not unlikeable. I also found their situations very believeable. The problem was that I didn't care what happened to them. I did finish the book but several times I was tempted to put it down.
What kept my attention was the lovely writing with the descriptions of life in Shanghai - this is wonderfully written, providing an evocative picture of both expat and local life in the city.
It is a well written book with a beautiful atmosphere - more time should have been spent on the characters.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This book is based on one of the more fascinating ideas that I have seen in recent literature and an idea that has particular resonance with me given my job as an ESL lecturer. The protagonist of the novel loses his ability to communicate in his native language through a freak accident and has to communicate in schoolboy English. There are enough reviews giving the content for those interested in this book. For me the important aspect of this book is the way that language is seen as a barrier to communication. Having lived abroad I know the feeling of not being able to express anything more than the most basic of thoughts and it is here, for me, that the strength of this novel lies. I got the impression that this book is aimed more at women than at men. Certainly, my wife loved it and raced through the pages, whereas I struggled in places. Having said that I thought it was a really interesting departure and a book well worth checking out.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
As the title suggests, Ruiyan Xu's debut novel uses the differences in Chinese and English language to explore the disparity in thinking and expression between people of different cultures, but it also considers language in a wider context as the principal means by which we communicate and form close relationships with others, as well as create a the gulf when expression and meaning are out of step. In some respects, The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai follows similar ground covered in Rachel DeWoskin's Chinese-English cross-cultural experiences in Foreign Babes in Beijing and Repeat After Me, but while there are some important differences, there are also, unfortunately, similar weaknesses.
The crucial difference between Xu and DeWoskin is that the perspective is reversed from the American to the Chinese viewpoint. Whereas De Woskin would however use teaching and English-language courses as a means to explicitly bring out the differences in language and meaning, Xu finds a more imaginative way to explore the subject through a rare condition known as bilingual aphasia. This condition affects Li Jing, a Chinese businessman who spent his childhood in America, who finds that he can no longer speak Chinese after minor brain damage sustained in a gas explosion at a restaurant. Dr. Rosalyn Neal, a specialist in neurological disorders, travels from America, partly to examine this rare case, but also using the trip as an opportunity to escape from a recent marriage break-up.
The idea is a fine one - both the patient and the doctor feel isolated within themselves on account of language and personal issues, and both need to find a way to reintegrate into a society where they don't feel entirely comfortable and suffer from a lack of understanding other people - but, yes, it's a kind of Lost in Translation idea, and, yes, it's more interested in relationships than in demonstrating any deeper cultural significance in the expressions and meaning of language. Even on the relationship front, it's not entirely successful, and it's hard to entirely sympathise with the predicament of any of the main characters. Worse, they aren't even credible, neither in their professional lives nor in the roles they later assume, whether it be on a personal or inter-personal level.
If the author fails to make the characters real, or make them sympathetic to the reader, The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai does at least have a good slow-burning quality, manoeuvring towards a tense and somewhat dramatic conclusion, but ultimately without convincing that there's any depth beneath the melodramatic, romantic soap-operatics.
The crucial difference between Xu and DeWoskin is that the perspective is reversed from the American to the Chinese viewpoint. Whereas De Woskin would however use teaching and English-language courses as a means to explicitly bring out the differences in language and meaning, Xu finds a more imaginative way to explore the subject through a rare condition known as bilingual aphasia. This condition affects Li Jing, a Chinese businessman who spent his childhood in America, who finds that he can no longer speak Chinese after minor brain damage sustained in a gas explosion at a restaurant. Dr. Rosalyn Neal, a specialist in neurological disorders, travels from America, partly to examine this rare case, but also using the trip as an opportunity to escape from a recent marriage break-up.
The idea is a fine one - both the patient and the doctor feel isolated within themselves on account of language and personal issues, and both need to find a way to reintegrate into a society where they don't feel entirely comfortable and suffer from a lack of understanding other people - but, yes, it's a kind of Lost in Translation idea, and, yes, it's more interested in relationships than in demonstrating any deeper cultural significance in the expressions and meaning of language. Even on the relationship front, it's not entirely successful, and it's hard to entirely sympathise with the predicament of any of the main characters. Worse, they aren't even credible, neither in their professional lives nor in the roles they later assume, whether it be on a personal or inter-personal level.
If the author fails to make the characters real, or make them sympathetic to the reader, The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai does at least have a good slow-burning quality, manoeuvring towards a tense and somewhat dramatic conclusion, but ultimately without convincing that there's any depth beneath the melodramatic, romantic soap-operatics.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Neat parable
China still claims to be a communist country, but for 30+ years it's pursued capitalism with a ferocity that is matched only by the US, especially in Shanghai. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Alan Hansen
Exploration of the isolation that results from a lack of language
After he is injured in an accident in Shanghai, Li Jing wakes up unable to speak Chinese. Instead he has reverted to English, the language of his childhood, which he spoke until he... Read more
Published 17 months ago by AR
Difficult but intriguing
I must admit that I found this difficult. It seems to be the old dilemma of trying to win awards and also trying to tell a good story. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Lisa Deick
Thoughtful, delicately balanced novel, and not just a "Lost In...
Ruiyan Xu's first novel is excellent. As the tag line "what happens when love is lost in translation? Read more
Published 21 months ago by Mr. Stuart Bruce
LOST AND FORGOTTON
A slightly unusual love story set in modern day Shanghai before, during and after an earthquake.
A book that makes you think as you read it, a little like a Chinese meal... Read more
A book that makes you think as you read it, a little like a Chinese meal... Read more
Published 21 months ago by A. Taylor
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
