I'm looking for some entertaining Chinese books (translated into English, if necessary).?

Question

I've read The Three Inch Golden Lotus (spectacular!), The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, Rickshaw, Balzak and the Chinese Seamstress, Old Madame Yin...

Looking for some more great reads.

Answer 1

肉蒲團

The Carnal Prayer Mat

Written by Li Yu in 1657

Translated by Patrick Hanan

University of Hawaii Press, 1996

336 pages

Answer 2

"The Tao Speaks : Lao-Tzu's Whispers of Wisdom" or "Zhuangzi Speaks" by Chi-Chung Ts'ai translated by Brain Bruya. It is a collection of Chinese and Taoist proverbs as cartoons translated for the teaching of them. I find it quite educational and entertaining to read (look on amazon)



Also, "Empress Orchid" is a must-read. Written by a Chinese-American who is knowledgable about China (i.e. not a translation, but on the topic), it's a fascinating story based on fact about the last empress of China. I couldn't put it down from page 1!



P.S. I've also heard that "The Good Earth" is very good and actually just ordered it on amazon!

Answer 3

The Chronicles of Dao. By Deng Ming Dao, Concentrates around Daoism but is very good story as well.



And Seven Taoist Masters is an old folk tale, translated by Eva Wong. Again around taoism...

Answer 4

I really enjoyed The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. It wasn't written by a Chinese person, but she spent much of her life there, and it's very authentic. She was as American CHinese as many of our Chinese Americans are.

Answer 5

"The Secrets of Jin-Shei" by Alma Alexander is one of my favorite books. You could also try "Becoming Madame Mao" by Anchee Min.