簡明漢英情人字典

Title: A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers
Author: Guo, Xiaolu (1973- )
New York : Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2007
283 p.
Read by: 10/09/2011, borrowed from WBPL
Genre: Fiction


This is about culture clash, but targeted on western readers, about Chinese view on European (more exactly, UK) rituals and languages as well as introducing Chinese ways, inevitably. So nothing is new to me, the only attraction was the use of matter-of-factor statements throughout the book as a means to achieve wit or humor. Some questions appeared quite stupid on surface, but they held quite some truth. The author was very clever on that. The story developed well, regardless the dictionary style with small episodes. What was missing was love. I can’t trace to its beginning – going out with a stranger met in a movie theater and moving in to his house the second date without being invited was certainly not a Chinese way! Crazy sex then followed. It is a story plunged into a pot without root and therefore bore no fruits. I positively dislike the character Z, not very much her lover (what’s his name?) either. Her claimed love for him was really a need for her own survival. It’s very needy and selfish. When she finally graduated from his “language class”, her sense of independence finally matured. By the way, why was the head of the top bird on the cover page missing? It is a big taboo in Chinese culture, implying the dominating figure in a relationship which is usually a male, is dead. Interestingly, the author was from the city I was raised.