Moment in peking
---an English version of Red Chamber Dreams
Long time ago, I had hear about the name of moment in peking through TV. At that time, it was a well known TV play which some famous stars such as zhaowei played in. And I was also fascinated in the story.After I knew it was adapted by a book original written in English by Lin Yutang, I had the desire to read the original version. So when I came across this book in the library, I couldn’t help borrowing it and bringing it back home from guangzhou. My dad was very puzzled and kind of angry,“why do you bring such a thick book?” It is a book of 678 pages ,so no wonder my father had that kind of reaction when he saw this book. No matter how, I decided to read it during this summer vacation. And at the time I started the frist page, I just couldn’t stop and I had known that I can do that.
This book just like an English version of Red Chamber Dreams. It can let the foreigners understand and appreciate the culture and society of China. It talls about a story that recorded the Chinese history from 1900 to 1938, which will never be forgotten. It began with the Boxer Rebellion in 1901 and ended with the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War. The whole book displayed the old Chinese culture, politics and lifeis through three wealthy families: Yao, Tseng (Zeng), and New (Niu) and talks about their rise and decline. Just as the writer said,“This novel is neither an apology for contemporary Chinese life nor an expose of it, as so many recent Chinese ‘dark curtain’ novels purport to be. It is neither a glorification of the old way of life nor a defense of the new.It is merely a story of  how men and women in the contemporary era grow up and learn to live with one another. It is neither a glorification of the old way of life nor a defense of the new. It is merely a story of how men and women in the contemporary era grow up and learn to live with one another, how they love and hate and quarrel and forgive and suffer and enjoy, how certain habits of living and ways of thinking are formed, and how, above all, they adjust themselves to the circumstances in this earthly life where men strive but the gods rule.’’ May be it is the most classic background novel of modern China.
The reason why I love it so much just can’t express in a few words or some sentences. Generally speaking, frist of all I can learn many new words. Especially some are relative to Chinese local things, such as saden ,satin and so on. Secondly, some discriptions about the scenery and the characters are quite good. For instance, “the sun rose from the east and shone upon the entrance to the house, making the leaves of the big colanut tree glisten with the dew.”and“he is a man about forty, short, stumpy,whit bushy eyebrow and pouches under the eyes,and no beard,but a very healthy complexion. His hair was still perfectly black.He walks with a young, steady gait, with slow but firm steps.”are very worth appreciating. I think may be I can adopt this way to describe something and imitate it. Thirdly, it is the story itself. All the characters and the polts are so attracting and meaningful. I am very admire Yao Mulan and her father. There are so many sentences that are profound and full of philosophy. Here I will give you some of them and my own understanding.
The book's leading light is one of the natural Taoism. Zhuangzi's philosophy in the book affected the Si Yao ,Yao Mulan and Kongli Cardiff a lot. It seems full of wisdom. It seems that the life and death, wealth, the sweets and bitters of life was saw through. One of the profound sentence that Mr. Yao told Mulan is that when you yourself are right, nothing that happens to you can ever be wrong. I had thought these words for a long time, and gradually understand its meaning. May be the writer want to tell us that no matter what happens, be youself and insist the right principle, then you can suffer from it and win at the end. I quite agree with it and belive in it. As long as we are right and insist doing the right things, we can derive our courage to live and to endure. When Mr.Yao decided to leave Peking because of the Boxer Rebellion, he left all his curios at home. When little Mulan asked why, he explained like this,“Everything has its destined owner. How many hundred owners do you think those chou bronzes have had in the last three thousand years? No one ever permanently owns a thing in this world For the time being, I am their owner. A hundred years from now, who will be their owner?’’ This is very reasonable. But how many of us realize this? No one can permanently owns a thing in this world. But there are to many people do evil just for these earthly treasure.
Mulan is the protagonist of the story. She was born in Beijing, from the wealthy Yao family. However, during the, she was kidnapped by bandits and rescued by the Tseng family, who thereafter became close friends of the Yao's. Mulan was lively, intelligent, and generous, as well as extremely responsible. Her father always encouraged her interests. She wasn't pride as other  delicate xiaojie, neither with the traditional stereotypes. she completely likes a magnolia flower, just as her name implys, elegant ,pure and clever. In addition, Mulan was extremely interested in "bone characters," or studying ancient Chinese characters written on bones, and singing Chinese opera. The story had written the whole of her life from Mulan's childhood to her death. It includes her funs of childhood, her love deeply buried in the bottom of heart, her happy marriage, her the pain of dead daughter; her the good deeds in the way to flee and the thought under the influence of Taoism Thinking. Her intelligence, along with her kindhearted nature, caught the interest of a young man named Kung Lifu. Though Mulan had the same sensation with Lifu, she married Sunya, and their marriage was mainly harmonious. They had three children together. The first daughter, Aman, died in the student protest,which made her very grieved. The most admirable personality I think is her way to manage her marriage. On one hand, she can do all a standard wife and mother should do, such as embroider, cooking, and nursing. On the other hand, she was thoroughly accomplished in lyre-playing, chess, calligraphy and painting, which can entertainment her. And after finding her husband has another woman, she was very tolerant and solve it in a appropriate way.
Expect Mulan, this book also describes many other figures. Like some wealthy businessmen, a Taoist monk, the Japanese officers and prostitutes, philosopher Lin Qinlan and ideological radical young students, they all presented the reality of modern China.
This book is prepared for the foreigners. It can help them to understand and appreciate the culture and society of China. Because of that special purpose, maybe some of the details were overstated and some of the characters were rigescence that represented the most common people in China. I think this is the weakness in this book and another one is that it still be a little Chinglish. Expect that,I think this book is almost perfect. It just likes an English version of Red Chamber Dreams, which is the greatest work of Mr. Lin Yutang in his 25 books in both Chinese and English.It is not only a story book, but also a book about philosophy. Although it is for foreigners, but some profound principle only we Chinese can understand and can help us know more about the history of this land that we grew up in . Moment in Peking is the treasure that the older generation left for our young people. The truth I learned from it can benefit me a lot in my whole live.