K’ang-hsi, Su Tong, contemporary Chinese writers and a Chinese father raising his daughter in London take readers into different corners of Chinese history, literature and life.
For September, China in Pages features five books rooted in personal experience. History, literature, family and everyday life all have a place in this month’s selection. The books focus on individual lives and personal memories. Their subjects are very different, but each book connects an individual life with the wider society and its changing times.
Emperor of China: Self-portrait of K’ang-hsi 《康熙：皇帝的自画像》
What was it like to be K’ang-hsi, one of China’s longest-reigning emperors? In Emperor of China: Self-Portrait of K’ang-Hsi, historian Jonathan D. Spence reconstructs the Qing emperor’s life through his own words. Drawing on letters, official writings and other surviving documents, Spence presents K’ang-hsi as ruler, father, scholar and ageing man.
The book reveals a curious and complex emperor, fascinated by science and technology and deeply concerned with ruling, his family and his legacy. His writings also show his growing frustrations with the difficulties of governing and the behaviour of his sons. By bringing K’ang-hsi’s own voice to the foreground, Spence offers a personal perspective on Qing history.
The Person Hiding Behind the Words 《躲在文字背后的人》
In The Person Hiding Behind the Words, award-winning Chinese writer Su Tong turns away from fiction to look back at the experiences that shaped him as a writer. His essays revisit childhood memories, old neighbourhoods, and the everyday world of his youth — open-air films, bicycles, summer sweets, rain on roof tiles, and the familiar people and places of his hometown. These seemingly ordinary details become a way of remembering a vanished world and tracing the origins of his literary imagination.
Su Tong finds literature in the texture of everyday life. He writes about the sound of rain, the secrets hidden in a water jar, the changing seasons and the streets of his childhood. These quiet, intimate essays offer a glimpse of the person behind one of China’s best-known literary voices. They explore memory, time and home, and the ways the past stays with us.
Reshaping the Parception of Reality 《重塑现实感》
In Reshaping the Parception of Reality, writer and scholar Bai Lin talks to nine prominent Chinese writers, including Jin Yucheng, Bi Feiyu, Chi Zijian and Ban Yu. The conversations span different generations and literary worlds. They touch on the intellectual ferment of 1980s China, the streets of Shanghai and the harsher realities of life in the northeast.
Bai Lin asks direct questions about consumerism, technology, morality, and a world increasingly shaped by illusion and distortion. The writers consider how fiction can remain grounded in lived experience. They also explore how literature might restore a sense of integrity, empathy and what it means to be fully human. For readers interested in contemporary Chinese literature, this collection offers fresh perspectives on the people and ideas behind some of China’s distinctive literary voices.
A Mother’s Story 《听妈妈的话》
A Mother’s Story begins with Li Fan asking her 76-year-old mother to tell her life story. Born in rural Sichuan in 1943, her mother grew up amid hunger, hard labour and social upheaval. Education and work eventually offered her a way forward. As Li Fan records her memories, she realises how little she knew about her mother’s past.
The book is also a portrait of a complicated mother-daughter relationship. Li Fan remembers a mother who was loving, protective and often controlling. Her care could sometimes feel like authority. By revisiting their shared memories, Li Fan examines love, conflict and silence within the family. She also sees her mother as a woman with her own history, choices and regrets.
School Days in London 《伦敦上学记》
When a Chinese family leaves Beijing for London, they hope to give their daughter a less pressured childhood. In School Days in London, journalist Yang Meng chronicles ten years of family life in the British capital. He writes about schools in Dulwich, private education, entrance tests and the expectations of other Chinese families. His observations offer a candid and often amusing look at raising a child in London.
The book is also a story about Yang himself. As his daughter grows more independent, he begins to question his own ideas about education and success. Arguments between parents and children become part of family life. So do worries about fitting in and the experience of the pandemic. Yang also reflects on his own childhood and the habits he may have passed on. Witty and self-deprecating, the book offers an honest portrait of a Chinese family making a life in London.
Written by Estelle Tang, illustrated by Yuma Zhao.
If you liked this article, why not read: August Picks: Who Am I? The Chinese Search for the Self
