Book recommendation request

[dangermousie]

If anyone can recommend me a good history/social history/culture/memoir book on

* Laos
* Cambodia
* Vietnam (not the Vietnam War, please)
* Korea (see the above caveat about Vietnam and apply it to Korean War)
* Japan
* Indonesia
* Nepal
* China

I would be grateful :)

Comments

[om-shakti.livejournal.com]

I don't have any but i've been trying to find goode books of any of those kinds about ANYWHERE outside of english speaking countries, but no one has been able to suggest anything to me. I hope some of your friends have suggestions so I can read them too!

Actually, for China, I really enjoyed "Leaving Mother Lake" about a little girl from a matriarchal people on one of China's borders (I think).

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Are you looking for some general histories? because I can think of some social histories about particular periods in Chinese history.

[om-shakti.livejournal.com]

Mostly just fiction (or memoir), I've read so much nonfiction for school in the past 3 years I'm cravinnnnnggg.

[ww1614.livejournal.com]

Early Arrival of Dreams

I saw Mahoney speak, and she's very interesting.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thank you, thank book sounds fascinating.

[moth5dream.livejournal.com]

The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
for China
If remember right though, it's more about Chinese immigrants adapting to American life.

I'd like to find one for Korea too.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Yeah, books on Korea are especially hard to find.

[thinking-lotus.livejournal.com]

I have a close friend who has devoted his life to vietnamese lit & culture. But a lot of the non-war-related source material is in French, since Viet Nam was a French colony -- do you read French?

In English there's The Birth of Vietnam by Keith Weller Taylor, Vietnam: An Illustrated History by Shelton Woods, and Understanding Vietnam by Neil Jamieson.

All 3 are available in paperback from Amazon.com.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I don't really read French any better than directions and menus so no :(

But thank you for the English list. I will totally check those out

[thinking-lotus.livejournal.com]

here's my friend's site http://www.vietnamlit.org

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[clowninpathos.livejournal.com]

Don't know how interested you would be of this, but a good read none the less.

Based on this article-->

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/05/06/apop050609.DTL

I found out about "Shutting Out The Sun" by Michael Zielenziger
quote from the article "that explores the roots of the phenomenon in Japan's cultural resistance to change and repression of nonconformity."

And explains JP's hikikomori,(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori)

Was pretty interesting. Gave me a peek into JP's minds. For the 1st half of the book, I kept going.... "Oh, so japan, is that why you're so weird?" (watched hanakimi, my 1st and last Jdrama, and was going WTF!?!? soooo random) hmmmm... explains a lot. And then for the 2nd half of the book, I was "Dude! the USA could so learn something from this." Was published in 2006, yet is so apropo of the present times. It speaks of JP's financial crisis and how & why their economy has been so stagnant. e.i. their culture of being so untrusting of strangers and unopenness.

Me being chinese, in a weird way, actually made me understand china a bit better, them being similar in cultures. I've been so Americanized that for the life of me, just couldn't understand why AZNs feel such a need to keep up appearances and be sort of fake around people. Why they treat strangers so badly, (visited china and noticed a huge difference between china and the US on friendliness factor) there's no random chit-chatting among strangers on the bus for example.

and talks of other topics. better stop before this gets long.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

The Hikikomori book sounds interesting. (I've heard of hikikomori and found it a bizarre phenomenon).

[clowninpathos.livejournal.com]

Since I know you don't mind spoilers.... in summation, Hikikomori only happens in JP, bcuz it is related to it's culture.

Shame-based society, makes you conform, allows bullying (I thought doramas were exaggerating, but based on the book, maybe not.), is repressive, and passive-aggressive, lacks identity, etc, just soooo many problems to deal and overcome, to the point where if you, as an individual, want to step out of the norm and be different (and not in the weird harajuku, gwen stefani-way), you are completely ostracized, and have little choices but leave JP or lock yourself in your room.

Really sad actually, reading the book, it kind of frightened me into wondering what JP is doing to itself. The youth's future sounds kind of bleak.

I wonder if that's why JP's entertainment is just so, so bizarre at times.

you have to conform so much in RL, that when given the freedom, your brain (writers) just goes into weird places in manga, drama, etc. Sure gave me somewhat of an explanation, when before, I had none.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Sounds interesting, thanks!

[fivil.livejournal.com]

Not really historical/social historical but might interest you; Korea Goes Pop by Mark James Russell

It's basically about Korean popular culture, from dramas to movies to pop music to online gaming. Really plainspoken/non-academic but I found it an interesting look at Korean pop culture all the same.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

ooooh, sounds like fun! Thanks!

[(Anonymous)]

I'm currently reading a fiction book set in the Edo period. The author has a bibliography list if your interested.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes please?

[angerfish.livejournal.com]

Have you read Wild Swans by Jung Chang? It's a memoir following the lives of three generations of a family in China during the 20th century. It combines history with memoir apretty much seamlessly, and it's really powerful writing overall.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

No I haven't (I haven't read that many memoirs generally - good ones are hard to find). I will check it out, it sounds good!

[walkwithheroes.livejournal.com]

I came across this site while looking for the same type of thing.


Asian historical/social history novels It lists the novels by country and has authors/small summary of the book/links to buy the book. The books are historical, social, and even a few historical mysteries and historical fantasy based on myths and facts.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

That list is wonderfully helpful, thank you!

[walkwithheroes.livejournal.com]

Welcome. I found it really helpful myself.

[(Anonymous)]

Vietnamese here, I would recommend "Understanding Vietnam" for a general view of history and cultures, and "Postcolonial Vietnam: New Histories of the National Past" for a deeper insight about Vietnam's effort to redefine its identity.

For memoir there is "The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family" and "Daughters of the River Huong" which is a quasi memoir of sort. The American War featured in both books, but it's not the entire focus.


On a completely unrelated note, I just found out that apparently Vietnam is remaking Fullhouse. I found some pix on the internet and dear lord the guys are ugly.

JoanP

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Those books sound excellent. Yay!

I have never seen a Vietnamese drama and now I am curious :)

[silchi.livejournal.com]

I've got a couple. All good reads!

Vietnam:
Catfish and Mandala | Andrew X. Pham

Japan:
Geisha: A Life | Mineko Iwasaki (true story behind Memoirs of a Geisha)
Dog Man: An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain | Martha Sherill
Confessions of a Yakuza | Junichi Saga (the book i read most recently. verrrrry good!)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

On China I would highly recommend Wild Swans by Jung Chang. Amazing memoir of 3 generations living under the Mao regime. I should have something for Indonesia but I can't remember it at this very moment. Will let you know when I do ;-)

[december-clouds.livejournal.com]

China & HK: Any and all of Adeline Yen Mah's books, starting with Falling Leaves. It might make you angry especially since you had little mousie.

Vietnam (a movie actually): The Scent of Green Papaya. Has absolutely nothing to do with the war, but sort of around the time France was occupying them maybe?

Cambodia or Laos: A lot of people read "The Spirit Catches you and you fall down" back in 2000.

I have about a thousand more of these but that's all I can think of now. :)

[december-clouds.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, can you recommend any history/social history/culture/memoir books on Russia for me? :)