In the past few weeks, there are two pieces of news stopped me on my track.
Joan Didion’s passing.
Peter Hessler moved back to the States after spending 2 years teaching at a Chinese university instead of staying for 5 years as planned.
Both news relate to writers whose work I enjoyed tremendously. I came across Joan Didion’s book “The year of magical thinking” while I was at University. The title caught my eye as I thought it was about adventures, turned out Joan wrote her experiences after losing both her husband and daughter in a very short span of time. I actually didnt finish reading it the first time, part of the reason was it was a translated version, I could feel the emotions of the book but could not quite grasp the details of the events. A couple of years later I bought the English copy, after reading it I sought more books written by Joan. When the Netflix documentary came out, I also watched it. Joan’s writing to me was steadfast with cold observations of the deepest pain in life, yet there was still a sense of hope in the midst of it. Otherwise how could she came up with the title of “The year of magical thinking”? Grief make us think in ways we never did before. It peels down many layers of our inner most being and it is a transformation I have been curious about. I was grateful Joan showed me there is grace in grieving.
Peter Hessler writes mainly about China. His book “River Town” covered his time teaching in the remote town Fuling in Sichuan back in the 90s. His book on China is often categorised under Travel Writings, but it is so much more than travel stories. He looks at China through the most unique set of lenses. I have yet to come across another writer who captures contemporary Chinese life as well as him, this is including Chinese writers. His observation often made me stop and suddenly understand how and why things work the way they do in China. He helped me understand better about being a Chinese. I do not know what skills he has in order to achieve this, as it is not easy to capture things as they truly are without fear or doubts. I was listening to Sinica podcast and only just found out in the middle of last year, his teaching job was cut short by the University, he and his family moved back to United States. I wish him and his family well, I know no matter where they are, he will capture the most interesting aspects of life and the people he encounter.
Hope this year I get to read more good books. Books ground me and open my eyes during a time we cant travel as much as we use to. Thanks to the writers who put their heart and soul into the stories they tell.
LIYANG'S THOUGHTS 