Reviews

Naked Earth by Eileen Chang

ericfheiman's review against another edition

4.0

(3.5 stars.)
While one could argue that the general storyline in Naked Earth flirts with cliché and predictability, there's no denying the stark power in its specifics. At the halfway point meet up of my book club, I predicted Chang’s book would end in tears and I wasn’t far off. If Naked Earth isn’t a home run example of poetic literature, it’s still an eye-opening history lesson and cautionary tale of leftist overreach that we’re still seeing the effects of 60+ years on in present day China.

mcby's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book is worth re-reading. The start of the story is hopeful and gives the impression that there may be something special to come, but crushing despair in the face of giant immovable systems directed by flawed individuals is the main theme of the latter parts. Good for those who seek to understand more about how humans live when faced with such systems. 

chamberk's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

guilherme_bicalho's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.5

klimts15thchild's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition

4.0

《赤地之戀》 (赤地 barren + 之 [particle] + 戀 love) by Zhang Ailing (張愛玲). Originally published in English as Naked Earth (1955), then translated into Mandarin by the author herself. Naked Earth was itself translated and adapted from an earlier work. One of the fascinating things about reading a novel translated by the author is that you can see how Zhang envisioned the story in both languages. It's one of the many benefits bilingual people have over the rest of you. (Joke.) (Maybe.) Anyway, the story is broadly the same in both languages, but the sentence-level details are quite different.

For example, first the English text, then the Chinese, then my translation:

“How are you, Comrade Ko?” he said smiling, looking at her a little curiously. He must have heard that one about her linguist eyes, she thought. His brief appraising glance cut sharply through the pale dough of his good-natured plump face, which closed up again smoothly after it. He was tall and stout, wearing a summer suit and fashionable rimmed glasses. His hair was balding at the back and worn long at the sides, probably from a sense of compensation.

「噯，戈同志──好吧？」申凱夫向她點頭微笑。他生得高而胖，蒼白的臉上戴著新型的熊貓式黑邊眼鏡。頭頂已經半禿了；也許是由於一種補償的心理，鬢髮卻留得長長的，稍有點女性化。穿著一套纖塵不染的雪青夏季西裝。

"Ai, Comrade Ge—all right?" Shen Kaifu nodded and smiled at her. He was tall and fat, with a pallid face, wearing the new type of panda-style black-rimmed eyeglasses. The crown of his head was already half bald; perhaps because of a kind of compensatory mentality, the hair on his temples however was kept very long, with a slightly feminine aspect. He was wearing a spotless lilac Western-style suit.

The descriptions are quite different.

“Have you been to see Chao Yen-hsia, Comrade Ko?” he said lightly, graciously including her in the conversation but not really expecting an answer. They had apparently been discussing the Peking Opera actress who was the latest hit in town. With Chairman Mao a Peking Opera fan, going to the opera was the thing to do among persons of rank.
　　“You’ve seen her in Yu T’ang Ch’un, haven’t you? That’s the limit,” Lin said chortling to Shen.

「我們在這兒談京戲，」藺益群笑著向戈珊說。
　「趙筱芳不錯，」申凱夫輕描淡寫地說了一聲，彷彿是他剛才已經說過了的話。

"We're here to chat about the Beijing Opera," Lin Yiqun said with a smile to Ge Shen.
　　"Zhao Xiaofang isn't bad," Shen Kaifu mentioned casually, as if he had already said something about it.

The singer's name is changed entirely.

“When she’s singing about her husband being poisoned by his other wife—you know that line: ‘All seven holes bleeding, he went to Hades’—she points quickly to her two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and one mouth, one after the other, quick as lightning. Then when she comes to ‘he went to Hades’ she sticks out her tongue quickly, between notes, as if he’d been strangled and his tongue left hanging out. Never a single line without hamming it up with gestures. When she sings ‘I’ she must point to her nose.”
　　Shen smiled. “Well, don’t you think this is also one of her good points?” he said mildly [...].

「就是表情太足了。」藺益群吃吃地笑了起來。「你看了她的『玉堂春』沒有，唱到『那一日梳妝來照鏡，』就真比劃著，一隻手握著鏡子，一隻手握著篦子，大梳特梳。唱到『奴』就指著自己鼻子，一個字都不肯輕輕放過。」
申凱夫安靜地微笑著，微微點了點頭。「其實這倒也是她的好處。」

"It's just that her face is overly expressive." Lin Yiqun laughted heartily. "Haven't you seen her 'Yu Tang Chun,' when she sings 'one day I dressed up to look into the mirror,' it's really just gesticulations, holding in one hand a looking-glass, holding in one hand a comb, a big comb and a special comb. When she sang 'I [polite humble form, lit. "slave"],' she pointed at her own nose, and not one word was allowed to slip out gently."
　　Shen Kaifu smiled calmly, nodding slightly. "Actually, on the contrary, it's also to her advantage."

This is a very clunky translation that conveys approximately none of the elegance of Zhang's prose, but it is, however, relatively literal. What I found perhaps most interesting was the change regarding what the opera singer was performing: "All seven holes bleeding, he went to Hades" versus "那一日梳妝來照鏡," with the former being, of course, an allusion to 七竅 [qīqiào], the seven apertures in the human head (the eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth).

emmaaaaaw's review against another edition

dark informative sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

mihu_'s review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

4.25

jume's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

gracedlazydaisy's review against another edition

2.0

To me it read as non-fiction when it is fiction (even if the background/environment/sentiment was written by the author thru lived experience in China in the 1950s). The writing was too dry and matter of fact that I found myself detached from the characters and a bit from the writing. As a huge non-fiction fan I like dry material, and my heart can still be effected by mass suffrage or repression. But when reading fiction the writing needs to be more emotive and descriptive in ways that isn't "Lui feels this because x,y,z." I would rather the reaction be described more poetically/using metaphors/description words because that's how I feel connected to fictional characters. I can appreciate the work and what it's trying to do. It has a 1984's feel from a communist standpoint. It wasn't my cup of tea, maybe it will be yours *shrugs*