Friday, October 14, 2005

中文 Zhōngwèn

So ... I ended up in Barnes & Noble, picking up a "Chinese for Dummies." As some of you know, my peregrinations should take me to the "Middle Country" this winter, and my polyglot ego simply cannot stand the idea of going to a place and not knowing some of the language! Unfortunately, this book doesn't deal with the most fascinating writing system. And of course, it covers basic Mandarin (pŭtōnghuà), and not Cantonese, which is spoken in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, where I intend to visit (apart from a brief foray into Beijing, which will be quite frigid in December). I have a feeling though that a simple Nĭ hăo could go a long way ... just pray that the Chinese authorities don't have an issue with my employer, and grant me a visa! :) Oh yes, and that Northwest airlines stays solvent through the winter, so my frequent flier miles are still valid ... :)

3 comments:

assiniboine said...

You must first read Vikram Seth's "Two Lives," and "From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet."

"Two Lives" is about his great uncle and aunt but there is -- and that is all to the good -- a great deal of Seth himself in it. He is not falsely modest.

(He knows his worth, as well he should -- the stories in publishing circles of his hardnosed business acumen when it came to negotiating an appropriate advance for "A Suitable Boy" are vastly entertaining. The fact that he didn't acquire even a particle of ill-will in the literary community -- as contrasted with poor Martin Amis -- in respect of his hard-nosed negotiating tactics speaks volumes as to his utter niceness. Not, be it said, to speak of his consummute skill in these matters.)

Of course our interest in his great aunt and uncle is entirely a matter of their being people who mattered to someone who is so substantial and important -- but also overwhelmingly so decent and attractive a person. But neither does he put himself into their story other than to explain their importance. They are an astonishingly nice bunch of people, the Seths.


The travel book is somewhat a downer (as those of us of his generation might once have said) inasmuch as it focuses on the tragedy of Tibet. But Seth's prodigiously cerebral yet ever sunny and accessible personality carries one through. Do read them and let us know what you find once you've been there yourself.

(I keep running into people who know or have met Seth, but never do myself...and he is by all accounts just as lovely a person as his published writings indicate he must be.)

Incidentally, if Vikram Seth interests you as much as he does me, you might also consider the memoirs of his mother, Madam Justice Leila Seth: "A Life On Balance." She of course focuses on her own illustrious career but also takes time to talk about her astonishing children.

Fr. Gaurav Shroff said...

I did give "From Heaven Lake" a try a while back. Good tip to revisit it. I am an avid travelogue fan, from the good ones (William Dalrymple anyone?) to the bad ones (read "Butter Chicken in Ludhiana" by Pankaj Mishra someday. "Relentlessly cruel" someone described it to me. And a bit tedious too), so even a "bad" Vikram Seth one would be fine.

assiniboine said...

There is no "bad" Vikram Seth. There are perhaps 3 grammmatical infelicities in all 1300-odd pages of "A Suitable Boy." "Two Lives" is in large part Vikram Seth -- and those of us who have rejoiced in his every previous page will only welcome that, as clearly (and only properly) did the great uncle and great aunt. I too have had Holocaust-survivor intimates; they were much like "Vicky's" vastly loved great aunt and not much like, say, contemporary Israeli politicians (tell it not in Gath).