For both my MA and BA I studied China and some South/East Asia so I naturally approach any book set in the region with a sort of proprietorial manner. I expect to either like it very much as it has captured something I feel to be very true about 'The Orient, or to dislike it because they've got facts wrong and worked off lazy stereotypes. It was in this frame of mind that I read Tan Twan Eng's 'The Gift of Rain' about a year ago, and I absolutely loved it. Malaysia was new to me and his descriptions so evocative, of the rain forests and markets and temples which just hovered at the edge of my Chinese familiarity, just close enough to be recognizable. Equally a new history of which I'd had very little knowledge of before was laid out and picked apart - fairly unflatteringly for most involved, another reminder that World War II was just that.
So coming to 'The Garden of Evening Mists' I had high hopes it would be like 'The Gift of Rain, and it was! Very alike, very very alike, almost too alike, almost like the same book...
In terms of basic structure both have as their protagonist an outcast, one mixed race, one straits (English speaking) Chinese. Both are post-war coming to terms with their actions and experiences during and since the war. Both are by this point fairly old and are retelling their stories to a previously unknown (Japanese) visitor - although in 'Mists' Teoh is writing her story down her decision to is prompted by and coincides with the scholars arrival. Both are remembering a older Japanese sensei figure who taught them the ancient and honorable Japanese arts - before being revealed to have (probably) played sinister role in the war. All is set against a backdrop of beautiful blooming but damaged Malay.
There are a lot of similarities and had I not enjoyed 'Gift of Rain' I would have been a bit pissed off to find myself reading the same book again. As it is I loved The Garden of Evening Mists' for how skillfully it drags you into the world of Teoh Yun Ling and how fully immersed you become in the mists and the humidity and the cool air of the mountains of the far east. Also how unsparingly it lays bare the history of the region and the atrocities enacted upon the local population by the Japanese - and then the native Communists. Overall its rich and absorbing and just a bit too much like 'Gift of Rain' to be considered even a wholly separate
book.
Immersiveness: 9/10
History teaching: 8/10
Self-plagiarism: 8/10
Bonus points for plenty of Japanese words to practice saying: 5
Overall: 8/10
So coming to 'The Garden of Evening Mists' I had high hopes it would be like 'The Gift of Rain, and it was! Very alike, very very alike, almost too alike, almost like the same book...
In terms of basic structure both have as their protagonist an outcast, one mixed race, one straits (English speaking) Chinese. Both are post-war coming to terms with their actions and experiences during and since the war. Both are by this point fairly old and are retelling their stories to a previously unknown (Japanese) visitor - although in 'Mists' Teoh is writing her story down her decision to is prompted by and coincides with the scholars arrival. Both are remembering a older Japanese sensei figure who taught them the ancient and honorable Japanese arts - before being revealed to have (probably) played sinister role in the war. All is set against a backdrop of beautiful blooming but damaged Malay.
There are a lot of similarities and had I not enjoyed 'Gift of Rain' I would have been a bit pissed off to find myself reading the same book again. As it is I loved The Garden of Evening Mists' for how skillfully it drags you into the world of Teoh Yun Ling and how fully immersed you become in the mists and the humidity and the cool air of the mountains of the far east. Also how unsparingly it lays bare the history of the region and the atrocities enacted upon the local population by the Japanese - and then the native Communists. Overall its rich and absorbing and just a bit too much like 'Gift of Rain' to be considered even a wholly separate
book.
Immersiveness: 9/10
History teaching: 8/10
Self-plagiarism: 8/10
Bonus points for plenty of Japanese words to practice saying: 5
Overall: 8/10
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