Peony in Love - More on Chinese Women Writers

I was so enchanted with the first part of the story of Peony in Love, which was so wonderfully written by Lisa See - but when the story ventured to describing Peony's world in the afterlife - which certainly was very strong in Chinese life in the past, and still has some influence, I found it a little boring and considered giving up and not finishing the book.  I persisted and am so glad I did.  


The whole book was extra ordinary - and at the end of the book, The Author's Note explained more not only about the afterlife, but of the extraordinary women writers in early history of China.  Just as in other countries around the world women were regarded as little more than chattels, mens' property and totally discouraged from writing or doing anything artistic.  I can't imagine how that would be to live in such restrictions.  We know that many women wrote and that women's writing groups were around hundreds and hundreds of years ago, and women wrote in secret - hence the secret women's language as Lisa See wrote about in Snowflower and the Secret Fan.  


I am so much a fan of Lisa See now.  I look forward to reading more of her writing.

It would also help so much in understanding the story of Peony in Love to have seen,  or read about the famed "Peony Pavilion" written by Tang Hsien-tsu (1550 - 1616). 

You can read the synopsis of it here.

Another Movie about Qiu Jin

After discovering that there was a movie made about this amazing Chinese feminist, in the last few days I find another movie also about her.  






 I also received an email from the couple who produced "Autumn Gem, and they have just spent two weeks in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra promoting "Autumn Gem"

Chinese Feminist

I have been reading about the life of famed writer Lu Xun from Shaoxing, and came across mention of Qiu Jin, also of Shaoxing who was famous as China's first feminist. She was born in 1875, had her feet bound as was the custom for women of wealthy families, but later fought against that custom. She did marry, and had two children, but left them to fight for changes in China. She was beheaded when she was about 32 years of age. I have just discovered that there has been a film made about her. I will see if I can find it somewhere.


Read more about her  here and here.  


I think there have been two movies about Qiu Jin released recently.  One is Autumn Gem, which is the one this trailer is about.





I found another video too - which tells about the making of the film.

Click here

Peony in Love

After seeing the movie "Snowflower and the Secret Fan" I set out to read another novel by Lisa See, "Peony in Love" - I absolutely loved the story of Peony in the first part of the book, and the tragic twist in the tale.  I continued reading, but gave up as it goes into great detail of the Chinese culture of the afterlife, and I found that to be quite boring in the end.  


I loved the first part of the story and recommend it.  It is quite an awesome tale.


I note that it is available on Kindle now, too.  


For more information and reviews on Peony in Love click here. 

War Horse in London

Wouldn't it be great to see this - need to be in London though. The life size puppets of horses are awesome.






Check the website. London National theatre


Postcript -  The movie is due to be released in Brisbane just after Christmas 2011 - and I note that an Australian horse trainer was used to train the key horses in this film.

Where's Colleen?

It was good to see the interview on Channel 7 tonight, with Colleen McCullough.  Despite her health challenges she's still on fire - and I love her laugh. 

She's still hard at her writing - and clearly she is still loving life over there on wonderful Norfolk Island.   You should be able to watch the interview here.

Remember Thornbirds?  There's a few videos on Youtube to bring back memories. 

Hugh Jackman singing in Chinese???

I set out to see the movie "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" - in part because it was a Chinese story, and I love reading or watching stories about China.  I'd not seen any publicity about it other than a rather off the cuff remark by Hugh Jackman in a recent interview, and I couldn't see the connection with him a such a movie.  As it turns out he does not appear until near the end of the movie.

The director of the film was Wayne Wang also the director of films such as Joy Luck Club, and starring actors Bingbing Li, Gianna Jun and Vivian Wu, who were unknown to me, and surprise surprise, with his listing (in order of appearance) well down the list as there were many others who appeared before him.

I thought the acting was excellent, and the drama's of 19th century China with the apalling tradition of binding the feet of little girls, so that they would make better prospects for marriage made one wince more than once as you almost endured the pain of the binding with the little girls. 

I loved the colour, and the scenes of life in China, with spectacular colour of traditional clothing.  Modern Shanghai was on show - and brought back quite a few memories for me. 

I'd recommend the film - I guess it will have less appeal for guys, it's not a 'girly' film, but women would appreciate the elements of the friendships of the women. 

An interesting aside is that Wayne Wang was born in Hong Kong and was named after John Wayne.


Go see the movie!!