ALEC FARMER WRITES – How does one explore the complexities of modern China? The answer for many would be to look at trends and statistics. Numbers quantify the largest country in the world from the macro. However, it is easy to forget that these figures represent the real lives of…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: CHINA IN ONE VILLAGE (2021) – HOW TO ENCAPSULATE A COUNTRY
BRIANNA HIRAMI WRITES — So many people want to experience love – the butterflies that fill one’s stomach and makes their chest tighten when they see that special person. We have all seen the movies and read the books about true romance that make our hearts ache either because of…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: SHOKO’S SMILE BY CHOI EUNYOUNG
BENJAMIN BARRETT WRITES — While United States immigration stories are frequent, it is rare that we are able to read about them in a fictional, entertaining, and emotionally evocative way. However, in his book Afterparties (2021), Anthony Veasna So does just that. Before his book was even released, So’s life was…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: AFTERPARTIES (2021) BY ANTHONY VEASNA SO
ANGELINE KEK WRITES — Cemented as one of the more influential novels in literary culture, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby has been, if anything, overly explored by critics and readers worldwide. Nghi Vo boldly disagrees — in fact, this exclusive social circle, novelist Nghi Vo insists, is missing someone…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: THE CHOSEN AND THE BEAUTIFUL (2021) BY NGHI VO
BRIANNA HIRAMI WRITES — You may have been able to guess by the eerie-looking bunny presented in inverted colors on the cover that this tale is anything but light and happy. Bora Chung’s fascinating and unique short story collection, Cursed Bunny, displays the most disturbing truths about the nature of…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: CURSED BUNNY (2021) BY BORA CHUNG
ALEC FARMER WRITES — Home does not denote a solely physical space. It represents memories, both good and bad. Experiences with family, friends, and passing acquaintances are associated with the place these events occurred in. For this reason, locations are special to someone because of their shared history. This duality between…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: DRAGONFLY EYES (2021) – THE CONNECTIONS OF FAMILY AND SPACE
ELLA KELLEHER WRITES – Consider, for a moment, that food is not simply fuel, but rather each component to a meal contains a piece of living-giving energy. “Each grain [of rice]”, as author and translator Winifred Bird describes, “was thought to have a soul, and for many centuries people believed…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: EATING WILD JAPAN: TRACKING THE CULTURE OF FORAGED FOODS WITH A GUIDE TO PLANTS AND RECIPES (2021) BY WINIFRED BIRD
BRIANNA HIRAMI WRITES — Choi Jin-Young’s To The Warm Horizon (2021) captivates its readers by revealing the dark and difficult truth surrounding human nature. However, we come to understand that there is often love and glimpses of hope throughout periods of complete chaos. This page-turning novel starts off by briskly and…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: TO THE WARM HORIZON BY CHOI JIN-YOUNG
ALEC FARMER WRITES — What are the similarities between a revolution and love? In Yan Lianke’s Hard Like Water (2021), Gao Aijun sees these two disparate concepts as one and the same. Aijun is, on the one hand, deeply committed to the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the words of Mao…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: HARD LIKE WATER (2021) – THE CONSEQUENCES OF LOVE AND REVOLUTION
ELLA KELLEHER WRITES — Beijing’s Bell and Drum Towers stand one in front of the other, the Drum Tower in front with red walls and grey tiles and the Bell Tower behind with gray walls and green tiles. These two obelisks have watched over the bustling city for centuries like…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: THE WEDDING PARTY (2021) BY LIU XINWU
ANGELINE KEK WRITES — How would you feel living in an 80-year-old’s body as a teenager? What would you do if you knew your days were numbered? How would you like to be remembered? My Brilliant Life (2021) by Korean author Ae-ran Kim follows a 16-year-old boy named Areum with…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: MY BRILLIANT LIFE (2021) BY AE-RAN KIM
BRIANNA HIRAMI WRITES — Cho Nam-Joo’s eye opening novel, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, displays how South Korea’s demoralizing rules and societal norms negatively affect the lives of Korean women. This straightforward novel wastes no time by jumping right into Kim Jiyoung’s, the protagonist’s, story about how sexism casually dictates the lives…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: KIM JIYOUNG, BORN 1982 (2021) BY CHO NAM-JOO
ALEC FARMER WRITES – Monkey King: Journey to the West (2021) is a translation of one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese Literature. The book has its origin in China’s Ming dynasty from author Wu Cheng’en, and since its inception, the story of Sun Wukong, Tang Sanzang, and…
Full Article MONKEY KING: JOURNEY TO THE WEST (2021) – TRANSLATING A CHINESE CLASSIC FOR A CONTEMPORARY AUDIENCE
ELLA KELLEHER WRITES (latest in her review series of new Japanese novels) — Loneliness, a newly standardized leitmotif in Japanese literature, is the driving force behind much of modern Japan’s social dilemmas and Natsuko Imamura’s unnerving novel. Beyond that, the fear over taking risks and forging new relationships frames the narrative…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: THE WOMAN IN THE PURPLE SKIRT (2021) BY NATSUKO IMAMURA
ANGELINE KEK WRITES — Motherhood — perhaps the most intimate and universal experience to exist in the universe. Nothing organic can start without it, nothing is left untouched by it. Motherhood transcends all differences. Yet, no singular being’s journey with it is ever quite the same as the next. At…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: A THOUSAND TIMES YOU LOSE YOUR TREASURE (2021) BY HOA NGUYEN
ELLA KELLEHER WRITES (latest in her review series of new Japanese novels) – People often dwell on the existential concept of death and what it means to die. But what does it mean to be born? To be alive? For the beautiful, talented, and wealthy, life would seem to be a cornucopia of joyous excitement and…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: HEAVEN (2021) BY MIEKO KAWAKAMI