Fumane Diseko
COLOURS OF THE MOUNTAIN by Da Chen (Random House)
DAUGHTER OF THE RIVER by Hong Ying (Bloomsbury)
Both these books are autobiographical texts dealing with life in China. Da Chen, born in 1962 into a “landlord’s family” during Mao Zedong’s rule, suffers for the sins of his family. The roller- coaster policies of China inflict great suffering and humiliation on his family.
His is a family that secretly prays to Buddha, despite the fact that religion is banned. His sisters and older brother are labourers. His father is routinely sent to labour camps to reform him and his mother suffers from constant depression.
After insecurity and humiliation from the neighbours and his peers, he befriends three teenage boys who have chosen a different path of survival outside of the controls of society. A true bond of friendship is formed and they go on many interesting adventures together.
The writing slips now and again into American street dialect, which somehow does not match a story based in China. Chen’s experiences growing up would suit a teenage readership, as the style is simple and his experiences ones teens can relate to.
Hong Ying reflects the misery, squalor and poverty of Chinese people on the wrong side of the river – the Yangtze’s south-bank slum – during the Mao years.
Born in 1962 during the drought which claimed millions of lives, she writes, “Hunger was my embryonic education … By counting back from my birthday, I figured Mother got pregnant with me in the winter of 1961, the last dark winter in the three years of famine.”
Love in the story is complex, with more than three corners. It is hardly expressed or it is expressed only when it is too late.
Ying has a callous mother, a caring but distant father and siblings from hell. She feels that somehow she does not fit into her family. She finally finds solace in the company of her guilt-burdened history teacher.Ying manages a finely balanced narrative, telling how her dream to free herself from the fate of “toiling for the rest of my life” is fulfilled.