Jinghua Smoke and Mist, Up and Down

Author: Lin Yutang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-12-01
Features: This is an epic of modern China. At the 40th Congress of the International PEN in Vienna in 1975, Mr. Lin Yutang was elected as the Vice President, and Mr. Chen Yuqing delivered a speech: "Mr. Lin Yutang is a living monument." The 1938 Nobel laureate, Pearl S. Buck, strongly recommended Mr. Lin Yutang as a candidate for the prize, based on this book. This work holds great significance in Mr. Lin's writings, vividly depicting modern China from the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 to the second year of the full-scale war of resistance.
A "novel" is a small story. When there is nothing to do, you might as well sit down and listen. This book neither maintains the perfection of modern Chinese life nor exposes its sins. Therefore, it is quite different from the many recent "dark" novels. It is neither a praise of traditional life nor an apology for modern life. It simply narrates how modern Chinese men and women grow up, live, love, hate, quarrel, forgive, suffer, enjoy, develop certain habits, and form certain ways of thinking. Especially, in this mortal world where man proposes and heaven disposes, how they adapt to their living environment.