Beijing Smog (Volume 1 & 2)

Author: Lin Yutang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-08-01
Features: This is an epic of modern China. In 1975, at the 40th Congress of the International PEN in Vienna, Mr. Lin Yutang was elected as the Vice President, and Mr. Chen Yuqing delivered a speech: "Mr. Lin Yutang is a living monument." Miss Pearl S. Buck, the 1938 Nobel laureate, strongly recommended Mr. Lin Yutang as a candidate for the Nobel Prize based on this book. It holds great significance in Mr. Lin's works, vividly depicting modern China from the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 to the second year of the full-scale War of Resistance.
The term "novel" refers to short stories. When there is nothing to do, one might as well sit down and listen. This book neither defends the perfection of modern Chinese life nor exposes its sins. Therefore, it is entirely different from the numerous recent "dark" novels. It neither praises traditional life nor defends modern life. It simply narrates how modern Chinese men and women grow up, how they live, how they love, how they hate, how they quarrel, how they forgive, how they suffer, how they enjoy, how they develop certain habits, and how they form certain ways of thinking. Especially, in this mortal world where "mankind determines the means, heaven determines the ends," it shows how they adapt to their environment.