What are we missing out on Chinese literature or books?

Joachim
July 13, 2007, 08:01 PM posted in General Discussion

One of the very annoying things when we lived in China was: There were so many books in Chinese we couldn't read!! We have been reading quite a number of Chinese books translated into English or German, but I am sure that there would be much more to explore if only I could muster the language good enough to do so. Argh!

So, to further whet our appetite, I am asking all native speakers and those masters of the language that have attained the black belt of Chinese as a Foreign Language: What indeed are the books we should look forward to reading in Chinese after having passed the newbie, elementary, intermediate and possibly even the advanced level? What are the names of their authors, what are their titles (and maybe what are their ISBN to order them at joyo.com or where to find them for free on the internet - ahem)?

Do not shy away from telling us of crime fiction, poetry, chick lit or drama, but do inform us of classical texts of the past and literary gems of the modern age, too!

Thank you!

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aeflow
July 14, 2007, 03:21 AM

Personally, I'm reading brightly-illustrated story books with pictures of animals and plants and well-behaved children named Jian Jian and Qing Qing. I find they are brimming with poignant and insightful metaphors for the human condition, in a postcultural paradigm of conceptualist sublimation of prepatriarchial constructivist theory and postdialectic dematerialism.

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bazza
July 14, 2007, 10:00 AM

100s, maybe 1000s of novels are available here online: www.readnovel.com

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bazza
July 14, 2007, 10:02 AM

They even have the Harry Potter series: http://www.readnovel.com/search.php?author=J.K.%C2%DE%C1%D5&action=result

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Joachim
July 15, 2007, 07:09 PM

aeflow: This well-behavedness imho is meant to be an ironic iconoclasm of Western learner's expectations in a postcolonial twist of Guerilla teaching methodologies. Bazza: And which are the not to be missed books among them? Or: Are there any?

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bazza
July 15, 2007, 10:12 PM

Sorry, don't know.