Today marks the first day of the Chinese New Year. It’s the year of the sheep or goat (or ram), translations vary. According to the Independent the Chinese character “yang” can translate in colloquial Chinese as either sheep or goat.
I own a few books by Chinese authors, among them,
Soul Mountain and One Man’s Bible by Nobel Prize Winner, Goa Xingjian:
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Shanghai Baby by Wei Hui
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China in Ten Words by Yu Hua
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It is said that the mood for this year of the goat or sheep is one of tranquility, peace and harmonious coexistence.
Time to flock together, settle into our favorite reading spots and read great works of literature from other countries.
via gawker.com
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I have friends living in Singapore who are receiving oranges from their neighbors, a symbol of prosperity. She says Chinese New Year is taken seriously. Your book selections intrigue me. I will have to check them out since much of what I read is multi cultural. Peony by Lisa See and Wild Swans by Jung Chang are good reads.
I watched some of the firework celebrations on television, quite something. I like the idea of offering oranges to your neighbors. Thanks for the books recommendations, a lovely offering as well!
The world can do with a Sheep Year.
That it sure can. Wishing us all a peaceful, harmonious year.
The year of the goat? Yay! That means this should be a great year for you, me, and the rest of our Twitter goat posse!
Right?? This has to be the year we release our record!
Haha, my ears are hurting just thinking about it.
I was hoping this would come up. 😛
🙂
I don’t know if I’ve ever read any Chinese lit. I believe we have Ten Words in our school library. Perhaps I’ll check it out.
It’s worth the read. It’s divided up, well, by ten key words. An insightful read.
Happy New Year! This is my year. I’m a sheep. Or a goat. Or a ram. Whatever. I’m wearing red and have a few Asian books next to my bed. I go through spurts of reading a lot of Asian works and then none. I have two that you show, but haven’t read them yet.
It’s your year – wonderful! How interesting to read a group of books from one geographic location at a time. I don’t think I’ve done that before (although when I travel I do read a book by an author from whatever country I’m visiting).
Sounds a bit racy that Shanghai Baby 🙂 It’s my Chinese takeaway night so I might get a free fortune cookie or something to celebrate the New Year.
Haha, it is a little racy but an interesting read. A young woman in a big city. Hope you get a wonderful fortune in your fortune cookie. If it’s good, share it with us on twitter!
Goats! I knew this was my year.
And you’ve already got the beard 🙂
Baa!
I actually start China Rich Girlfriend today, which also totally coincides with Chinese New Year. Not a good year for the Ox so I’m working on shoring up and encouraging my luck. Gung Hay Fat Choy!
I love coincidences like that. I will have to check out China Rich Girlfriend; I’m not familiar with it. Happy New year to you too!
That figures that the goat club was ahead of its time! It’s funny that this is the beginning of the goat year since they’ve been popping up all over the place for a while. I’ll look forward to more goat happiness!
I know, Sheila, it feels like it’s been the year of the goat for a while, right? Wishing you a joyous New Year of the Goat!
Oh, happy New Year of the Goat! We can make new resolutions! 😀
Good idea 🙂 Happy New Year of the Goat to you!
While living in Thailand we had Western New year, Chinese New year, Thai New year, Hill-tribe New year and all at different times. It was great. I’ve read several translations of Chinese authors and am impressed at the way they look at life.
How fun to have all those occasions to celebrate (and to ‘reset’ one’s life and one’s goals as we are apt to do at the start of a new year).
I was thinking of dusting off Three Bags Full, narrated from the point of view of a sheep, but I shall have to find my copy of Soul Mountain too, which also has a French connection.
I almost mentioned Three Bags Full!! It’s the only book I know narrated by a sheep.
I love the photo of the reading goat!!!! You don’t see that often! I hope it is a year of tranquility. And I am going to reread “China in Ten Words”.
That goat made me laugh immediately. I hope it’s a lovely year of tranquility too. ‘China in 10 Words’ is waiting for you whenever you’re ready!
Long live the goat club! By the way, after reading some of these comments, it looks like we might have some new recruits if we’re looking to expand the club. 🙂
We may need to rent a conference hall for our next meeting to accommodate any new members!
That would be the most amazing blog post ever. Ah, heck! We can just start a goat club blog. You knew it was coming! 🙂
Goat Club Blog, haha! Oh dear, I fear it’s in the near future….
I love the picture of the goat with the book in its mouth! I confess I am intrigued by the fact that no-one seems to know whether it is the year of the goat, the ram or the sheep (a dispute arising from the horns featured on its icon, I understand) and that furthermore no-one seems to care! How very Chinese!
Haha, so true, it doesn’t really seem to matter if some people call it the year of the sheep, ram or goat! I even read that it could be referred to
As the year of the gazelle- as it has horns!
Goats?! Tranquility?! They do not go together!!! Trust me, I know!! Sheep fit the bill a little better. I’ll go with sheep. I need some tranquility this year. But I would like to know more about your goat group that needs to make a record?
You make a good point, goats aren’t so tranquil! Did you have goats once? The goat club is a silly but fun thing a few of us started to discuss on Twitter (I can’t for the life of me remember how it started). Britt wrote about it on her blog a while back- I’ll see I I can find the post!
We HAVE goats. I do not like to go near them. They have very large horns. And they are always getting into some sort of mischief. The Mom Person finds them entertaining. Go figure.
I’m not surprised you are careful around them, with their large horns!
And don’t forget about Amy Tan for the Chinese-American experience!
Yes!! Have you seen her TED Talk? You would really like it.
Well it looks like even the goats want to read 🙂 I hear they like poetry best, hehe!
They adore poetry! All those poems about spring and the hills and the flowers – perfect for goats, haha!
Happy New Year of the Sheep Letizia… Now I need to learn some of those words in chinese
All the best to you! ⭐ Aquileana 😀
Wishing you a peaceful year of the sheep! Let’s both try to learn some more mandarine characters this year!
My bookshelf is devoid of Chinese lit. I will, however, partake in a Chinese dinner to compensate as I patiently await the year of the pig. (I’m a pig – on the calendar, not at dinner.)
That sounds like a good plan! Don’t forget to wear red as it brings good fortune (as you pig out, oink oink).
I always save the rest of my sesame chicken for later, Letizia. (Sometimes later is 2 minutes.) Happy new year to my favorite sheep.
I think this old goat may have some fun this year.
I enjoyed Red Sorghum. Some great imagery and story telling. Thanks for the other recommendations, Letizia. 🙂
Red Sorghum, will add that to my list. Thanks (and for the tweet). Your the best ‘old goat’ out there 🙂
I don’t like to bleat on about it but I haven’t managed to get to any of those Chinese writers you have kindly recommended to me in the past, I don’t follow the herd in terms of reading but ewe have a knack of picking the books that aren’t wooly in the least. it does goods to come somewhere that sheers away the rubbish books and inspires me to dip into the good stuff.
Haha, ewe’ve always been a bit of a black sheep when it comes to bucking the literary trends!
I usually do it by the light of a lamb-p.
Haha 🙂
Letizia Im a Dragon and my children wish they were too. Because they love all stories about Dragon’s. This year of the goat should be a good one then for my daughter, she hates being a goat but then she laughs about her brother being a monkey. You amaze me with the amount of books you have read. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
This would be the perfect prompt for your picture story! A goat who laughs at her monkey brother and who admire their dragon mother, haha!
10 words to China and one is bamboozle! I love that! And goats and tranquility?! I’m with Reading with Rhythm on that one. The only book I own by a Chinese author is The Woman Warrior, by Maxine Hong Kingston, but she’s Chinese American, so maybe it doesn’t count 🙂 me:horse
I’ll have to check out The Woman Warrior, I don’t know that one. You’ll like 10 Words to China. There was one chapter about reading which I loved and know you’ll love too!
I will see if I can find it, doubt its an ebook, and that’s pretty much my only access at present. Woman Warrior is gorgeous, I highly recommend it.
I love the picture of the goat and the book. I really hope he’s reading it and not gnawing on it! 😉
A little of both perhaps, haha!
Haha…love the reading goat 😀
They just devour books, haha!
😀
This photograph is the best!
So silly but wonderful, right?
A year of tranquility and harmony – sounds perfect to me! I’ve always enjoyed looking into the eyes of a goat – gentle, they are. Love the photos.