上海生與死

Well, many years ago, I read the book "Life and Death in Shang Hai". I read it first in English and then read it in Chinese for practice. It was a good practice and a pretty interesting book. I had made notations in the margins for many of the words I did not know.. Well, I found my Chinese copy in the garage last week and finally set forth to read it again.. Boy, did I forget a lot of my Chinese. I found that I need to lookup words I used to know and add more notes to the margins. I am vowing to do it though. I need it. So, wish me luck.
Here is another person's take on the book in Mandarin 鄭念著的 《上海生與死》
I thought it was an intriguing story and I found myself reading the English version at least 3 or 4 chapters at night and falling to sleep, dreaming of the characters. It was very interesting. The Chinese version was also very good for Chinese study as it drew me in and I wanted to get the flavor of the author's emotions in the original language. Upon finishing the Chinese version, I was disappointed to learn that she wrote it in English first and had help translating into Chinese! OMG. Well, it was still a great read and great study material. So, hopefully this will help me get my Chinese back on track.
And this time it takes on new meaning. My friend and Kung Fu teacher Tang Wei Zhong grew up in Shang Hai during the cultural revolution. He introduced me to a friend of his name Wen Mei Yu, who is now 70 and went through a lot during the era. I now get to hear their stories to go along with the book.