A Thousand Pieces of Gold

September 9, 2002
As she related in her memoir, Falling Leaves,
Chinese-born writer Yen Mah has earned her sense of victimhood. She was resented and punished by her family for the death of her mother during childbirth. With the deaths of her brutal father and stepmother, Yen Mah ended her quest for filial love. Though this new work discusses events and themes similar to those of Falling Leaves,
it is largely free of the mawkish notions of what family life should be like that burdened that work.
This leaves the current book with more room for what many readers will find more enlightening: the history and use of Chinese proverbs, which she traces to their origin in the ancient writings of Sima Qian, China's venerable historian and chronicler of the great power struggles that crippled the Middle Kingdom's first dynasty 2,200 years ago. Yen Mah recalls points in her life where Sima's poignant proverbs resonate. Descriptions of the early emperors' extravagance and sadism are both repulsive and captivating, and make for sometimes interesting comparisons with the battles fought by Yen Mah in her privileged but cruel home. More often, though, the disparity between the tyranny imposed upon the Chinese peasantry and the disloyalty and neglect endured by the author tends toward self-pity. Many of the digressions into Yen Mah's personal history relate her childhood relationship with her estranged elder brother, who has not spoken to her since her first memoir was published. These passages make the book read at times like a desperate letter the author should have written to him.

October 15, 2002
Mah, best-selling author of " Falling Leaves "(1998), brings an abiding love of Chinese proverbs to this collection. She draws parallels between the ancient proverbs and their application as well as evocation by historical and modern figures in Chinese politics--Chiang Kai-shek in the 1930s, Mao Zedong during the Vietnam War, and everyday Chinese citizens in that nation and abroad. Mah recalls the proverbs of legendary Chinese historian Sima Qian (145-190 B.C.E.), which were delivered to her by her beloved grandfather. She combines these proverbs with her own personal reflections, memories of growing up, and eventual understanding of the significance of the proverbs to her personal life and the history of China. She notes the deep connections between Chinese culture and its history: "A Chinese view of the world is highly dependent on the lessons learned from our forebears." And that wisdom is often rendered in proverbs. Readers interested in Chinese culture and proverbs will enjoy this collection as well as the broader perspective Mah offers on Chinese and Western life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)