The Drink and Dream Teahouse - Softcover

Hill, Justin

3.31

260 ratings by Goodreads

9780316825849: The Drink and Dream Teahouse

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0316825840 ISBN 13: 9780316825849

Publisher: Back Bay Books, 2002

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From a spellbinding storyteller comes a highly original, inventive novel that transports us to another world. In the small Chinese town of Shaoyang, times are changing rapidly, and the villagers are struggling to keep up with a China that has transformed radically not only since 1949 but since 1989 and the turbulent days of the protests of Tiananmen Square. The colorful array of characters in this touching, funny and memorable novel come from various generations and all corners of the village -- like Madame Fan, who sings opera from her balcony each morning and is trying to marry off her young daughter Peach, and Da Shan, who has returned home with newfound wealth from the big city to a town he no longer recognizes. Justin Hill has written a beautiful, utterly memorable, and tender story about the clash of the old world and the new.

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Review:

The Drink and Dream Teahouse is a historical romance set in a moribund rural town in contemporary China. Through the lives of its central characters, it chronicles the transition from a communist society to the uncertainties of the future. The characters are largely emblematic and accommodate traditional Chinese culture with emergent capitalist and Western ideas: Old Zhu, the keeper of the old communist faith and founder of the factory; Da Shah, his entrepreneurial son and part of the Tiananmen Square generation; Madam Fan, the local amateur opera singer and her daughter Peach.

Autumn Cloud let out a long sigh. What terrible days. She and Party Secretary Li had worked hard to build China. Even though they were newlyweds, they hardly saw each other for days or sometimes weeks. He had been in charge of the Prostitute Re-education Centre and she had been working in the Political Press Office. Dreams of modernising the country had driven them on. It was like they had been married to the country.

The momentous events in recent Chinese history which the novel spans are covered in the reminiscences of characters who battle to contain the confusion and power of such historical forces. At best, the prose is wistful and languorous and Hill has flashes of descriptive flair, a good eye for the occasional telling detail--though whether The Drink and Dream Teahouse realises its epic aspirations is an open question. --Neville Hoad

Review:

A compelling and very moving portrail of a community trying to find its way in an ever-changing world, and that s something everyone can relate to. Excellent. -- Time Out

A direct and powerful novel portraying modern China with humour and affection -- New Statesman

Hill's decorously written tale of fraught romance amid social cataclysm is by turns entertaining, moving and amusing. -- Observer

If you have ever wondered what daily life in contemporary China might really be like, this will tell you more than a thousand travel books -- Sunday Times

Intelligent and interesting novel about the clash between Chinese communism and Western capitalism...focused exactly where it should be in family life -- The Times

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