This is a very enjoyable and informative book. Adeline Yen Mah has pulled off a well balanced fusion of biography, ancient history, and modern history, whilst explaining Chinese culture through its proverbs. It sounds like too much to cram into one book, but somehow she did it. It was interesting the way she intertwined several different storylines and made them all relate to each other through the themes of the Chinese proverbs, showing how history repeats itself both on a national and a personal scale. It was particularly interesting to me because as a mandarin Chinese learner I am forever confused by the way native speakers throw proverbs around in conversation, and this book explained the origins of some of them. Overall a very interesting and thorough look into the Chinese culture and way of thinking.

4.5
Loved the writing style. However felt like something was just missing :(

Enjoyed the proverbs and the history

personal favorite

Adeline Yen Mah gives you ancient Chinese proverbs and then relates them to Chinese history,specifically the beginnings of the first two emperors of China and then the establishment of the Han Dynasty. She also does a little compare and contrast with the first emperor and Mao Tse-tung. She also adds stories of her own life to help illustrate their relevance to today. Worth reading just for the abbreviated biography of the author. She was born in China but most of her family left for Honk Kong during the communist revolution.

going to read this in preparation for visiting the british museum next month

A book for musing and reflecting on things. A rare mix of bringing Chinese history to life, with the wisdom and earthiness of actual Chinese proverbs. Not for everyone, but if you're spiritual and reflective and want to take a flight into another time, read this book.

I expected more from this book. After finished reading Chinese Cinderella and Falling Leaves, I am obesessed with her autobiographies. So I decided to read this book, "A Thousand Piece of Gold". This book has a lot of Chinese phases and Chinese history. I do not recommend it to people who do not like history or Chinese culture. My favorite part of the book is when Adeline applied the chinese phases to his own life.

Essences of China

Power history presentation of a way of thought with vivid examples from the personal to historical. Smooth reading regardless that it a totally different culture. Thought provoking.

this made me rethink chinese

Interesting but annoying. Of course I can’t expect this book to be a perfectly researched primer of Chinese proverbs, but at the same time I think we could ask for more professionalism in many, many ways.

I think part of my dislike stems from my disbelief about how confident this book’s tone is, how much it demands our unquestioning belief. But of course that’s exactly what that general was thinking over 2000 years ago, and now we’ve been given a perfect translation of those ancient Chinese words into modern English. Really. I appreciate that Mah is no professional historian or researcher, but having dialogue and oversimplification makes me really distrust her words.

I also have a hard time getting past Mah’s constant descriptions of her familial problems. I’m very sure she felt terribly treated, but at the same time I have to wonder that hers is the only voice broadcasted to the world – which leads me to doubt much of what she says happened. After all, can her childhood memories be so perfectly remembered and retold? And coming off Dave Egger’s unflinchingly honest self-inspection, I find Mah’s story to be a selfish revenge of sorts, with little remorse or doubt about consequences.

I got this book because I wanted to get a bit more in touch with the Chinese language and culture, and while this was an easy read to swallow, its tone and its many impossibilities made it very annoying. I’ve got Falling Leaves on my bookshelf at home, but now, to tell the truth, I don’t want to read it.

This book gave me insight into the proverbs that the author gleaned from the writings of Sima Qian. Adeline Yen Mah's personal reflections with the history behind this provided a window into the Chinese mind. Reference, Chapter 3: Jing Xi Zi Zhi "Respect and cherish written word"