* Read for the '2018 PopSugar Reading Challenge' task: A book tied to your ancestry

A Thousand Pieces of Gold is a wonderful mix of retellings of stories from Sima Qian's Shiji and autobiographical anecdotes from the author's upbringing, threaded together by Chinese proverbs. I will admit I came to this book with preconceptions, as I was presented Yen Mah's Chinese Cinderella as a prize at school when I was younger and read it until the cover fell off. Both Chinese Cinderella and its adult counterpart Falling leaves do add to the enjoyment of this book, if only because you already know and feel for the author and the people in her life, especially her grandfather and aunt.

I think what makes this book special is that Yen Mah's love for Chinese history and proverbs, and their relevancy to her own life and that of modern China shines through on every page, and sense of things to be treasured is infectious.

I read this when I lived in China.

A Thousand Pieces of Gold is a unique memoir that highlights various Chinese proverbs and uses the history of China to show how the proverb came into use; Adeline Yen Mah adds a personal touch to this by showing how that proverb relates to every day life by relating it to her own personal experience. I feel like this book is everything at once. It is informative and poignant and so beautifully crafted.

I am in awe of Yen Mah’s ability to weave together such different stories into something seamless and absolutely riveting. This is a unique way to tell a story, and I was riveted from cover to cover. Even though I’d read her earlier memoir, Chinese Cinderella, I found that viewing her story through the lenses of the different proverbs she chooses to highlight put those stories in a new light. This has made me think that I need to read all of her works because of her abilities as a writer.

If you have any interest in Chinese history, proverbs, or Adeline Yen Mah’s story, you will love this book I highly recommend it.

Also posted on Purple People Readers.

it's a very good book indeed through proverb we learn the basic history of Chinal