Market Street: A Chinese Woman in Harbin

by Xiao Hong

1986 UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS HARDCOVER

Genres: China, Poverty

152 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1985

About the author

Xiao Hong or Hsiao Hung (2 June 1911 – 22 January 1942) was a Chinese writer. Her given name was Zhang Naiying (張廼瑩); she also used the pen name Qiao Yin.

(from Wikipedia)

Name in Chinese: 萧红

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See Xiao Hong for the others.

Reviews

[Zosma Leonis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This short book is a memoir of about 2 years in the author's life, told in short vignettes. The style of writing and the translation are easy to read, but the story is hard to follow. The chapters are short and choppy and intervening events tend to be left out. For example, the first several chapters are all about how the author and her lover are so poor they can't afford food or wood to heat their apartment with. A few chapters later, however, they seem to have enough money to live without scrimping. It is quite unclear how this change in fortune came about. Similarly, in the latter chapters, a book is mentioned which is referred to as "our book." The book seems to be in the final stages of publication, but the reader has no idea what the book is about (although the contents seem to be subversive since they feel as though the Japanese police might show up to arrest them at any moment). All in all then, this is a sort of confusing read.

[Scott Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because I watched a Chinese movie on Amazon called The Golden Era, which is a biopic of the author. Market Street is a very unusual memoir. It tells the story of Hong and her lover as they struggle to survive in Harbin, a city so far north that it is almost more Russian than it is Chinese. The book is structured as a series of mundane anecdotes. Anything important seems to take place between chapters. The couple struggle to earn enough money to buy food and clothing. Eventually they make enough money to live somewhat comfortably. but then they have to watch out for the occupying Japanese. Overall, the book feels very slight but it kept my interest throughout.

[Mara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This short book is a memoir of about 2 years in the author's life, told in short vignettes. The style of writing and the translation are easy to read, but the story is hard to follow. The chapters are short and choppy and intervening events tend to be left out. For example, the first several chapters are all about how the author and her lover are so poor they can't afford food or wood to heat their apartment with. A few chapters later, however, they seem to have enough money to live without scrimping. It is quite unclear how this change in fortune came about. Similarly, in the latter chapters, a book is mentioned which is referred to as "our book." The book seems to be in the final stages of publication, but the reader has no idea what the book is about (although the contents seem to be subversive since they feel as though the Japanese police might show up to arrest them at any moment). All in all then, this is a sort of confusing read.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

~Disclaimer-I received this book for free.~

If this book didn’t have the translators introduction, we would have no context for the book that follows. Even with it, the story starts rather abruptly. The chapters feel fragmented from one another.

I think part of the struggle is that the narrator of the story spends the first third of the book not really going anywhere or doing anything. It might be hyper realistic, but it doesn’t make for an engaging read. When the narrator did do things, they were quick and disjointed moments. Here is a moment with the fish, here is a moment with her in a drama troupe, here is a moment where they row out on the water. The moments don’t create a well rounded story or flesh out our narrator as a character. The last third of the book did have a cohesive story to tell and was engaging to read.

I can’t really recommend this book.