Status Updates From Mourning a Breast (New York...

‘As—emperor—also—doctor—Kangxi wasn’t half bad. Lu Xun studied medicine—At first—didn’t believe—Chinese medicine. Later—studied Western medicine but took Chinese medicine when—ill—recorded : Drinking ginger juice to treat stomach problems—Drinking acanthopanax liquor for shoulder pain. China is an exasperating country. It—invented many things—only to see them improved upon—exploited by foreigners—while it struggles—’

‘—in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms—Cao Cao—head opened—brain operated on—Hua Tuo invented—powdered anaesthetic mafeisan more than seventeen hundred years ago. He had his patients ingest it with alcohol and fall into a deep sleep—In Zhuangzi’s writing, the cow is almost invisible—Peng bird was restricted by time—meanwhile—smaller birds could take flight whenever they pleased—elm—sandalwood—restricted by space—’

I am having a REALLY hard time with this. "Dated" doesn't even begin to convey how bad the misinformation regarding cancer's origins and treatment is in this book. You don't get cancer because you're a glutton for sweets and it's not cute or funny or endearing to suggest that. All the self-consciously girly whimsy here is just not sitting well with me and I may DNF before I blow up from misplaced rage.

“The protagonist falls in love with a woman and keeps an X-ray of her in his pocket. Every time he pulls it out to look at it, all he sees are delicate bones and the black-and-white interplay of light and shadows. Is it that love has penetrated the bones?”

‘The Lives of Gargantua and Pantagruel—The 2 Chinese translations each have their—merits—It’s fascinating to see different translation methods when one compares translations. For instance—one version translates an after-meal sweet treat as “candied papaya” and one as “papaya jam.” People don’t usually eat jam after a meal—it should be “candied papaya.” These translations—from the same text—turned out so differently—'

‘Breasts are the subject matter—though I suppose the content may be rather different from what you’re envisioning. More than 2 and a 1/2 years ago—on a bright summer day—this narrator had been swimming without a care in the world—There are no melodramatic or sensationalist characters or plot twists. If this isn’t the book you’re looking for, carry on and good luck—Chinese—always been—secretive about sickness—’