Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature Book report

Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature
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Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature
What the Book is about
“The Dancing Girl” is a story is about a man called Ota Toyataro. He tells this story when returning home in Japan after five years in Europe where he had been studying. He was raised in Japan by a single mother and attained high academic achievement in university in Tokyo at the faculty of law. He graduated at the age of nineteen and was the first student to achieve a greater honor since the university was founded. He had also achieved high eloquence in German and French languages and this gave him a chance to travel to Europe for further studies with the hope to make his name and raise his family's fortune. He enrolled to study politics at Berlin University whereby things flowed smoothly for the first three years. He explains how much of a conformist he had been his entire life enjoying praises from everyone which he regards as a time he lacked real awareness of himself.
During the time in Berlin, he was envied by an influential group among the students whereby one among them reported him to the department head as frequenting theatres and seeking the company of mistresses when he started his relationship with Elsie. Elsie was a dancer from a very poor family. She had recently lost her father. On being reported, he was said to be neglecting his studies and his post was abolished and employment terminated. It was during this time that he also learned of his mother's death. He had lost his financial support for his studies and was reluctant to go home. Through help from his friend Aizawa, he became a foreign correspondent in Berlin for a certain newspaper. He later became a German translator for Count Amkata’s suite. All through, his relationship with Elsie had blossomed and she later got pregnant, his friend Aizawa, however, convinced him to go back to Japan. This was a decision affected Elsie negatively to the point of being mentally ill.
The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese literature is a book that contains works of fiction, poetry, and essays covering from 1918 to 1992. Having been translated into English, it is the first comprehensive anthology representing works of modern Chinese literature. That is from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. I like the book because the overall quality is very high and thus making it easy to recommend to those who have an interest in modern China. The story is very interesting. After its translation, the author gave people from different parts of the world to read and explore Japanese Literature. Furthermore, the book provides the readers with a thorough introduction to Chinese ways of doing things. The anthology also covers the period from lu xun to the newest Chinese authors. The Dancing Girl (Maihime) by Richard Browing was the first Chinese short story that was written by Mori Ogai (Rimmer & Gessel, 2005). The story has appeared in 1990 and it is based on the experiences of Mori when he was a medical student in Germany. “The Dancing Girl’ is a story was revised into the episode of Animated Classics of Japanese Literature.
Writing Techniques Used
The book is quite engaging ...