I read many of the poems in the Birch anthology referenced by Professor Ye and discovered I had some erroneous preconceived notions about Chinese poetry. I thought that most of the poems would be about nature, but found instead what Cyril Birch promises in his introduction: “folk ballads and metaphysical odes, epitaphs…, love lyrics and shamanistic hymns, travel diaries and sermons, memorials to the emperor and letters to friends.” The prose and poetry are rich in imagery and there are various types of structure and purpose -- from intellectual analyses of the nature of Chinese society and its flaws to attacks on the various schools of thought and individual leaders.

The Letter to the Emperor Shen-tsung (Birch, 370) was awesome. Su Shih starts his letter by mentioning that he had sent a previous letter to the emperor about purchasing lamps. After waiting for ten days for an order for his execution by axe, he realizes that the emperor has no intention of punishing him and he proceeds with his lengthy letter. He asks the emperor to “win the allegiance of your people, to raise the standards of public life, and to maintain discipline.” (Birch, 371). This is quite a shift from lamps to the state of the country, but the letter reveals a certain protocol that is similar to contemporary times where a subordinate prefaces his critical comments with a benign and pleasant subject.

(I enjoyed Professor Ye's presentation very much.)

While taking a UCLA Chinese Folklore seminar given by Professor Eberhard (on our list of suggested readings), I was introduced to Asian culture in a meaningful way. I remember the informal talks where he shared his experiences as an ethnographer while in China and Turkey. It was during his seminar I understood that I will profit from reading the Chinese classics. I proceeded to read The Dream of Red Mansions, The Golden Lotus, and Journey to the West and this experience transformed my worldview.
As a teacher, I strive to bring information to the classroom that can have a positive influence on my students. No matter what age, human beings have an inherent penchant for learning about other cultures. I hope to enrich my students and colleagues by sparking an interest in Asian studies. Individuals like Professor Eberhard who devoted their lives to this subject are our source of knowledge and inspiration. As a classroom resource I recommend, “Studies in Hakka Folktales” in Asian Folklore and Social Life Monographs, edited by Lou Tsu-k’uang in collaboration with Wolfram Eberhard.
Professor Emeritas Wolfram Eberhard.
Born in Potsdam, Germany and died on August 15, 1989 at the age of 80. Beginning in 1927 he studied sinology, ethnology and philosophy at the University of Berlin, receiving his doctorate in 1933. He also studied Manchu and Japanese as well as some Mongolian and Sanskrit. Eberhard married Alide Roemer in 1934 and on the basis of a grant from the Bassler Archive to collect ethnographic objects for the Museum the young couple sailed for China in June of that year.
Eberhard studied temples and collected folktales, until, in Peking, he met Professor Hellmut Wilhelm. He and other friends arranged for Eberhard to take over some of their German-language classes at the two Peking universities as well as a Latin class at a Medical School. During the summer vacation of 1935 Eberhard traveled by train and foot across North China collecting materials and observing people’s daily lives.
Eberhard received a Moses Mendelsohn fellowship which allowed him to travel in the United States, ending in Berkeley where he gave two lectures in 1937. From here he sailed to Japan and then to China, but plans for a longer stay failed due to the imminent Japanese invasion.
The Eberhards spent the next eleven years in Turkey. As the only teacher of sinology in the country, Eberhard was obliged to teach all conceivable subjects in this field, but his work load did not prevent him from initiating the steady flow of publications which charted his career. Among these subjects were Chinese folklore and fiction, the history of China, the study of local cultures within China and in areas adjacent to it, and a historically based theory of the development of Chinese civilization. He also studied Turkish and comparative folklore. Eventually his publications were to comprise some 35 books, 185 articles, 300 book reviews and numerous shorter notes, appearing in German, Turkish, and English. The last major work was published in Germany and the United States, entitled Dictionary of Chinese Symbols.
By 1948 Eberhard received, through help from the Rockefeller Foundation, an offer from the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught in the Department of Sociology until his retirement in 1976. In 1986 he was a visiting professor in the UCLA Folklore and Mythology Program. Many students from fields like anthropology, history and oriental languages attended his courses and worked with him in their graduate studies.
Throughout his academic career, Professor Eberhard not only published extensively but traveled widely. With the help of a Guggenheim Fellowship he collected minstrel tales in Turkey and studied tribal settlements in the Turkish-Syrian border area. As a consultant to the Asia Foundation he dealt with Punjab University projects on problems of village development in Pakistan and related issues in Taiwan, Korea, and Afghanistan. From 1961 to 1977 he traveled almost every summer to some southeast Asian country, most often to Taiwan, where he taught, studied and served as a consultant.
(Edited by magda ferl from Eulogy by Reinhard Bendix and Kenneth Bock)

Author is the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Chinese born/now living in Paris.
Soul Mountain is a story of a writer who travels throughout the countryside after defying the country's cultural conformity laws. It's told in a narrative form using only pronouns. Each of his stops is a story in itself. Philosophical wanderings through Daoist rituals and folksongs. Chance meetings and interspersed relationships with women along the path. It's highly descriptive of the land and customs and brings an in-depth view of the culture as seen from this traveler's perspective. There are numerous references to the various periods in Chinese history and the places where events took place. Near the end of the book, he has a conversation with a critic who tells him he can't write fiction without a protagonist, without a named character, with only pronouns, without a story line of beginning-middle-end. Clearly he could and did a wonderful job proving the critic wrong.
It was helpful that I had Soul Mountain on 13 audio tapes, so I was able to know the Chinese pronunciation that I might not have been able to decipher from reading it in book form. It's quite easy to drop in at any point in the book, however, as the parts aren't dependent on before or after.
It's in the LA Public Library and orderable if not at your branch. ISBN 0-7887-8871-X
Nobel Prize Committee-- "Soul Mountain is one of those singular literary creations that seem impossible to compare with anything but themselves."

Ok, so I really have been finding all of the books-on-tape that relate to East Asia. This one tells the story of a first generation daughter born in America but with parents from China. The parents own a laundry in Stockton, CA, but the mother had been educated as a doctor in China. The daughter spends a great deal of time listening to her mother "talk story" about the various ghosts inhabiting all areas of life and is caught between the two cultures as she grows up.
This book gives you a strong understanding of the traditional belief systems existing before the communist era. Structure of families is discussed here too with multiple wives-- "big" wife (the 1st) and "little" wife (2nd). Also analysed is the timidity of Chinese girls in school settings. The author failed kindergarten because she wouldn't speak and, a few years later, harassed another girl who would not speak. The family attitude against girls is discussed as they are called "maggots" by a great-uncle.
It seems that the author was rescued in her quest for self-fulfillment by teachers who encouraged her and gave her the worth that her family neglected to transmit to her. It would be a lesson for us as we deal with these children in our classes and wonder why they speak so softly and are not more assertive.