House of Lim, The: A Study of a Chinese Family

Rating:
Summary: History of East Asia Review
Review: Being a student at Johns Hopkins University, and majoring in East Asian Studies, I found this book to be very educating and interesting. The stories are fast paced, and the reader needs no prior understanding of Chinese society and tradition. This is a story of a Chinese farm family entangled in conflict, and the methods in which the father, Lim Han-Ci, and later, the second son, Lim Chieng-cua, operate to maintain the traditions and honor of the family. One of Wolf's strengths in this book is her interaction with the Lim family, and her reactions to different events. She understands the culture and traditions of a farm family in 1930's Taiwan, yet is able to put a Western perspective on all of it. Ms. Wolf is able to show that the most important thing to a Chinese man is tradition, face, filial piety, honor, and respect. In sum, Wolf's understanding of the integral relationships between parents, foster parents, children, adopted children, wives, second wives, and even the locals, enables us to gain a full perspective of why certain family issues were relevant, and how they were properly adhered to. This work is a brilliant contribution to our understanding of the Chinese family hiearchy, and why discrimination, sex biasness, and family honor was so important to so many different generations in Chinese society.

Rating:
Summary: Quick and enjoyable read.
Review: I read this book for an anthropology class. I find it very enjoyable as a novel (very lively dialogues and interesting characters, some of whom you will like and identify with), but I question its credibility as an ethnography. Half of the people in my class believed that the author is biased, and that her views towards the women are especially harsh. As someone who is familiar with Taiwan (the book is not about mainland China), I find some descriptions/observations from the book very foreign. Just don't make too much out of the book.

Rating:
Summary: The house of Lim
Review: This book is about the farm family. Aside from the family relationship that are not terribuly different from what you have seen in other works and think of every day living in the traditional family. One of WOlf's strengths in this book is her interaction with the lim family. This book is good to know the chinese large family which was village life for those with a general interest in china. It was interesting to know the other country's family society.