Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister by Jung Chang (Knopf)

Daughters of a wealthy Shanghai merchant who were raised as Christians and educated in America at a time when an overseas education was akin to flying to the moon, the Soong sisters became three of the most famous women in the world during their lifetimes who still continue to spark controversy today.

The eldest daughter, Ei-ling, was given a Portuguese passport in 1904 to circumvent the U.S. Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and boarded a ship that would carry her from Shanghai to San Francisco. She was only fourteen, the first Chinese woman to be educated in the States, at a college in Georgia that was one of the first to grant diplomas to women at that time. She would remain at Wesleyan College for five years, in a small town where the inhabitants regarded her as an unwelcome anomaly. 

Four years after Ei-ling’s arrival at Wesleyan, she was joined by her younger sisters, fourteen-year-old Ching-ling, the beauty of the family, and the baby sister May-ling, who was nine when she arrived in Georgia and wouldn’t return to Shanghai until she was nineteen. 

All three sisters’ lives were shaped by their American years. Ei-ling, who spent most of her time there as the only Chinese woman for thousands of miles, was scarred by a remark she overheard during her ocean voyage: “I’m so tired of those dirty Chinamen... We won’t see anymore for a long time, I hope.” This, she said, “seared her heart forever,” making her withdrawn, self-sufficient, and fiercely devoted to her studies. Ching-ling was chic, quiet, and a rebel whose model was Joan of Arc, with a passionate devotion for the newly-founded Republic of China. May-ling, who spent most of her childhood and adolescence in America, was happy there and became the most highly educated of the sisters, graduating with a degree from Wellesley before returning home to Shanghai. “At times,” she wrote to a friend in the states, “I cannot express myself in Chinese.” 

In spite of their wealth and extraordinary educations, each sister took the traditional way out and chose husbands whose ambitions would buttress their own. Ei-ling found her match in H.H. Kung, whose money, Christianity, and degrees from Oberlin and Yale made him her ideal counterpart. Ching-ling expanded her passion for the Republic of China to include the man who was its founder. Sun Yat-sen was her father’s friend and contemporary; she married him against the wishes of her parents, beginning the rift that would separate her from her family for the rest of her life. May-ling, gay and frivolous, became an inveterate flirt, worrying her oldest sister to the point that Ei-lng found her a husband, Chiang Kai-shek, the Generalissimo, leader of the Nationalist Army.

With these marriages, the sisters’ fates were set. Ei-ling’s money and brains made her a power behind the rise of Chiang Kai-shek as he became the bulwark against the forces of Communism led by Mao Tse-tung. Ching-ling, after the death of her husband, threw in her lot with the Communists as Madame Sun Yat-sen and became a prominent figurehead in the People’s Republic of China. May-ling became the uncrowned empress of the Nationalist Chinese and an essential ambassador for her husband by lobbying for him in the United States.

Their colorful stories are poised against the backdrop of the political drama and turmoil that pervaded their lives and that they maneuvered through so well. Jung Chang has written a comprehensive and opinionated history, not only of the Soong sisters but also of twentieth-century China. Chang’s personal biases are clear and at times threaten to sink her book but her passionate point of view and dogged scholarship make this biography/history compelling and insightful, proving that the three sisters still capture the limelight long after their deaths. ~Janet Brown

The Accidental Office Lady by Laura J. Kriska (Charles E. Tuttle)

I highly recommend this to any woman who has aspirations or dreams of working for a large Japanese multinational corporation in Japan. Laura Kriska was one of those women. Times may have changed for the better but corporate Japan is still a very patriarchal organization and is very resistant to change.  

Kriska is an American who was born in Tokyo to missionary parents who were on assignment there. The first words uttered were Japanese. She lived in Tokyo for two years before her family moved back to their home state of Ohio. When she was sixteen, her family traveled back to Japan. It took her a few days before curiosity got the best of her and started to explore the country of her birth on her own. After graduating high school, she studied Japanese at a small university and signed up for an exchange program with Waseda University for her junior year. 

Her goal was to become a translator and she managed to get a part-time job with the Honda manufacturing plant in Ohio. It was there where she would meet a certain Mr. Yoshida. He was an alumnus of Waseda and he was also the vice president of the Honda Ohio plant. He took an interest in Kirska’s Japanese studies and encouraged her to get a job at the Honda factory in Japan during her exchange year. He provided her with a list of contacts. 

She was hired by the company to be one of the “Welcome Ladies” at Honda’s headquarters whose job was to greet guests and hand out complimentary pens. After completing her year in Japan, she returned to Ohio and was hired by Mr. Yoshida to work as an intern at the Ohio plant for a month. Her job consisted of translating press releases and writing articles for the company newspaper. 

Here is where the story really starts. Mr. Yoshida offers Kriska a job working at the Honda plant in Tokyo shortly after graduating college. Her contract would be for two years. This means, Kriska would be the first American woman to work at Honda’s headquarters in Japan.Her first year would be spent working in the executive offices being an assistant to one of the managing directors. Her second year would have her gaining experience in other departments such as sales, public relations, and finance. 

A young college graduate and the first woman to work at Honda’s headquarters in Japan. Kriska was full of ideas and energy. She was looking forward to becoming part of the Honda team. Working at Honda was her dream job and although she admits to knowing nothing about manufacturing, she had the ability of language. What she didn’t know was how a Japanese business really works - “the phrases of assimilation, the words of compromise, the messages of rebellion and acceptance.” 

Once in Japan, she was dressed in her best business suit and was ready to take on the challenge of working in a foreign country for a foreign company. One of the first things she noticed was that all the women were wearing blue polyester suits. It was company policy. However, there was no dress code for men. This was her first shock. She would become an “Office Lady”. A term used in Japan to describe women who work in large companies whose job is mostly to answer phones and serve tea. Her second was being told that an apartment had already been found for her, an apartment she hadn’t seen and is located two hours away by train. 

This book is about her trials and pitfalls of learning to manage life working in corporate Japan, a place that was still considered a “man’s world”. However, we also read about her triumphs and victories, small though they may seem. Kriska was not one to give up so easily on making changes for the better. Not only for women but for the foreign workers who came to Japan for training at the Japanese factory. This book will open your eyes to a Japan that not many Americans or other foreigners get a chance to see. A truly delightful tale of managing life in the corporate world of Japan. ~Ernie Hoyt

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima (Kodansha)

Yukio Mishima is one of Japan’s most prolific writers. He has written over fifteen novels including the “Sea of Fertility” tetralogy which includes “Spring Snow”, “Runaway Horses”, “The Temple of Dawn” and “The Decay of the Angel”. He was also a poet, a playwright, an actor, and a model. He was also a very right-wing nationalist and created a group called the “Tatenokai” whose main purpose was to restore the Emperor to his seat of power. One of his most famous acts that Mishima is known for aside from his books was his committing seppuku or ritual suicide after his group’s failed attempt to have the Japan Self-Defense Force join in his cause to reverse Japan’s 1947 Constitution. 

I first read this when I was in my teens. I think the subject matter of this particular book was a little advanced for my junior high mind at the time but it was suggested reading by my mother. To be honest, I didn't enjoy it (probably because I didn't understand it at the time). I found it dull, depressing, and I couldn't understand the actions of its protagonist. 

As an adult, I have a better understanding of the plot and the actions of its protagonist - an adolescent named Noboru Kuroda. Kuroda lives in Yokohama and his group of friends are all good students at the school they attend but they are also a gang. They believe in strong morals and Noboru is their leader. One day Noboru finds a peephole in his chest drawer and uses it to spy on his mother who is a widow. Noboru’s mother is well-off and owns a successful boutique store. As Noboru also likes ships, one day, his mother takes him to see one. There they meet a sailor named Ryuji. This meeting is the catalyst for how the story evolves. Ryuji stays the night with Noboru’s mother and Noboru watches them through the peephole having sex. When Noboru hears the distant sound of a sea horn and sees Ryuji turning to the sea, this affirms his notion that Ryuji is not like other men. He feels Ryuji’s simple act is an act of someone who will go on to bigger things, to be a hero. 

Noboru begins losing respect for Ryuji when he and his friends see Ryuji all wet from playing in a fountain at a local park. Noboru feels this is “childish act” and is embarrassed by it. Noboru becomes even more distraught when he learns that Ryuji and his mother are engaged to be married. They also find Noboru’s peephole but Ryuji doesn’t not punish Noboru as his mother asks in the hopes of becoming a good father. 

Noboru wants to retain his image of Ryuji as “savior” or “hero” and calls his gang members together with a plan that will make Ryuji become a hero in his eyes again. His plan is simple, to kill Ryuji to save him from becoming something all the gang members despise - a father. He reassures his friends that nothing bad will happen to them because of a Japanese law which states, “Acts of juveniles under the age of 14 are not punishable by law.” 

The ending can come as a bit of a shock to those not familiar with Mishima’s works. The main gist of this story is about glory and honor and what one will do to maintain that image. Not only do Noboru and his friends planned on killing Ryuji, they also plan to dissect him. Ryuji is tricked into meeting the boys who plan to drug him by putting pills into his tea. Ryuji looks to the sea and ponders his life he gave up not noticing one of the boys putting on gloves as he sips his tea. It is up to you the reader to decide if the boys go through with their plan. ~Ernie Hoyt

Shogun by James Clavell (Dell Books)

I’m usually not prone to re-reading books I have previously read but I’ve decided to revisit this epic novel about feudal Japan for two reasons. One, I am no longer daunted by it’s one-thousand plus pages of prose. Secondly, I’ve just learned that it is soon to be an FX limited series, FX being a pay television channel owned by the Walt Disney Company. My first venture in reading this voluminous book was back in high school when along with my mother, who is Japanese, we were hooked on the mini-series which was aired on NBC in September of 1980. Even in my young mind, I felt the need to read the original. 

As an adult, I’ve learned a few new things about this book. The protagonist, John Blackthorne, and many of the major characters were loosely based on actual historical figures. Blackthorne was modeled on an Englishman named William Adams who was a navigator for a ship for the Dutch East India Company and was one of the first of his countrymen to reach the shores of Japan. 

The story is set in feudal Japan a few months before the Battle of Sekigahara in the year 1600. A decisive point in Japan’s history and often cited as the beginning of the Tokugawa Shogunate. However, this story is fiction and two of the opposing characters who hope to attain the title of Shogun are Yoshi Toranaga, who is modeled on Ieyasu Tokugawa and Ishido, who is modeled on Mitsunari Ishida. Toronaga’s rise to the Shogunate is seen through the eyes Blackthorne. 

Portugal and the Jesuits of the Catholic Church have already set a foothold in Japan and hope to continue to expand their power in the country. Blackthorne is hoping to compete with Portugal by setting up trade and making an alliance on their own. However, Blackthorne and his crew are shipwrecked off the shore of small rural community and are taken prisoner by a local samurai. Once the daimyo arrives, The Englishmen are put on trial on pirates with a Jesuit priest being the interpreter. The Englishmen lose the trial and an infuriated Blackthorne rips off the crucifix from the Jesuit and stomps on it to let the daimyo know that the Jesuits and Portuguese are enemies of England. The local daimyo sentences them to death but the local samurai convinces his daimyo to spare their lives so they can learn more about Europeans and how they live. 

As the story progresses, Toranaga learns of the captive Englishmen and sends his men to take Blackthorne, along with their ship so Toranaga can use it to his advantage against his rival Ishido. There is a lot of give and take from both sides with Blackthorne at the center. An epic telling of enormous proportions but is so well written, you can sense the unease and mistrust of the Japanese hierarchy of power. The book keeps you interested as you wonder what will become of John Blackthorne and his crew. With a bit of luck on his side, Blackthorne becomes a confidante of Toranaga and is granted the status of samurai. Add in a romance with a woman who teaches Blackthorne Japanese and you have all the elements of what makes reading such a fun pastime. Will Blackthorne ever leave Japan and return to England? Will Toranaga let him? Who will be Shogun? Toranaga or Ishido? ~Ernie Hoyt

Rough Magic: Riding the World's Loneliest Horse Race by Lara Prior-Palmer (Catapult)

When still a teenager, Lara Prior-Palmer decides to enter the Mongol Derby, seven weeks before the race begins. “I am extremely competitive,” she announces in her application, “and want to be the youngest (am 18) person to finish.”

Giving herself minimal time for preparation, she’s allowed to enter a “1,000-kilometer race on twenty-five wild ponies, a new steed for every 40-kilometer stage” across the Mongolian grasslands, with only ten days allowed for completion. But, she says, “my thighs were strong and my heart was raw.” In a little over a month, she’s on her first pony, with a copy of The Tempest stowed away in her bag of survival gear. 

Her journey is broken by stops at the urtuus, the stations where riders change their mounts, which have been loaned by local families for a rental fee and vary in their stages of wildness. By 8:30 competitors are forced to stop for the day, choosing their “glum horses” to begin their ride by 7 the next morning.

It takes a while for Prior-Palmer’s competitive spirit to kick in. At first her goal is simply to make it to the next urtuu and eventually to finish the race. Her hours on horseback are contemplative ones and her observations are precise and poetic. Following in the hoofprints of Chinggis Khan’s thirteenth-century Postal Express, riders who carried the mail in stages from Siberia to Poland in twelve days, she’s haunted by thoughts of the Great Khan, a man so humble that he demanded that his burial ground remain unknown, with no grand monuments or markers, one who permitted all religions to be freely practiced within his empire, and who even now is regarded as Mongolia’s “ancestral spirit.” 

Stopping at the required time means she often sleeps in ger, those windowless circular tents that collapse and are moved on to the next grazing area, leaving no trace of their presence. Baigal or “what exists,” the natural world, is so respected by the Mongol nomads that they wear soft-soled shoes in order to avoid harming what their feet will fall upon. 

Prior-Palmer is seduced by baigal, even when “thunder burgles the sky” and she and her pony “ride on, curling our bodies against the teeth of the storm.” The sky looks like “a map of the world,” and she feels “very alone,” “the last drops in the bottom of a wine glass.”  

Perhaps it’s the pain that comes from days of constant riding that brings out the spirit of competition or perhaps it’s the awareness of Devan, an obnoxious young woman from Texas who takes the lead early on and maintains it, but on her fourth day, Prior-Palmer decides she wants to win. 

On the seventh day of the race, she enters the final urtuu, babbling stories and unconcerned that Devan has arrived ahead off her. Within twelve minutes she learns that she’s the winner because her competitor has been penalized for raising her pony’s heart rate above the sanctioned limit. 

From her copy of The Tempest, she finds “when I waked, I cried to dream again.” “Endings fade,” Prior-Palmer decides, “but the force behind a story lives on.” The Derby is over but the steppes of Mongolia live on, in this book and in the minds of its readers. ~Janet Brown