Name: The Flowers of War
Rating: 3.583333333333333 (6 reviews)
ISBN: 9781846555893

Geling Yan

A schoolgirl taking refuge in an American church during the Japanese invasion of Nanking witnesses the atrocities visited upon the city and its inhabitants.

The Flowers of War

Ivy X

I watched the film adaptation years ago when it came out and was forever haunted by the story. 
Reading the book now allowed me to see the differences between the book and the movie, and the strong imagery from the movie helped me understand the translated book better. 

It's hard reviewing a book translated from another language -- especially when I can't read the Chinese text to see the poetic lyricism or cultural meanings. However, I was captivated by the English-translated book nonetheless. 
I see many book reviews mentioning feeling detached from the text -- but I disagree. I found this book extremely heartbreaking and difficult to digest at points. It's hard to say if I feel this way because of my historical/cultural understanding of the Nanking massacre or because I brought my feelings of sadness associated with the film into this novel. I agree that many parts highlighted in the film were brushed past fairly quickly in the novel -- which is interesting because those were the parts that left the most haunting impression on me (esp the decision of who to sacrifice). 

The soldiers' deaths described in this book were also haunting and pitifully sad. 
All in all, a great read that leaves me with a heavy heart and mind. 

 Quotes 
chapter 2 
- "The nation's capital has fallen and you still want to play mah-jong?"
"It didn't fall because we were playing," she protested. "Anyway, what else do you want us to do here? Die of boredom?" 

- "Forget it," Yumo said. "Let it go." 
"Why should I let it go?" Hongling protested. 
Her accent - from a poor province north-west of Nanking - was very pronounced. 
"Because these people have allowed us to stay in this rathole. Because they're prepared to put up with us. Because we've got no face to lose. Because when we're alive, we're less than human, and when we die, we're less than demons. Because we can be beaten and humiliated by anyone at will," said Yumo. 

chapter 3
- Xiaoyu was pretty, and seemed not to understand that pretty girls could easily wound those who most admired them and longed to be their friends. 

-There was nothing more seductive than sin and they took a vicarious delight in the fact that these women did bad things which they hardly dared contemplate. 

Chapter 7
-The reality was that the rivers of blood in the city outside had finally reached the church walls. 

Chapter 9 
- The people of Nanking had never been overly concerned about the morality of prostitution; in fact, generations of literati had sung the praises of prostitutes -- from the Eight Beauties of Qin Huai to Sai Jinhua who rose to become wife of a diplomat - and had given them positive roles in their writings. 

-With the letter he enclosed fifty-seven dollars and a gold bar, a gift which was less generous than that of her former lover, who had left her with a diamond ring. To Zhang, a senior civil servant in the Ministry for Education, who believed that everyone was born equal, Yumo was worth only one gold bar and fifty silver dollars. 

Chapter 12
-Shujuan said nothing. She knew her friendship with Xiaoyu was over. This was the final break. Nanking was filled with misery, the dead and the living were all miserable, but she was young enough to feel this widespread misery was vague and insubstantial. Losing her best friend, on the other hand, was real misery. Xiaoyu was heartless. All pretty girls were heartless, just like that pretty woman down in the cellar, Yumo. 

Chapter 13
-People always said whores had no heart, and yet Cardamom risked her life to get pipa strings just so she could play a better tune for Wang Pusheng. 

Chapter 15
-She felt she was someone who, when she had gone, would leave no trace in this world. If Fabio remembered anything at all about her, she wanted it to be that her life had had some meaning. 

Chapter 16
-There was no way he was going to let these mad dogs in yellow uniforms through the door. To do that would be to elevate them to the status of human beings. 

Chapter 17
-"Women like us can never escape ruin, or from ruining others," she added with a sly glance at the two clergymen.

The Flowers of War

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