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| Lin Yutang |
Moment in
Peking
was written in English targeting the Americans and English-reading readers. No one can do a better job than Lin Yutang in
telling the story of Chinese living in a turbulent period between 1900 and 1938, literally telling the story of His Country and His People. I’ll write a series of posts with a category
of “Moment in Peking” in this blog, let them serve as my “book report”.
His My Country
and My People, The Importance of
Living and The Importance of
Understanding are the best books to introduce Chinese culture to the western
world. I never read his novel until
recently when I picked up Moment in
Peking. Pearl Buck repeatedly
nominated Lin for Nobel Literature prize; I always thought he was never so
honored because he was not a good novelist; how wrong I was!
The following excerpt from Moment in Peking is the best writing of the art of bargaining by
Chinese. Only Lin Yutang can do it. Western writers would have no such insight
whereas Chinese writers couldn’t write such an exquisite English that rivals
that of the best American/British writers.
The art
of bargaining
He [Mr. Feng, brother of Mrs. Tseng, who is the
manager of Mr. Tseng’s shops] had the merchant’s typical manner of talking,
which was interspersed with many silent “hah’s” and “haw’s” and ran the gamut
from silent whispers to vociferous shouting as circumstances required. He had acquired all the nuances of raising his
voice in an emphatic tone of determination and repudiation when bargaining for
a purchase, and softening it to a heartfelt cordiality when closing the
bargain, knowing how to appear to stand his ground when he was prepared to
yield, and yielding abruptly with a gesture of friendship at the last moment as
if he was conferring a favor. He knew
how to condemn or deprecate what he desired to buy and to extol to perfection what
he wanted to sell. All these hot
arguments, those red-faced loud-voiced repetitions did not mean anything except
he didn’t like the price you quoted, and a stepping down on his part was always
conveyed by a whisper in your ear, as if it was the greatest diplomatic secret
and you were his most intimate confidant.
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