Family Records

Name: Family Records
ISBN: 9787101167429

Xiao FuxingZhonghua Book Company · ChinaDec 2024

3.8

Word count: 206K words
Chapters: 75
ISBN: 9787101167429

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Summary

This is a collection of essays by the renowned contemporary writer Xiao Fuxing, chiefly recording episodes from the lives of his parents, siblings, and children and grandchildren. The affection across several generations and nearly a century of turbulent change fill an ordinary family with the flavors of life and the vicissitudes of the world. In different periods, Xiao Fuxing and his family lived in different places: his parents in Beijing, his elder sister in Inner Mongolia, his younger brother in Qinghai, himself in the Northeast, and his children and grandchildren abroad—vividly showing how the times shape an individual's life trajectory and mold a person both within and without. Xiao Fuxing's prose is plain and moving; the enduring affection of blood ties leaps off the page, letting readers feel the warmth of family life and the boundless strength that home, as a steadfast support, gives a person.

Editor's review

Family Notes is writer Xiao Fuxing's second collection of essays on the theme of family memory, after Our Old Courtyard. Published by Zhonghua Book Company, it continues the author's consistent plain, delicate, and deeply affectionate style, but shifts the lens from the collective memory of the grand courtyard to a precise focus on "family"—the most intimate and core social unit. From a son's perspective, Xiao Fuxing looks back on his parents' generation's wanderings and perseverance, records the trivial warmth among siblings, and examines his own successes and failures as a father and husband. The book has no grand historical narrative, yet within the daily folds of oil, salt, firewood, and rice, of birth, aging, illness, and death, lies a miniature history of Chinese family change.

The editor believes the book's value lies in its significance as an "archaeology of memory." Xiao Fuxing's writing is like a gentle scalpel, precisely dissecting the complex constitution of "family" as an emotional organ: its love, its pain, its bonds and its separations. He writes of his father's silence and sense of responsibility, of his mother's resilience in going from a daughter of a prominent family to an ordinary housewife, of the unspoken understanding and occasional friction among siblings. These details, because they are true, have universal penetration, allowing readers of different generations to see the shadow of their own families in them. In an age when family structures are increasingly atomized and emotional expression is increasingly direct or distant, Family Notes offers a quiet way of looking back. It tells us that understanding a family often takes a lifetime and distance. This book is not sweet nostalgia but compassion born of understanding and the courage of reconciliation—a heartfelt memorandum dedicated to all ordinary families.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers with a deep interest in literary works on family and kinship
Literature lovers who enjoy Xiao Fuxing's plain, sincere style in which details reveal the truth
Readers in midlife who are beginning to look back on their families of origin and reflect on their own family roles
Those interested in observing and thinking about family ethics and emotional patterns under social change

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking strong plot and fast-paced stories
Readers with low tolerance for personal, inward-looking essay styles

Reading tips

Reading in chapter order is recommended, following the author's life chronology to feel emotion and understanding accumulate layer by layer.
Slow down appropriately while reading to savor life details that seem ordinary but carry deep meaning.
After reading, you may wish to compare and reflect on your own family memories for deeper resonance and insight.

About the publisher

Zhonghua Book Company China · Founded in 1912

Zhonghua Book Company is a publisher known for collating ancient texts and academic publishing, with its output centered on Eastern philosophy, culture, classic works, art, and historical reading. Its library contains 532 titles, including Chen Shou's Records of the Three Kingdoms, Guo Qingfan's Collected Commentaries on Zhuangzi, the four-volume Chinese Literature: Four Great Classical Novels, and the two-volume Table of Seal and Clerical Script Forms from Qin, Han, Wei, and Jin. These titles span historical classics, commentaries on the philosophers, classical novels, and philological reference works. Representative authors include Chen Shou, Guo Qingfan, Wu Cheng'en, Shi Nai'an, Cao Xueqin, Luo Guanzhong, Xu Wenwu, and the Hanyu Dazidian character-form group, reflecting a focus on primary sources and scholarly editors. Its publishing character lies in combining authoritative editions and annotated texts with both accessible classics and specialized research. Public information on its fuller catalog is limited; this note describes only the directions evident in the library's holdings.

版权信息
作者简介
自序
辑一母亲父亲（一）
母亲
父亲
辑二母亲父亲（二）
花边饺
荔枝
苦瓜
酸菜
豆腐渣
豆包儿
腊八蒜
菜粥从来味最长
母亲的月饼
母亲和莫扎特
窗前的母亲
五十年前那一夜
春节写给母亲的信
母亲染布
生命不仅属于自己
母亲的学问
母亲的世界
温暖的劈柴
佛手之香
金妈妈杏
蓝围巾
忽然想起了棉花
带父母一起看戏
和父母一起逛公园
清明忆
辑三姐姐弟弟
姐姐
姐姐三忆
小提琴之梦
娘的四扇屏
核桃酪
独草莓
弟弟三帖
宽银幕立体电影
告状信和砖头
今朝有酒
复华断忆
冷湖之春
辑四儿子孙子
呱呱坠地
荔枝树
紫罗兰
“挤狗屎”
拥你入睡
在书店
聪明是一张漂亮的糖纸
YES和NO
百忍成金
西北之行
牛皮鱼
吹着口哨走来
有这样两个地方
四块玉和三转桥
荞麦皮枕头
第一次回家做饭
年轻时去远方漂泊
蒙德里安玻璃杯
搬家记
重回土城公园
校园的记忆
剪纸
新年之叶
自己做书
猫和老鼠的争论
贝壳之乐
学画记
学琴记
游泳记

FAQ

How does Family Notes differ from Xiao Fuxing's earlier Our Old Courtyard?

Our Old Courtyard focuses more on the neighborhood portraits and collective memory of Beijing's hutong grand courtyards, with a relatively public scope; Family Notes narrows the perspective entirely to the author's own nuclear family, focusing on parents, siblings, wife and children, and other close kin, exploring more private and deeper blood ties and family relationships—an in-depth retrospective of an individual life history.

Is the book's tone sentimental nostalgia?

It is not purely sentimental nostalgia. The book does recall bygone times and departed loved ones, but the overall tone is restrained, warm, and full of understanding and reconciliation. In recording the past, the author brings the clarity and openness that years of experience have settled into, focusing more on presenting the complex and resilient essence of kinship and on how memory shapes our understanding of "family."

Can younger readers resonate with this book?

Yes. Although the book recounts the family life of the previous generation or two, issues such as communication between parents and children, generational differences, sibling affection, and family responsibility transcend eras. Younger readers can use this book, in a way that first "observes" and then "introspects," to understand where their elders came from and thereby think about their own relationship with family—a precious emotional education and cognitive expansion.

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About the author

Xiao Fuxing Author · Chinese · 1947

Xiao Fuxing was born in Beijing in 1947, with his ancestral home in Cangzhou, Hebei. He graduated from the Central Academy of Drama in 1982. A contemporary writer, he has long been active in essays, fiction, and reportage. He served as deputy editor of People's Literature and Selected Stories, and as vice president of the Chinese Prose Society. He has published more than one hundred works and has repeatedly received the Bing Xin Prose Award, the Lao She Prose Award, and the Zhu Ziqing Prose Award. His essays often draw on everyday observations and personal memory, written in a plain, warm style that values natural expression of detail and feeling; his work also has wide influence in middle-school Chinese-language reading. This library holds 25 of his titles, covering classic essays, prose collections, film and television, and social fiction, including lyrical pieces such as Mother by the Window and When Plums Ripen and Gardenias Bloom, as well as sustained reflections on life and time in The Distance of Time and My Interesting Days in Boring Times.