My Home

Name: My Home
ISBN: 9787559680815

闫红Beijing United Publishing Co., Ltd. · ChinaFeb 2025

3.8

Word count: 94K words
Chapters: 13
ISBN: 9787559680815

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Summary

This book chronicles the legendary trajectory of three generations of an ordinary family living along the Huai River. In an era when it was considered a woman's bounden duty to live solely for her husband and children, Grandma was doted on all her life, yet she led the way in pursuing a life of her own. Grandmother divorced in the 1950s; like Wang Baochuan, she endured years of hardship, spurning tenderness, bestowing kindness on countless people, and making just as many enemies.

Mother was a factory worker who moved to the city. Her education was limited, but she loved to learn, and even amid the chaos around her she kept her inner balance. Father was an ambitious young man from a small town, of humble origins, who believed in striving and was determined to carve out his own path. The two great-uncles were like Boonie Bears and Briar—two old brothers keeping house together, one stubborn and proud all his life, the other clumsy but kind-hearted.

Yan Hong looks back on her family with deep feeling, her gaze cool yet tender. With delicate strokes she portrays these most familiar of ordinary people, and onto the page leap the honest family traditions, the love still clearly felt amid scarcity, and the finest feelings of Chinese kinship and human relations, awakening in us an emotion long mislaid.

Editor's review

My Family is writer Yan Hong's heartfelt return to her own life history, following works such as They Earn a Living and Seek Love. This book is not a family novel in the traditional sense, but a spiritual map centered on "family" and radiating into the times, memory, and the depths of feeling. With her customary delicate, keen yet restrained touch, Yan Hong wipes clean and reassembles those seemingly ordinary fragments of family life—the old house, old photographs, relatives' stray remarks, the scenery of her hometown—investing them with a quiet, profound luster. She writes of her parents' silence and resilience amid the currents of the times, of the complex and subtle bonds among siblings, and of her own continual deconstruction and reconstruction of the concept of "family" through growing up and looking back. The book has no grand narrative, yet in the folds of daily life lie hidden the shared existential experience and emotional codes of ordinary Chinese people. Reading it is more like joining the author in salvaging memories and holding a conversation of the soul; it makes us ask: What is home? What is rootedness? How do the loves and pains that shaped us leave hidden, eternal marks upon us? For modern readers who feel adrift in rapid change, My Family offers a textual harbor where they may anchor and reflect.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in the relationship between family history, personal memory, and the times
Readers who appreciate delicate, quiet prose of rich literary texture
Readers in a phase of life review, hoping to make sense of their own origins
Readers curious about the emotional structure and evolution of contemporary Chinese families

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking strong plot and fast-paced storytelling
Readers expecting grand narratives of specific historical events

Reading tips

Read slowly in a relatively quiet setting, following the author's touch into the river of memory.
As you read, reflect on your own family memories and emotional experience; deeper resonance may follow.
No need to finish in one sitting—savor it piece by piece; each essay has its own independent mood and space for afterthought.

About the publisher

Beijing United Publishing Co., Ltd. China · Founded in 1993

Beijing United Publishing Co., Ltd. is a publisher known for its literature and history titles, with 2,065 books in the collection. Its publishing covers foreign literature, contemporary Chinese prose and essays, history, folk literature, and cultural books. Its list ranges from Sima Qian's complete edition of the Records of the Grand Historian to foreign classics such as The Book of Disquiet, All Quiet on the Western Front, Snow Country, The Stranger, and Jean-Christophe, as well as modern Chinese works including Teahouse and Dawn Blossoms Plucked at Dusk. Its authors and translators include Yasunari Kawabata, Fernando Pessoa, Erich Maria Remarque, Jin Xinyi, Zhou Miao, and Chen Chao. Public information is limited, but its catalogue reflects a balance between Chinese and foreign literary classics and historical and cultural works.

版权信息
我奶奶
我姥姥
我妈
我爸
我舅姥爷
小舅姥爷的养女
姨姥爷的侄女
钟点工张小姐
护工小芹
姐妹俩
望六纺
家乡的格拉条

FAQ

Is this book fiction or nonfiction?

My Family is a work of prose/nonfiction—literary writing based on the author's real family memories and personal experience.

Is the content heavy or sentimental?

The author's style is restrained and calm, centered on observation and reflection; emotional expression is subtle and deep, avoiding direct sentimentality, yet inner emotional tension runs high.

Do I need to know the author's background to understand it?

No. The book concerns universal family feelings and memories; even readers unfamiliar with the author's previous work can enter it smoothly and resonate.

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About the author

闫红 Author

Yan Hong is a Chinese author about whom limited public information is available. Her work centers on literary appreciation and prose essays. Seven of her books are included in the collection, showing a sustained and careful interest in the Book of Songs (Shijing) and in Tang and Song poetry. She contributed to Xu Yuanchong: The Breathtaking Tang and Song Poetry and Book of Songs (eight volumes) and wrote English-Chinese appreciation books such as Youyou Luming, There Are Fusu Trees, and Swallows Fly, which use the idea of “breathtaking beauty” to bring the imagery and feeling of classical verse to contemporary readers. She is also the author of A Misreading of Dream of the Red Chamber, a personal rereading of the classic, and of prose collections such as My Portable Life and My Home, written in a plain, warm style that draws on everyday details and personal reflection. Her writing combines popularization of classical literature with the temperament of the personal essay, and is suited to general readers interested in traditional poetry and literary reading.