I stayed away from Legends of the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng by Xu Xin, despite my abiding interest in the Jewish community in Kaifeng, China. Some of my wariness was correct, but overall, if you let go of assumptions of historical accuracy, this is an enjoyable book.
The author cites sources for many of these tales stories from interviews of Kaifeng descendants. He obviously uses historical sources as well, and in many places (he tells us this in the intro) engages in a bit of fiction writing. This would have been a better book had he made very slight notations of source materials.
If this is actually a book of legends from the community, it would be great to know where legend ends and history or /or fiction begins.
The author cites sources for many of these tales stories from interviews of Kaifeng descendants. He obviously uses historical sources as well, and in many places (he tells us this in the intro) engages in a bit of fiction writing. This would have been a better book had he made very slight notations of source materials.
If this is actually a book of legends from the community, it would be great to know where legend ends and history or /or fiction begins.
No comments:
Post a Comment