Yes, if you are advanced and want literature rather than plot. Shen Congwen's Border Town is short but lyrical, and its older, descriptive prose asks far more than its simple story of a ferryman's granddaughter suggests.
- Level
- Advanced
- Format
- Book
- Year
- 2009
Why it works for learners
This book is about how Chinese can sound on the page. Long descriptions of river, boats, seasons and local customs teach you a landscape vocabulary that modern fiction rarely uses so fully. As a twentieth-century classic it also gives you cultural reference points that Chinese readers know well. Its brevity is a real advantage: you can read a classic in full, slowly, and then reread passages for the rhythm of the sentences.
What makes it hard
The word choices of an earlier period and regional colour can make simple scenes slow going, and dictionaries do not always help with them. Very little happens quickly, so you have no plot to pull you through a difficult paragraph. Patience matters here.
How to use it
Read one short chapter at a sitting, first straight through, then with a dictionary. Copy out a descriptive sentence you like and read it aloud. Do not treat new words as things to memorise; many of them belong only to this kind of prose.
More for Chinese learners: our Chinese guides.
Keep it where you'll see it
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