Watching the Tree: A Chinese Daughter Reflects on Happiness, Spiritual Beliefs and Universal Wisdom
£9.50
Author of bestselling ‘Falling Leaves’ weaves together for the same audience her own personal experiences with the best of Chinese philosophy.
Adeline Yen Mah, whose autobiography ‘Falling Leaves’ is an international bestseller, here interweaves her own experiences with her views on Chinese thought and wisdom to create an illuminating and highly personal guide for Western readers.
Adeline Yen Mah was born in Tianjin, and through the conversations and wisdom of her grandfather and aunt learnt a great deal of traditional Chinese thought, history and religion. Through her father’s second marriage to a Eurasian woman, and their subsequent move to Hong Kong, she learnt more about the Chinese attitudes to business and to family, and the strength of the Chinese in exile.
Since living in London and California, Adeline Yen Mah has studied Chinese thought, looking at both the strengths and weaknesses which it gives those who follow it and now, in ‘Watching the Tree’, she takes us on a journey through the Chinese language, religions and history, using both Chinese proverbs and her own experiences, to bring to us an understanding of the richness of China and the ways that we can take and use some of the wisdom for ourselves in the West.
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by FC
This is an amazing read! So much so, that I couldn’t put it down. I read it in one day. Adeline Yen Mah reflects on Philosophy, Wisdom, Happiness, Culture, Diet and Religion.
Inspirational woman and great author.
I have since gone on to purchase her other books.
I would highly recommend this to everyone!
by Joethemonster
I found this book in a charity shop. 6 books for 1 pound.. so this one was one among all the odd/rare books I got that day and the first to be read. I can’t expect that the rest of the books are gonna be as good as this one – that’d be impossible.
Awesome book. Really has helped me to better understand bits of Chinese culture. All these references to classic books, the way she explains differences between how things are done in the west and in the east, her live story and what she has learned out of it .. just brilliant.
Little bit of an eye/mind opener. Really enjoyed the reading.
by anne lorraine
good read
by C. Mills
Really nice read. Easy to understand, nice pace and well written. I enjoyed this book and now have a better understanding of Chinese people and their belief systems. Great
by Ms. Isla A. Scott
I found this a bit of a dry and perhaps directionless read at first but it did become quite an intriguing and even compelling read, the further I read. It was fascinating from a historical viewpoint, reading about the way the Chinese interpreted things many hundreds, or thousands even, of years ago. There’s a lot of talk about Confuscious, about Chinese morality and philosophy. Some things made sense to me, some others seemed so opposite to the way people like I, in Western civilisation, think.
I found particularly interesting the information about the Chinese language, with calligraphy often being mentioned. Many characters which feature in Chinese writing are covered in the text, with translations using our roman alphabet supplied and an English language translation also provided. This book provides a very good insight in to Chinese writing and culture in general I reckon. At first I wasn’t very sure, it seemed, if anything, a bit too specific a book, referring to the authors previous books, (primarily ‘Falling Leaves’), making me feel a bit daunted because I hadn’t read said previous book and I wasn’t sure what I was maybe expected, as a reader, to be aware of before reading this book. By the end of it, I found I had a better general understanding of Chinese culture and (perhaps less so but all the same) Chinese history, if nothing else.
Given it is quite focussed on philosophy, with the authors personal faith related beliefs being mentioned towards the end of it, it was quite a thought provoking read. I can understand why the author questioned things at certain times in her life, as she openly mentions. I thought the author was quite candid and provided an intriguing and certainly interesting read about her homeland, or mother country. I also liked that it was relatively short in terms of pagination, at under 250 pages long, so its not a massive, bulky brick of a read, which may put people off. In that sense its quite accessible.
If your interested either in eastern philosophy or spirituality, or more specifically in Chinese culture, society perhaps or maybe history, then I say this makes for an interesting read, one well worth considering.
If your just generally interested in it based on what I’ve said then definitely give it a read. It may not be to everyones interest – it was a little slow and maybe felt a little unfocussed at the start but I very much enjoyed reading it and found it an insightful read by the end. Recommended.
by The Third Eye
Watching the Tree
If someone want to know about China then he/she must read this.
After starting the reading, I don’t feel to put it down, really good one, it feels that Author is seating on the next chair and telling the story to you. This book shows us the culture of china, I am very impressed by the defination of various words from Chinese and their script.
The introduction of various Chinese classical like I Ching, Tao Te Ching, Art of the War, etc is amazing with their practical example from private life.
by Yinsey
I genuinely found this book to be fantastic. I was curious when I first saw it and I am so glad I picked it up in my school library. Yen Mah talks about the philosophies of China that still affect its rapidly changing society, and from an Western-Chinese backgrond, I found it very relevant to understanding my own culture and how being Chinese has influenced my thinking and my outlook. For one thing, Chinese love their food more than anything. Definately me!
She writes colourfully, humourously and clearly. I could not put this book down, I literally finished it in two days. I think that anyone who has a sincere interest in the Chinese culture to anyone who enjoys philosophy to anyone who just wants something entertaining to read, should definately give this a try.
by HappyDays
Again, a great book from Adeline yen mah. I thoroughly enjoyed this. It is well worth getting. A great book for anyone who is interested in China.