First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

Diminutive 86-year-old Professor Hsiung is an undisputed giant in his own right. His international reputation as a literary phenomenon came with the publication and performance of the much-acclaimed play in English, Lady Precious Stream. It was staged in London from 1934 to 1936 and ran for 900 performances.

Jiangxi-born and Beijing-educated, Professor Hsiung has published several other books which have been translated into many languages. His novel, The Bridge of Heaven, is described by H.G. Wells as “more illuminating … than any report or treatise (on China). The reader will find the characters of Mr & Mrs. Ma and Li Ti-mo irresistible, and the reactions of the hero, Ta Tung, a startling illumination of the revolutionary motives and tendencies of multitudes of Chinese.

Happy Friday everyone! I hope everyone made it through yet another work week. I hope everyone completed all the tasks they started at the beginning of the week. I hope everyone ends the work week on a high note and jumps into the weekend worry-free. This also means that we are already inching toward the close of February. How time flies! How has your 2025 been? I hope that it is going great. I hope you got a headstart on your goals and that you are on the way to achieving them. If the year went otherwise, I hope you experience a reversal of fortune in the coming months. I hope that 2025 will be a year of prayers answered, healing, and dreams achieved. As such, I hope everyone will be healthy in body, mind, and spirit.

Before I could dive fully into the weekend, let me share a fresh First Impression Friday update which has, over the years, been a workweek-ender. It has become the perfect way to close a blogging week. Initially a space to reflect on the book I was reading, it eventually developed into a springboard upon which I built my book reviews. Opening my 2025 reading year are works of East Asian writers. Several factors figured in this decision. The foremost reason for this foray into East Asian literature was my inability to host a Japanese Literature Month in 2024; a Japanese literature month has been a staple of my reading year since 2020. Han Kang’s Nobel Prize in Literature recognition is another driver for this decision. Third, an older work by Han, We Do Not Part was released in English last month.

Another reason for this foray into East Asian literature is the glaring lack of Chinese voices in my reading journey. Despite its extent and its vast influence, my venture into works of Chinese literature is sparse at best. I have been redressing this in the pandemic years and I think I have been doing a decent job of making a dent into Chinese literature. My current read, Hsiung Shih-I’s The Bridge of Heaven is already the fifth novel written by a Chinese writer I read this year. This already surpassed the most books written by Chinese writers I read in a year; the previous record was three I reached in 2023. Anyway, before the pandemic, I have never come across the Chinese writer. It was through an online bookseller that I encountered him and his novel, The Bridge of Heaven. The book immediately piqued my interest, hence its addition to my burgeoning reading list.

Originally published on January 1, 1943, the novel commences in the 5th year of the reign of the Emperor Kwang Hsu (1879). It started with the construction of a bridge across a small river in one of the outlying districts of Nanchang, the provincial capital of Kiangsi (Jiangxi). At the heart of the story is the Li family, starting with brothers Li Ming and Li Kang. Following the demise of the parents, the brothers have divided the family home equally between the two of them. However, the brothers are the antithesis of each other. Ming, the older brother, is respected across the district because of his devotion “to such excellent and praiseworthy work.” He is the richest man in the district. He is more superstitious and is considered the more financially successful of the two: “Heaven had been very kind to him.”

Kang, on the other hand, was considered a problem by his family. He was more clever than his older brother and was also the favored child of their parents and the favored student of their teachers. He was, in his own way, respected by the denizens of the district because of his progressive ideas. There subtly reverberated a competition between the two brothers. The crux of the story, however, was when Ming’s wife was about to give birth to their children. The child died during childbirth, mainly because of the child’s parent’s conformance to tradition and superstitious beliefs. Heartbroken, Ming went to the trouble of looking for an impoverished couple who also had given birth to their first child at the same time his wife gave birth. He bought the child and asked the child’s parents to move away from the district. Lo and behold, Ming went home to find out that his wife had given birth to a twin.

As there was no longer a chance to reverse his initial action, Ming raised the two boys, Li Ta Tung and Li Shiao Ming. From the onset, the disparity between the brothers was palpable. What ensues is a very eventful story that takes the readers across the landscape of late Manchurian dynasty China. However, the historical contexts were toned down, except for occasional reminders such as the arrival of the Catholic ministers and the looming presence of the opium trade. All the while, Ta Tung and Shiao Ming develop a rivalry; their uncle Kang was, interestingly, their first tutor. Into their adulthood, Hsiung takes the readers. Romance and the slow integration of Chinese traditions with Western ideals take the forefront of the story. It was set, after all, at the turn of the 20th century when major changes were shaping Chinese society.

I am just under a hundred pages away from completing the book. I can’t wait to see how Hsiung concludes the story. How about you fellow reader? What book or books have you read over the weekend? I hope you get to enjoy whatever you are reading right now. Happy weekend!