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:

This is the story of Fenfang who, determined to carve out a life more independent than her provincial roots, gets a job as a film extra in Beijing. But living a modern life is not as easy as it looks in this tumultuous, messy city.

Grappling with the narrow world of a cinema, an outworn communist regime and the city’s far-from-progressive attitudes to women, charismatic Fenfang finds her true freedom in the one place she never expected.

20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth is a sparkling and wry coming-of-age story about the changing identity of women in contemporary China.20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth is a sparkling and wry coming-of-age story about the changing identity of women in contemporary China.

Happy Friday everyone! Technically it is already Saturday so I hope everyone will have a great weekend. I hope everyone sailed through the work week. I hope everyone accomplished all the tasks they started at the beginning of the week, or at least able to make strides. I hope everyone has ended the work week on a high note and is jumping into the weekend worry-free. Time flies. Just like that, the first work week of March is done. How has your 2025 been? I hope it is going great or how you wanted it to. I hope you got a headstart on your goals and are on the way to achieving them. If the year goes otherwise, I hope you experience a reversal of fortune in the coming months. I hope all positive energies flow into you. I hope that 2025 will be a year of prayers answered, healing, and dreams achieved. More importantly, 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, developed into a weekly ritual, the perfect way to close a blogging week. It was initially a space for me to take a breather and reflect on the book I was reading. It eventually developed into a springboard upon which I built my book reviews. I commenced my 2025 reading year with the works of East Asian writers. Several factors figured in this decision, the primary of which was my inability to host a Japanese literature month in 2024, the first time in a while I failed to do so. South Korean writer Han Kang’s Nobel Prize in Literature recognition is another driver for this decision. An older work by Han, We Do Not Part was just released in English last January.

Another reason for this early 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 trying to redress this during the pandemic; I had the most prolific reading years. This year, I am making headways into Chinese literature. My current read, Xiaolu Guo’s Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth, is already the sixth book written by a Chinese writer I have read this year. This is already double my previous best reading output in a year; I read three in 2023. Interestingly, or perhaps unfortunately, Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth is, if my memory serves me right, just the first book written by a female Chinese writer that is originally written in Chinese; all of my previous reads were originally written in English.

Anyway, Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth charts the fortunes of Fenfang, a young female film extra living in Beijing. At the age of seventeen, Fenfang left her parents and the countryside where they ran a potato farm to start a new life in the bustling Chinese capital. She had no desire to return to the countryside. The story, in fragments, the novel captures Fenfang’s new life. Pursuing success in the bustling capital, however, was easier said than done. She was not equipped with what she had to deal with; she was entering uncharted territories. In Beijing, success was elusive. Despite several attempts to make headways, Fenfang landed mostly dead-end roles with no lines in television shows. Opportunities with substantial pecuniary gains came once in a blue moon if they even come at all.

All over Beijing, vestiges of the communist regime were evident. For one, Fenfang lived in the Chinese Rose Garden Estate, one of several Beijing estates constructed to replace the traditional hutongs. The estates, while seemingly new, were crumbling inside. Fenfang, nevertheless, was happy to be occupying her own space. Meanwhile, Fenfang tried her best to upskill. She earned diplomas and certifications to render more credibility to her; she kept her certificates in what she referred to as a Mao drawer. The presence of the regime was indelible. At one point, Fenfang had to report to the police station under the suspicion of being a perpetrator of a crime; her neighbors, who barely knew her, espoused the allegations. A significant part of her story also captured her romantic but disappointing affairs, one with Xiaolin, the volatile film producer’s assistant; and Ben, an American graduate student.

Interestingly, Ben’s presence in the story shows the cultural divide between the East and the West, or at least how the West perceived the East. Ben wanted to be a crusader but the moment he ran into trouble, he immediately packed up and returned to the United States. Meanwhile, the story referred to seminal historical events such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. However, they were mentioned offhandedly, as though Guo was skirting around the sensitive subject. But then I guess this was deliberate considering the nature of the environment in which Fenfang had to live in. Somehow I feel like Fenfang was the writer’s alter ego. Apparently, Guo’s protagonists were primarily females from East China.

A coming-of-age story in Communist China, the book is a rather quick read. Despite the fragments, Guo manages to paint a vivid portrait of Communist China and the suffocating atmosphere that pervades it. I find it fascinating in a way. Because it is a quick read, I will be able to complete the book in one sitting. The book is rather thin and I just might be able to complete it today. 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!