Watching the Tree: A Chinese Daughter Reflects on Happiness, Tradition and Spiritual Wisdom

Adeline Yen Mah is a writer and physician who lives in Huntington Beach, California. She divides her time between her California home, London, and Hong Kong. Her other works include the bestselling Falling Leaves: The True Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter as well as Chinese Cinderella. For more information, you can visit the author's website. Adeline Yen Mah has combined her experience as a physician, her Chinese heritage, and her deeply personal connection to her grandfather, Ye Ye, to create a work of art that is at once informative, enjoyable, and enlightening. By her own admission, this book is a "letter of gratitude to a grandfather who once gave me the most precious of all gifts: my sense of hope." Recognizing an ever growing number of people who are interested in eastern philosophy, the author offers us a rare perspective on the concepts and beliefs as she shares with her reader. She is, to her thinking, a true Chinese-American: born in China and having lived and practiced medicine in America for some thirty years. She is able to take the basic concepts of her heritage, blend them with soulful lessons she learned througout her life, and apply them in such a way that she answers questions about the concerns of modern day western peoples who still long to know more about the mysterious and spiritual elements of Chinese culture. Readers are treated to history lessons, religious principles, Eastern medical practices, discussion on foods of the Chinese culture, the more mysterious ideas of invisible energies, and a lesson in Chinese language. All the while, the reader almost forgets that this ia a nonfiction work. Its ease of reading and its personal and relaxed style seems more like a conversation with Adeline Yen Mah. For me, that is the mark of a truely gifted non-fiction author. In a chapter discussing Confucian practices, I was quite taken back to learn that "over the centuries very few great Chinese novels were written." The author sites the fact that "Composing fiction in the spoken language was considered despicable by the literati. The word "novel" in Chinese is known as "xiao shuo" ("little talk"). " She tells us that authors were often ashamed of their novels or they would deny the fact that they were in fact authors of works of fiction. A fascinating discussion takes place in the chapter titled "Let Food Be Medicine." The author relates a story of a conversation with her brother. "One fundamental difference between us Chinese and the English is this: We Chinese live to eat, whereas the English eat to live." This enjoyable chapter is sure to make the mouth water and the mind race with vivid images and olfactory arousal. Did you know that the standard greeting of a Chinese upon meeting a friend is not "How are you?" but rather "Have you eaten your meal today?" A.Y.M. writes "Every month, we women spend hours at the beauty parlor and hundreds of dollars on cosmetics to improve our appearance. Unless we have a healthy bod

Dr Yen wrote this highly readable reflection from her own experience on happiness, tradition and spiritual wisdom. Her eleven chapters guided reader to the different aspects on Chinese culture so that non-Chinese have a simple better understanding and comprehension. However, her allegation on the absence of a Chinese Shakespeare or Jane Austin in Imperial China was a western viewpoint as westerners could not read original Chinese classics - The Romance of Three Kingdom, Water Margin, The Journey to the West, Dream of Red Chamber and others such as Peony Pavilion, The Butterfly Lovers, The West Chamber Story and Gold Vase Plum. . . On the role of woman, she put bias against woman as Confucius teaching, specially foot-binding, a false connection. On P.73, she said "the emphasis a family values deteriorated into selfishness and a lack of social consciousness". Such conclusion overlooked the heroes in Chinese history who made the sacrifice for the country such as Man Tien Cheng, Yue Fei and others. On P.171, she showed Chinese had no zero till it was imported from Hindu-Arabic. However, reading the book "Writing on China" by Gottfried Leibniz will give an otherwise answer. On P.199, she said of no Chinese individual human rights. However, readers are advised to read The Commonwealth State from the Confucian Book of Rite for answer. She wrote beautifully in this book. It was her family feud leading her to write this book on her yin and yang. It is a good introduction for understanding ancient and current China for a better world.

"Watching the Tree" is a meditation on the philosophies that have shaped Chinese thought over the millenia. The West has its Judeo-Christian traditions and Puritan work ethic: China has Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. There's a saying that only the fish doesn't know water: we have to leave our surroundings to understand them. Adeline Yen Mah left French-occupied Shanghai and British-administered Hong Kong to earn a medical degree in England from Oxford University, and then worked in the US as a doctor for thirty years. Now she's on a mission to explain to us what makes the other one fourth of the world's population 'tick'.This isn't a textbook, and it isn't an autobiography, although the author draws heavily from her experience of living with her adored Buddhist grandfather. It's a meandering walk through Chinese history (all 8,000 or more years of it) and Chinese foods, medicine, language and writing. We learn how Confucius (Kong Fu Zi) strove to rid China of its cruel mandarin ruling class and replace it with an educated meritocracy -- and left a long-term legacy of a stultifying bureaucracy and contempt for feminine intellect. We learn how Taoism was subverted into a set of kitschy superstitions. And how Buddhism merged with Chinese thought to become Zen.The book is beautifully presented. The paper is fine quality and the text clear and well laid out. Dr Yen often gives the traditional Chinese ideograms for Chinese words and explains their derivation. What we write and what we say is what we think. No wonder the Chinese government has difficulty with the concepts of 'human rights' and 'privacy' when they have no words for them. And we have no words for tao or li or qi. We have a lot to learn.

This book covers the essentials of Chinese culture in a very cohesive, anecdotal way, and its enjoyable to read. The author brings together elements of the written language, history, legend, food, medicine and more in the best example that I've seen of explaining the Chinese culture to the non-chinese. It's the single best source for understanding the Chinese culture. If you're going to China - whether a novice or china expert - you'll get a lot out of this book.

Adeline Yen Mah writes with sometimes painful honesty about her life in general, her personal relationships as well as her family, community and country. I don't recall having read a book that could be so moving and yet so intellectually enriching. Anyone doing business in China, Japan, Korea or Malaysia should read this book and carry it in their briefcase. Beyond the poignant stories of her personal life, the book offers an enormous scope of information and insights. If you have ever wondered about Feng Shui, the I Ching, the Tao, Buddha and Confucius, you will find this book very interesting. If you have some scientific background you will be fascinated by her discussion about Hiesenberg's "Uncertainty Principle", Quantum Physics, String Theory as well as references to Carl Jung, Galileo, Spinoza, the Dalai Lama, the Julian Calendar vs. the Chinese Calendar, Laplace, Leibniz and the list goes on! She is a Physician and writer with a keen sense about philosophy, the history of science and mathematics. There is no word or concept for "human rights" in Chinese and her explanation is a real eye opener. The profound influence of Confucius for over 2500 years and the late adoption of the zero (1247 AD) explain a lot about the history of China. She writes with respect towards the reader and has an obvious reverence for her subject matter. I have only one disappointment. There is no index to help the reader to return to the many points of interest in the book.