Sang Gege’s newly releasedXiao Shihou (When I Was Young, Xinxing Publishing House, 28 yuan) is a fun read that is guaranteed to rekindle memories of lost childhood years.
The book was first recommended by Wang Xiaofeng, China’s most famous blogger, who introduced, Sang, 27, a Chinese woman and a drop-out with an interesting personality. The book is full of childhood stories from an adult woman. The stories do not necessarily link one to another, but Sang writes them and gives each a number. No 258 is about a desk she sat in at school, No 259 concerns Cambodia, while No 260 is about how her grandfather was pampered on a trip when he was mistaken as a high-ranking officer.
Many reader have recommended the book because of its humorous nature and similarities to their own childhood.
In one story, Sang writes, “I am playing with a new doll I just got outside. Deng Xiaojia sees it and asks whether I can give my doll to her. I start thinking carefully as the sun beats down: what if I didn’t have the doll? I would not die; I uld not lose a bit of myself. The sun is still shining on me. I can still have a cake when I get home later and watch Mickey House on TV. My sanjie, a relative, will still come to visit me in two days and take me to eat street food. So I decide to give my doll to Deng Xiaojia. ‘Alright, you can have it.’he book is written in a way which reflects how a child thinks and experiences the world. Each paragraph is a story, while each story is less than 300 Chinese characters. Some paragraphs have only one sentence. In fact, the entire book is composed of two parts: when the writer was young, and her stories from Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. Sang has lived in all three cities, and tries to record her life and feeling of each through her native Sichuan dialect.
