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    Peach Blossom Pavilion
    Unavailable
    Peach Blossom Pavilion
    Unavailable
    Peach Blossom Pavilion
    Ebook539 pages8 hours

    Peach Blossom Pavilion

    By Mingmei Yip

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A Chinese woman recalls her youthful years as a courtesan in this historical novel that offers a “vivid account of the forgotten past” (Chun Yu, author of Little Green).
     
    In a sunny California apartment, a young woman and her fiancé arrive to record her great-grandmother’s story. It is the story of a girl, Xiang Xiang, who rose from a childhood of shame to become one of the most successful courtesans in early twentieth-century China—under the name Precious Orchid.
     
    After Xiang Xiang’s father is falsely accused of a crime, he is executed, leaving his family a legacy of dishonor. Her mother’s only option is to enter a Buddhist nunnery, so she gives her daughter over to the care of her sister in Shanghai.
     
    At first, life at Peach Blossom Pavilion feels like a dream. Surrounded by exotic flowers, murmuring fountains, colorful fishponds, and bamboo groves, Precious Orchid sees herself thriving. She is schooled in music, literature, painting, calligraphy, and, to her innocent surprise, the art of pleasuring men. For the beautiful Pavilion hides its darker purpose as an elite house of prostitution. And even as she commands the devotion of China’s most powerful men, Precious Orchid never gives up on her dream to escape, reunite with her mother, avenge her father’s death, and find true love. As the richest, most celebrated Ming Ji—or “prestigious courtesan”—in all of China, she just might have her way, even if it comes with a devastating price.
     
    Sweeping in scope and stunning in its evocation of China, Peach Blossom Pavilion is a remarkable novel with an unforgettable heroine at the heart of its powerful story.
     
    “Riveting . . . A rare peek into an exotic culture that is thrilling, captivating, and moving.” —Shobhan Bantwal, author of The Dowry Bride
     
    “In the sure voice of Precious Orchid, Mingmei Yip recounts thirteen tumultuous years of Chinese history: vicious politics, pristine piety and heartrending scandal, framed in the classical arts. She writes with a painter’s fastidious eye and the irresistible energy of grand storytelling. The pages just turn themselves.” —Neal Chandler, director, Creative Writing Program of Cleveland State University
     
    “Peach Blossom Pavilion, story of the last geisha in China, is told with amazing insight as if the author had lived in the tumultuous China of a century ago. Through her beautiful, lucid prose, Mingmei brings modern Western readers into the mysterious world of the cultivated courtesan.” —Hannelore Hahn, founder and executive director, International Women’s Writing Guild
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateJun 1, 2008
    ISBN9781617739088
    Unavailable
    Peach Blossom Pavilion
    Author

    Mingmei Yip

    Mingmei Yip was born in China and received her Ph.D. from the University of Paris, Sorbonne. She has written for major Hong Kong newspapers, and has appeared on many national and international television and radio programs. She immigrated to the United States in 1992, where she now lives in New York City with her husband. Her novels have been published in ten different languages and she is also an accomplished musician and calligrapher. Visit her at www.mingmeiyip.com.

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    Reviews for Peach Blossom Pavilion

    3.5/5

    35 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book. At first, I thought it was going to be a Chinese version of Memoirs of a Geisha, but it wasn't. The characters were fully developed and very surprising in their depth. Some of the characters were throwing out new surprises around page 380, and I love that, that's how real people are! Also, even though it's a book about prostitution, it wasn't all that explicit, which would have taken away from the overall charm of the story. It's not a happy ending, it's a sad story, but it's a believable story.
    • 4/5
      I really liked this book. I was not sure what I was getting into when I got this book, but I do love surprises. I liked how it started with her being the old woman and recounting her story to her granddaughter. It was very interesting how you can almost feel the disconnection she had with human emotions, and then was suddenly overwhelmed by the impact a person can make without knowing what has happened.I do not know if this is one I will suggest to my daughter, as it does talk alot about sex, but for someone else a little more mature...absolutely.
    • 4/5
      An entertaining novel set in early twentieth-century China. After a series of family misfortunes, the young Xiang Xiang finds herself in a brothel called Peach Blossom Pavilion, where she is trained to be a ming ji, a prestigious prostitute. Xiang Xiang's path is fraught with tragedy and betrayal, but she nevertheless manages to escape Peach Blossom Pavilion, only to discover that her life in the brothel continues to haunt her. A good read, definitely for those who enjoy historical fiction set in China.
    • 5/5
      Peach Blossom Pavilion is a story about the last Chinese courtesan, ming ji. It's much like The Last Geisha. It is rich in details, beautiful in dialogue, and the story is dramatic to the point of being a soap opera. Interwoven into the multiple layered story are beautiful Chinese tales, songs, and poetry. They are so in-depth that you are amazed at how well they are translated intp English. I loved the book as well as I love The Last Geisha but this one is better because it feels more real and more research given into it. On a side note, I find myself haunted by one particular tale: the story of the couple who the gods put up in the sky as stars but separated them by a river of stars. And on the 7th night of the 7th moon, a flock of magpies would form a bridge so that the two could see each other. On that night, there would a festival for lovers to come out to see each other. How utterly romantic even as sad as it is.