Zhang Guanglin

Lin Yutang wrote that Chinese people are not much in the way of writers. Compared with Western literature, Chinese literature counts very few thick novels. Most Chinese literary works, prior to Lin Yutang's life time, consist of poetry, aphorisms, reminiscences, and little stories. While since the advent of Modernism, notably Lu Hsun, who changed from writing in classical Chinese style to writing in the vernacular, modern Chinese novelists have caught up. However, in the bookstores in China, you might see that more than half of the books on offer consist of paperback editions on low quality paper, of books on all kinds of topics of relatively little text around very many illustrations, which although full-colour, do not present very well on the low quality paper.

Islam in China is like that. Although the book has 126 pages, there are only 17 pages of text, including 2.5 pages for the preface. The most interesting illustrations are photos of different architectural styles of mosques in China, built over 14 centuries. Many of these historical buildings are omitted from travel guides for Western tourists, and I would surely have made visits to:

The Huaisheng Mosque in Guangzhou, the oldest in China (dating back to the Tang Dynasty); The Grand Huajue xiang Mosque in Xi'an, or The Songjiang Mosque in Shanghai.

The rest of the photos show imams and muslim students, as well as heads of state of various Islamic countries from the early 1950s through the first decade of the 21st century.

The text is not very informative, and apparently not very well translated. Twenty years ago, Chinese books in English were very cheap. In recent years, however, prices have steeply risen, and while the print quality has gone up a lot, the translations have improved, but are still far from perfect, 90 yuan (about $13 USD) seems to be over-priced.… (más)