What book are you reading?

[Joe Shearer]

@Nilgiri
I know you can speak Chinese. But I don't know if you can read Chinese. If you can read Chinese, this book is recommended for you.

The book has been called the most amazing novel in contemporary China. It is a bit difficult to read, hard to understand and requires countless repetitions of reading and thinking.
Because it is so difficult to understand it, it has not spread much and not many people know about it.
There is a TV series based on this novel. But because the novel goes too deep into the study of human nature, the TV series cuts down a lot of content. Might as well just read the novel.

View attachment 64089

Is there an English translation?

 

[Michael]

Is there an English translation?

This is a very cold Chinese novel and will not be available in English.
This novel is a very profound study of human nature, especially the use of human nature research and analysis in business activities. It uses a lot of very profound words, and even the average Chinese person would have a hard time understanding the meaning behind these words. It requires the reader to have a very rich social experience and philosophical wisdom.
You can try to buy a copy and read it, it will test your Chinese comprehension skills very much. If you can read it completely, your life will change significantly.
I can read parts of it and understand the meaning behind it. But only parts of it.

 

[Nilgiri]

"Almost all of the wars that have been fought over the last thirty years have been unsuccessful."

Eh?

<DISAGREE>

I guess successful/unsuccessful depends on the point of view.

 

[Nilgiri]

This is a very cold Chinese novel and will not be available in English.
This novel is a very profound study of human nature, especially the use of human nature research and analysis in business activities. It uses a lot of very profound words, and even the average Chinese person would have a hard time understanding the meaning behind these words. It requires the reader to have a very rich social experience and philosophical wisdom.
You can try to buy a copy and read it, it will test your Chinese comprehension skills very much. If you can read it completely, your life will change significantly.
I can read parts of it and understand the meaning behind it. But only parts of it.

There is also the TV series of it (Tian Dao)....i.e way of heaven (rather than dou dou's book title: distant saviour).

Tian Dao can be found with english subtitles, later in year I will probably watch it. How would you rate the TV series compared to the book?

 

[Michael]

There is also the TV series of it (Tian Dao)....i.e way of heaven (rather than dou dou's book title: distant saviour).

Tian Dao can be found with english subtitles, later in year I will probably watch it. How would you rate the TV series compared to the book?

Yes, the TV series “天道Tian Dao” is based on this novel. The lead actor is Wang Zhiwen, a very famous and powerful actor in China.

This TV series was aired in 2008. Due to the filming and production technology at that time, this TV series was very bad. At the same time, due to the fact that the lines in the drama involved a lot of in-depth analysis about human nature and society, it was massively censored. It is still a very good drama, but not as good as the novel.
The original version of the show was completely banned three months after airing due to the over-the-top nature of the plot and its bold and direct dialog, which allegedly leaked secrets and trade secrets. It was only after a 10-year overhaul that the show was able to return to viewers.
Currently, China's movie and television copyright management is relatively strict, and it is impossible to find pirated copies or download channels. Chinese users can watch the series anytime via iQIYI. iQIYI has an international version, but the playable content is not the same as the Chinese version, so I'm not sure if “天道Tian Dao” is available in the international version of iQIYI.
There are videos of “天道Tian Dao” on Youtube, you can try to search for it using Chinese. But there should be no English subtitles, its content is hard to be translated.

 

[Michael]

There is also the TV series of it (Tian Dao)....i.e way of heaven (rather than dou dou's book title: distant saviour).

Tian Dao can be found with english subtitles, later in year I will probably watch it. How would you rate the TV series compared to the book?

Story roughly:
A retired and very powerful business guru, at the request of his girlfriend (a criminal police officer), uses some legal but not commercially logical means to help an extremely poor village with economic development (using business acumen rather than money), beating out industry giants in a very short period of time.

 

[VCheng]

I guess successful/unsuccessful depends on the point of view.

Exactly. Militarily, one might judge a war very differently than as a geopolitical tool deployed temporarily in pursuit of broader policies, especially long term.

 

[_NOBODY_]

Exactly. Militarily, one might judge a war very differently than as a geopolitical tool deployed temporarily in pursuit of broader policies, especially long term.

War can never be separated by politics because war is always political. War is a subset of politics. It is how humans conduct politics when they have failed to reach a decision through talking.