Water Ink

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers
by Xiaolu Guo
I have to admit I didn’t read the whole book. I borrowed a copy from my friend but only had enough time to have a quick glance. I read the beginning when the protagonist Zhuang Xiaoqiao is on a plane to the UK, some bits in the middle, including an excerpt appeared on The Times, and the last several pages. So this is not a review, rather my impression on this book.

The plot is simple. Zhuang Xiaoqiao, a young woman comes to the UK to study English, with little knowledge of the country, and the language. She meets an artist in London. They becomes lovers and she moves into his flat in the rough side of London. She explores the culture, language, and sex through him. She feels increasingly lost when she knows better about the English (in the broad sense) and decides to go back to China. The circle ends. The story is narrated solely from the Zhuang Xiaoqiao’s point of view, using a dictionary-like structure, hence the book title.

I admire the author’s attention to small details and the ability to convey the subtle messages. I quite like the absurdity and surrealness, which could be the results of I only read bits of it though. Zhuang Xiaoqiao is sensitive, fragile and yet quite determined. Probably not so likable but she seduces us with her
vulnerability and curiosity. I won’t be able to say anything about the story-telling and how well the use of a dictionary-like structure, but I was hooked into the story within the short time I had the book.

The problem for me though, is the device Xiaolu Guo used throughout the book, the ‘delibrately bad English’ Zhuang Xiaoqiao supposedly speaks. I can see it is intended to highlight the cultural difference, and to reflect Zhuang Xiaoqiao’s feelings from curiosity, confusion to a cultural limbo state she had experienced. However, that didn’t work for me at all, instead it consistently distracted me from following the story. I can’t help but keep thinking why Zhang Xiaoqiao is making such and such basic gramma mistakes yet at the same time using some sophiscated words and expressions that didn’t match the English level indicated - common for pupils learning English in China. Although it’s perfectly possible there is someone who speaks and writes English that way, and perhaps there is no such distraction for a native English speaker, the ‘delibrately’ part of the device became too obvious to me, which undermines the believability of the character. To manage the ‘bad English’ throughout the book and to change the writing style and volcabulary graduately without looking unnature is very difficult. I feel this book would be more enjoyable without having this device.

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