In addition, the strain of having to be both informal and informative sometimes tells. The alternation of anecdotes from her bitter years in China with encyclopedic entries about such topics as the Jesuits in China and the therapeutic value of tofu has sometimes to be broken, simply to add a degree of variety. At one point she uses the character of her old grandfather to explain the mysteries of the Chinese calendar, putting her explanation into his mouth as something she remembers him saying. The ruse is a little thin, but the author's persona is so gentle and unassuming that few readers are likely to object.
One feature is surprising. The book is essentially an argument for Chinese cultural traditions, and their importance for the coming global civilization. This will find a ready hearing in Europe and the US where interest in alternatives to the Western scientific tradition is strong. But you could find few more heart-felt indictments of the way Chinese custom sanctioned the repression of daughters than the author made in Falling Leaves. Perhaps Mah has mellowed with age, or perhaps it's just a question of her treating a different category of material this time.
Also very refreshing, because it is first-hand experience rather than a reworked digest of other people's ideas, is her account of meeting the English poet Philip Larkin when she was working in a London hospital. He told her that he thought Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching (
The familiar idea that subatomic physics has only confirmed what ancient Asian spiritual thought long ago asserted is given another airing. It's relevant to note here that Stephen Hawking has described the idea as preposterous. In addition, the contention doesn't take into account the differences in the scientific and mystic ways of considering the nature of the universe. The claim that the 18th century German thinker Leibniz, originator of the binary mathematics that is used by computer science, was influenced by the I Ching also makes an appearance in this wide-ranging book.
Cheek by jowl with this kind of thing come recollections of Mah's love relationships, and quick assessments of the three men she has been associated with. At other times, her experiences and those of the Buddha alternate. It's at moments like these that the book seems an odd concoction.
The work concludes with a grand finale, a paean to silence, beauty, order and the possibility of nirvana.
All in all, this book will probably reach a wider audience than it strictly deserves, because of Mah's large following. But it's so well-intentioned and clearly presented, that such success can do no possible harm.
For your information
Watching the Tree
By Adeline Yen Mah
243 pages
Broadway Books
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