Thursday, January 14, 2010

Sweet Mandarin by Helen Tse

Sweet Mandarin is a true life story of 3 generations of Chinese and how they made their living in the restaurant business. I found the story inspiring, showing the pleasure of hard work and accomplishment. Despite this, I also found elements of the story to be a bit cliched in the sense of the "immigrant struggle". This is unfortunate, since the struggle is real and people who immigrate and start business deserve massive praise.

I recommend this book for people who want to have a peek behind the Chinese restaurant owners world, and how their values are transferred down the generations.

It is also a book which connects England and Hong Kong and contains some history of both places. I enjoyed that aspect after my recent trip to Hong Kong, the city of business, without a doubt.

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