Summer is hot in Shanghai. I tend to stay indoors. Last Saturday the two of us nested in our apartment all day. Didn't even unlock the door to take out the trash.
This is a great time to catch up on reading. One of my bookgroup books for the upcoming year is "Leaving Mother Lake." I had known about the book soon after our arrival in Shanghai. The book is a memoir of a celebrity from a matriarchal minority group. I did not feel compelled to read the book, because 1) I abhor self promoters. 2) I am skeptical of the claim of matriarchal society.
Nevertheless I would read any book for a bookgroup. Once I got started with the story, I got totally immersed. I read other books on the subject. I am up to 5 books. I found the celebrity every bit annoying as I suspected. She also turned out to be a sociopath -- the details in her memoir by a Chinese writer is drastically different from "Leaving Mother Lake." But the story has all the issues I am interested in: indigenous cultures, women's issues, religion, influence of modern culture, effects of tourism, etc.
While in the process, I finally managed to read my 1st Chinese book cover to cover since coming to Shanghai. I was only looking at travel guide books before. I also learned how to buy used Chinese books online. And, I learned that my initial intuition was correct -- there is no true matriarchal society. They are matrilineal at best.
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A word about Chinese Minorities or Minority Groups: 97% of Chinese are Han, like myself. There are officially 50+ minority group with distinct languages & cultures, but I recently learned at the founding of the Republic in the 50s, 600+ groups applied for such a status.
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