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分享一篇文章： China is galloping toward the future with breakneck speed, yet novelists of the English language seem to be mired in the past. Nicole Mones, American author of three novels, all set in China, says of her readers: "There is a resistance to comprehending modern China." The West has a hunger for China-related knowledge, bordering on "fetishism", yet the public does not seem to be interested in China now, but rather, in the oriental, the historical and the romantic notions of the country. There is simply "not enough audience interest in the narrative of contemporary China". Be that as it may, Mones' novels are all set in the present day, but with roots in the past. Lost in Translation (Delta, 1999), which has nothing to do with the movie of the same title, is anchored around the bones of Peking man. A Cup of Light (Dell, 2002) is about a huge collection of priceless porcelains and The Last Chinese Chef (Houghton Mifflin, 2007) opens up a world of Chinese cuisine so richly deep it could only have been written by someone who used to write for food magazines. Mones amassed her vast storehouse of Chinese history and its way of life from her diligent research as well as her first-hand contact with the country and its people. She worked in China for 18 years since 1977 and witnessed some of its most dramatic changes. Yet she always feels this push to dig into China's past and contrast it with the American protagonists in the foreground. | 
