Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Six Records of a Floating Life

Six Records of a Floating Life
sixteendays avatar reviewed on + 130 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2


Shen Fus Six Records of a Floating Life is more than an autobiography; it is a life composed from poetry and flower petals. Somewhere between the beauty of the words is also found a glimpse into a moment in time that few Westerners understand, much less know of. It is inside these words that can be discovered new concepts and previously unknown ideals. Concepts foreign to Western society take on stiff definitions based on incomplete knowledge and broad stereotypes. In Six Records of a Floating Life, Shen Fu presents to the reader some alternate outcomes and ideas of what may be preconceived Western notions about certain truths in Qing Dynasty China.