This is a unique collection of short stories examining various aspects of Chinese culture from the perspective of natives and immigrants who left for other places. I loved the glimpse into another culture and even the pace of the stories was different. The stories often had me pausing after to think about what I read and process which I think is the mark of a good book. The characters were all unique and intriguing. My favorite story was the last one. A group of commuters are trapped in a train station following a mechanical error because as the station staff say passengers need to exit a different station than the enter. After months reporters and even the Mayor come in to see how they’re doing and praise their spirit as they support their country and government by staying put. The writing is excellent and I flew through the stories, even with stopping to process what I was reading.

also am NOT a short story person usually, far preferring novel-length fiction, but the topic of this particularly collection was too enticing to pass up. It did not disappoint.

Each of these stories presents the faces of 21st century China, both at home and abroad. Capitalism and the communist legacy are front and center in each of these stories. You see clearly China’s history, with the older generations portrayed as having lived through forced labor, famine, and protest, and the younger generations who have more economic possibility, but they’re hemmed in by that too.

Not every one hit as hard, but New Fruit, The Land of Big Numbers, and most especially the culminating piece, Gubeikou Spirit, capture the possibility and progress of life in China, while also making you feel the limits placed on citizens by an omnipotent government. Gubeikou Spirit is a surreal, twisted pseudo-reality that you can almost believe could really happen…I don’t want to spoil the plot, it’s worth discovering for yourself!

I would recommend this collection to anyone who wants to read tightly written, revealing portraits of modern Chinese life, that pull back the curtain on a place that is, at its essence, still a totalitarian communist state that controls how people move and live, while also being a place where capitalism is still new, young, and running wild.

An imaginative and well-written short story collection. Some of the stories have a touch of magical realism, some are more grounded in reality, but all of them allow the reader to step into another life. I really enjoyed it and thought it explored some really interesting concepts.

China is, in a way, a mythic place. Its sheer size both in physical land and population are known globally as is a large amount of Chinese history and culture. That mythic perception often clouds out the minute details of life in China and its sizable diaspora. Te-Ping Chen's speculative stories help scale down that perspective by offering a more intimate look into the lives of those connected to China and Chinese culture. Ranging from realistic to more surreal, these stories are thought-provoking and engaging. Land of Big Numbers is such a lovely collection of short stories that will stay with you long after completion.

First off, I love the cover. It’s so eye-catching!

This book is a series of short stories, all set in China or populated by diasporic Chinese characters. In my favorite story, a new fruit is marketed and sold that gives the eater uplifting, positive emotions. In town, that has some social effects, before the fruit changes in the subsequent seasons. The government is omnipresent in almost all the stories, whether it’s overtly mentioned or not. In this story, I couldn’t shake the feeling that government had engineered the initial effect from the fruit, as well as the later changes.

I’m not sure if it’s a function of the translation or not, but the tone of most of these stories was remote. In some cases, this made some lines, like one that revealed that a character was dead in the time the story was being told, land harder. In others, it was a little harder for me to connect with the story.

Overall, these stories are interesting, and definitely have more going on beneath the surface than initially meets the eye.

Land of Big Numbers is a collection of short stories revolving around the lives of the Chinese and Chinese American people. Overall, I thought the stories were insightful, thought-provoking and very well-written, not forgetting some had a touch of magical realism too, which was a nice surprise. I also loved the fact that they all had open endings; definitely my cup of tea. Here are some of my favorites in the collection:

Lulu: about twins who took different career paths - a professional gamer and a political activists with very surprising endings.

Hotline Girl: a woman working in a call center met up with her violent ex boyfriend who would’ve led her to a different path in life should she have married him.

New Fruit: a fruit, its orange-red, its flesh velvety and luxurious tasted so good the whole town fell in love with it. But one day when the fruit was no longer sold and nobody could consume it, it got everyone feeling on the edge.

Shanghai Murmur: a woman working in a flower shop was infatuated by one of her customers, but lost her job because of him.

Beautiful spirit: a woman who was suspicious of her husband having an affair. Not only did she not confront him about it despite her colleague’s advise, she moved on with their lives, even though it bothered her.

Gubeiko Spirit: this, I find, is the strongest in the collection. It reminded me of a Tom Hanks movie – The Terminal. In this story, a group of train passengers getting stranded and stuck in a train station, and were finding ways to survive and adapt to their new environment.

It took me awhile to finish the book because I wanted to be fully immersed in all the stories and appreciate the authors writing, which I enjoyed tremendously. I’m looking forward to reading more from her. A strong debut!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for gifting me a digital ARC of this wonderful debut story collection by Te-Ping Chen - 5 stars!

These short stories are beautifully written, each different but all exploring Chinese culture, government, history and people's desire to move forward in their lives. Some are full of magical realism, some are more stark, but all speak of human desire and resilience. We learn of the culture and beauty of China as well as how Chinese people incorporate into American lives.

I read these stories one at a time, pausing in between. I had so many favorites - Land of Big Numbers, New Fruit and Gubeikou Spirit were probably at the top. Each story feels complete in thought yet leaves you wanting to know more. These characters will stick with you and the poetic writing leaves me anxiously awaiting more from this author!

"Land of Big Numbers" is an excellent collection of short stories from Te-Ping Chen. Set in China and the U. S., the stories center on lower middle class people who lead lives of quiet - almost - desperation. The settings are mainly malls, apartment blocks, and office towers in the new China, with most of the characters one generation removed from more traditional villages and ways of life.

The author presents the characters' small victories, defeats, compromises, and struggles with sympathy, allowing their dignity to show. Her writing is sharp, and her observations keen and insightful. The stories are a pleasure to read.

Highly recommended.

Te-Pink Chen's brilliant debut collection of short stories are well-written, thought-provoking, and entertaining. In her lyrical prose, Chen writes portraits of vividly, realistic characters moving through their lives in contemporary China - some with just a toe-dip in magical surrealism. I particularly enjoyed the insight into Chinese culture's social, familial, and political dynamics. While it is hard to pick a favorite from the collection, the top three are "Hotline Girl," "Land of Big Numbers," and "Gubeikou Spirit." I can't wait to read more of Chen's work in the future.

Thank you, Netgalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, for the advance digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! Really well executed and confident. My favorite of the stories were probably Lulu, New Fruit and Gubeiko Spirit. Apparently, Te-Ping Chen began as a journalist before writing fiction and it shows. Really observant. Excited to read more from her.

In Land of Big Numbers, Te-Ping Chen portrays Chinese life through a collection of vivid short stories. A former Fulbright Scholar and Wall Street Journal correspondent in China, she depicts the country from a variety of angles, looking at contemporary big city life, village life in the days of Mao, the young, the elderly, the realistic, and the strange. Whether using a first-person or third-person narrator, her writing is equally deft and engaging.

“Lulu,” the opening story, is narrated by Lulu’s twin brother, the one always in her shadow while growing up. The offspring of a warehouse clerk and a government sanitation worker, Lulu is quickly identified as the scholar and marked for great accomplishments. When she qualifies for a major university in Beijing while her video-game loving brother attends a school near home, he follows her on social media posts, becoming increasingly concerned as he sees her dangerous anti-government posts.

“Hotline Girl” tells the story of Bayi, a young woman who leaves her hometown and boyfriend for dreams of a singing career but find herself answering phones and replying to chats in the Satisfaction Office, a frenetic government call center where she is tasked with instant responses to callers’ many types of problems. Then one day, the boyfriend she has tried to escape has found her and is on the other end of the phone line.

“New Fruit” tells the story of qiguo, “a new fruit that is a symbol of our new nation.” When the sweet cross-bred fruit suddenly appears in outdoor markets and stores, it miraculously changes everyone’s lives and moods for the better . . . until it doesn’t.

“Flying Machine” takes us back to village life under Mao where Cao Cao, a poor chicken farmer, aspires to membership in the Communist Party and hopes to prove his merit by becoming the town inventor.
These are only a sampling of the ten stories in Te-Ping Chen’s Land of Big Numbers, described as “a portrait of people striving for openings where mobility is limited.” Although her stories may share a common theme, each is distinct and full of surprises.

Thanks to NetGalley, Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Te-Ping Chen for the advance reader copy

Very well-crafted short stories with a lot of heart. The structure of the stories gets a little repetitive towards the end but overall a solid collection.

I am grateful to NetGalley, Mariner Books, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing me an advanced written copy of Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen to review. It is a wonderful, clever, entertaining and insightful collection of short stories that illustrate diverse Chinese characters living in China under the communist regime and also some Chinese living abroad. Each story is unique, yet all demonstrate the indomitable character of people trying to make the best of the situations in which they find themselves. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend it.

I received an advance readers’ copy of this book through Net Galley in exchange for my honest review.

Land of Big Numbers is a collection of short stories mostly set in China. In general, I prefer novels where I can really get to know the characters and see what makes them tick, but there were two stories in this volume that I thought were excellent. The first was “New Fruit,” which describes a community’s experience with a fruit that evokes feelings with every bite. The second, “Gubeikou Spirit,” made the entire book worth reading. It’s a surreal story of commuters getting stuck in a train station. You’ll have to read it to get the full effect.

As an American interested in building a more tolerant and accepting society, I think that reading stories of people in far-flung places is critical. So much energy is devoted to fearing China these days—perhaps reading books like Land of Big Numbers will help Americans recognize our shared humanity and areas of commonality that will allow for collaboration or at least understanding of our peers across the globe.

I received a free copy from Netgalley. What a story. I like visiting China & really get into the stories about this country. The characters are fascinating & you want to know more about them.
Thank you for an interesting story!

A special thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Mariner books and NetGalley for count am 4 actual ARC's to pass around to my book club that's not virtual. Thank you also to author Te-Ping Chen.

Everyone knows I love short stories. Some stories were great and some left me feeling they were a bit flat or unfinished. Still I'm grateful to have this book. Definitely recommended highly for most of the stories! 3.5 rounded to a 4.

Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen is a powerful collection of short stories. Within sentences of each new story, you are wrapped into important moments in the worlds of Chen’s characters—the diversion of lives between twins in “Lulu,” a stalking in the monotony of a day job in “Hotline Girl,” the formation of a community stuck in a train station in “Gubeikou Spirit” —the subtlest details building a whole world. Chen writes with beautiful prose, delicately unfolding each person to their simplest desires and motivations. Each story ends with a step into a future that does not look back. Somehow, Chen wrote a collection that moves forward together, (and it’s fitting the last story takes us to a train station). Focusing on the experiences of contemporary Chinese and Chinese American people, Chen weaves history, politics, culture and the complicated nature of choosing to fit in or be noticed into these narratives. Just as her characters are, it’s clear Chen is incredibly adept at studying people and understanding what drives their bravest moments and their most shameful retreats. Posted on Instagram @mixedreader.

I received an ARC digital edition of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a collection of short stories featuring Chinese culture. The stories end abruptly with no closure. One of the stories (the last one) was about being stranded at a train station. I understand the moral of the story, but I would have loved to know what happened to the characters or had this particular story as a novella or full length novel.

The first and last stories were my favorite, but the middle stories were paced slowly. I kept putting the book down during these stories.

I did enjoy the writing style and would have given this 5-stars if the middle stories were more of a page turner like the last story.

Thank you to NetGalley for the copy of Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen. I usually don't really like short stories. I thought I would try this one because it was rated so high plus two years ago, I went on a trip to China. This book is a collection of ten short stories revolving around China and its culture. I had hoped it would give me a little more insight into the country of China and its people. It did do that some what but not as much as I had expected. For me the trouble with short stories is by the time I'm really interested in the story, it's over. I felt the writing was more of a slow build to the characters and plot and then ended very abruptly. This left we feeling.....what was that all about? The stories never felt finished to me. Since the ratings are so high on this debut book, I'm sure it is just me and how I feel about short stories in general. Give it a try, you might love it as most of the reviewers have.

Land of Big Numbers is a diverse collection of short stories depicting life in China, highlighting different singular life experiences in each story. Every one presents a different aspect of Chinese history, government, culture, and the human condition all together.

"Thank you for your cooperation, please line up, do not push
Be a civilized passenger, for your safety and that of those around you
We'll get there together."

One thing I must say, about reading this debut collection, is to read the stories and enjoy them for the story! Chen has constructed exactly that… great stories. Do not wait for that one defining moment (that most of us novel readers wait for) to enjoy the story, because that moment may not come to you until far after you have finished that story and moved on to the next. Don't wait for "something" to happen because it IS happening, right now, as you read them, the stories are happening. They start and end in such unique and unexpected ways, sometimes you are thrown into the story midday or mid-situation while others you are left the same way with a striking writing style that while leaving you hanging... you are, at the same time, satisfied and content. Enjoy these stories, in the moment, as they are unfolding for you. The stories are what they are, no frills, no fuss but everything you need to keep you engaged and leave you wondering about what's next and/or wanting more. It is a great collection, my favorite was Gubeikou Spirit by far (a solid example of the saying "Save the best for last," it was a good ending story.) It is a short read that lends to the voices of the Chinese people in a way I have not experienced as of yet, it has my curiosity senses tingling about this foreign (to me) land of big numbers and I will be picking up more books about their politics, culture, food culture and ways of life.

"...We'll get there together."

[Thank you NetGalley, Te-Ping Chen, and HMH Books for the free eARC]