Editor's note: This review appears on mountaintimes.com on Feb. 4

Hede: Whole greater than sum of parts: Te-Ping Chen's debut fiction, 'Land of the Big Numbers'


What can a collection of short stories portraying the diversity of China’s people say to America? Much, if those stories are from the pen of Te-Ping Chen.

It’s not that the 10 stories in Te-Ping Chen’s fiction debut, “Land of the Big Numbers” (Mariner), are not fiercely China-centric. As we would expect from the author — a Wall Street Journal staffer and Chinese-American who worked the China beat in Beijing — Te-Ping Chen writes with insight, illustrating the country's social strata with a deft, human touch. In this gripping and compelling collection, there is “Lulu,” first published in the New Yorker, exploring the fates of twin siblings — a brilliant student turned dissident and her brother, a professional gamer. A satirical story, “Hotline,” about young women employed at a government center who are tasked with managing citizen satisfaction. A brilliant and touching story, “Flying Machine,” about an elderly farmer aspiring to be a member of the Chinese Communist Party, who builds an airplane but doesn’t know how to fly. And the title story, in which a man is drawn into China’s tumultuous stock exchange with life and death consequences.

There are others, including the most haunting of the book, “Gubeikou Spirit." In this story, a group of people sit trapped for months on a subway platform when their train fails to arrive. In a governmental Catch-22, they are unable to leave without official permission, but as the group has all of its needs publicly sated, more than a few individuals begin to wonder if they are not better off living out their lives this way.

Te-Ping Chen has said that many of her stories are taken from contemporary headlines and the firsthand observations she covered for the Journal, but these deep gazes into contemporary Chinese society are transformative and resonate globally.

This is true even for Americans, who have been accused of looking at the world through a myopic lens. Given the normal cycle of book production — and that stories such as “Lulu” were published long before the United States' contentious election cycle — it is unlikely that the author was able to uniquely manufacture a ready-made conversation for the U.S. today. But here it is.

In sparse, lingering prose — “a great wasteland of sorrow was opening up in him, unfolding dozens of tiny shacks, terrible squatters setting up residence, banging their miniature liquor bottles against his chest, a hundred feet trampling his organs” — Te-Ping Chen crafts a masterstroke of contemporary literature, both timely and prescient.

The result is a touchstone of Chinese history perfectly positioned in the present.

This collection was one of my most anticipated reads – it’s a short story collection and it focuses on modern day China, and what predominantly caught my interest with this from the blurb: “depicts the diverse and legion Chinese people, their history, their government, and how all of that has tumbled—messily, violently, but still beautifully—into the present.“. Sadly, I did not find that the book delivered on that promise,  nor did I feel like it delivered much of anything for me personally. 

The collection opens with Lulu, and it very much sets the tone of the collection, not only in me not disliking it, but more generally in what the collection as a whole is trying to do. Lulu read like a 2000s YA dystopian to me, and not a particularly good one at that. I found that this story, like the rest of them, tried really hard to make some sort of political statement, or to critically explore the political and social system of China. However, it did so very superficially, without any nuance and it glaringly felt like it was written by an outsider. I know this will probably invite some discourse in my comments, but I have to note that there is something particularly Western in the portrayal of China in here. And what I mean about that is that it did not feel authentic at all. I feel like something that is incredibly complex was diluted. I think there’s a lot to be criticized there, I just do not think that this book does so in a very successful way. I find cultural and political criticism very valuable and important, but for me personally this just failed to give any sort of complexity and nuance to the topics it tackles. 

My second big grievance with this one is that these stories did not know what they were. On one hand, the author tries to deliver a sort of bigger societal critique, which I have already discussed, but then on the other, it tries to deliver on character relationships in particular and I think it gets lost between the two and ends up not delivering on either end. The stories were really unfocused and all over the place in their execution. The endings were particularly frustrating for me, because I kept waiting for a story to do what it clearly was trying to do, but then the stories would just end. I do not mind an open or messy ending at all, but I really mind when I cannot see what the point of a narrative is. I just do not see the point of a lot of these stories or what they were trying to say or do. 

I will say that the stories that had some magical realism component were in my opinion more successful. My favorite story in the collection was New Fruit, which is about this miraculous fruit that evokes very positive feelings in people, only for it to hit a bad season and start having an opposite effect. But even with that story I felt like there was so much potential that was sadly never used to its fullest.

After reading a few chapters, I decided this book held no interest for me at this time nor was it a good fit for my blog.  I elected not to finish the book now, but it may well be a case of "the right book at the wrong time" syndrome and I might be willing to try it again in the future.  Thank you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / Mariner Books and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to sample this title.

This is a very assured short story collection, though they're overall a bit bleak for my taste. I found the opening story incredibly moving, and all of them are very engagingly written.

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.

Thank you, NetGalley for this ARC! This book was actually fantastic! 

While reading the story "Land of Big Numbers" my heart actually sank in my chest and a feeling of dread came over me. I'm sitting here, in Pakistan, definitely not stealing government money to mess around in the stock market, and yet I just wanted to find some way to help that guy. But that's where Te-Ping Chen's gift lies; she cut the feeling before I ran away from it. She played around with my emotions in different stories without making me run away.

I'll be honest, I have read this author before, even though I had completely forgotten about it ('Field Notes on a Marriage' if you want to be precise), and from what I can see, some of the author's other stories like Shanghai Murmur have been published before. I also hate that, despite it being set in China and in a flower shop. I could relate to what we end up doing in customer support; we pick our favorites based on the barest human decency that they show us, beat ourselves up when we make the mistake of showing human interest, and sometimes messing up when we have good intentions. But, that's my own crisis

That didn't take away from the experience though because this is a fantastic collection of stories. Of course, I have my favorites; 'New Fruit' and 'Hotline Girl'. 

You should definitely read this book!

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!