The Porcelain Thief: Searching the Middle Kingdom for Buried China

American-born journalist Hsu hears that his great-great grandfather, a landowner in Xingang, buried a large collection of porcelain when Japan invaded China in 1938. Hsu sets out to find this treasure trove more than 70 years later. The book recounts Hsu's travel to China and ensuing three-year search, "equipped with only a few threads of a family legend and an irresistible compulsion to know more about it." This compulsion drives the story as he meets and interviews family members and acquaintances, and gradually "unearth[s] pieces of [his] family's history and [tries] to weave them into a coherent narrative." He conducts his search, in his own words, "na%C3%AFvely, indirectly, [and] protractedly." While it is hard to argue with this characterization of the search and the book as a whole, the book's na%C3%AFvet%C3%A9 and indirectness enable the narrative to wander across genres. In addition to documentary and family history, Hsu explores China's social and political history, as well as his personal feelings about China, and the value of documenting and sharing Chinese family stories. Hsu's fluid writing helps to synthesize these threads into a coherent story well worth reading. (Apr.)