GOOD LUCK LIFE

Can't wait for Christmas

I am not Chinese at all. However, I did fall in love with Asian culture many years ago. I spend a lot of time in Chinatown when I visit San Francisco and I cook a lot of different Asian cuisines. I've always been curious about the Chinese customs and celebrations - but never knew where to look for information. Finally, someone wrote a book that even non-Chinese can understand and appreciate!Good Luck Life is an easy and pleasant read. It covers traditions that I am familiar with, such as Chinese New Year, to celebrations that I have never heard of like the Red Egg and Ginger Parties. Rosemary Gong packs this book chock full of legends, recipes, superstitions and even guidelines for planning your own events. I especially enjoyed reading the chapter on Chinese table etiquette.This is a nice glimpse for anyone who would like to learn more about Chinese American beliefs.

I bought several copies of this book (one for myself and some for some friends) after reading some excerpts from a friend's copy. I thought the information on the wedding rituals was quite useful but you must bear in mind that there are also regional differences. I believe almost everything that Gong describes is from the Cantonese perspective so some things just don't apply to non-Cantonese. I also thought that it could get confusing for non-Chinese ppl b/c sometimes she uses the Mandarin word, sometimes the Cantonese, and sometimes both. For the most part, this book has interesting information but I'm not crazy about the style of the writing.

I travel fairly frequently to Beijing for work. While many of the traditions are dying as large cities in China become westernized, I have always been really interested to learn the traditions behind my colleagues' holidays, communication style and overall traditions. While my friends try to explain the general ideas to me, it is hard to convey the centuries of traditions by way of a secondary language.This book has been great fun to read to understand more about the cultural history that many of my friends share.

I love my mom, but sometimes is can be very trying to find out why we celebrate certain things. Since her English is not as good has her Chinese and my Chinese is not as good as my English. SO I know there is something loss in translation. If you are Cantonese especially of Toi San heritage, you will enjoy the book. Many of the celebrations will be familiar to you. My sister wanted me to by 4 more copies so she could give it away to people who keep asking her questions on New Years celebrations. I ususally had to as our Mom now we just use the book.

This book is very informative. The cultural traditions, history, and culture are explained in a lively and personal way. The author has a gentle sense of humor that livens the material. The information provided for Chinese socio-cultural traditions extends to the earliest beginnings with myths of how a tradition began, and then the procedures for following the traditions with etiquette correctly in today's modern world are provided. The text also is studded with sweet gems of decorating tips, recipes, etc. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about their own heritage, world history, or an informative and pleasant read.

Martin Yan wrote the foreword to this book and talks about the struggles to be 2nd generation chinese. We are told that we should know "things" and "customs" but in actually, we really don't know and we weren't educated. This book helps and gives us a start point. It helps me understand more about my parents and family. It helps me understand the why without the assumptions. Get the book.

Good Luck Life is a very good resource for Chinese customs and rituals. It is accurate to my knowledge as to Chinese customs and what you would need to do to observe them. Handy hints from "Auntie" are very good. In this day and age when many young people have either forgotten or never learned their customs this is a handy source of information.