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Originally Posted by maianhvk
hah, from a reader whose mother tongue resembles the original language used in the work, I have very confusing thoughts about Romance of 3 kingdoms.
First, I like the background of the story. It is set in a period which is familiar to us Vietnamese folks, with the familiar names. (to tell the truth, we are familiar with every detail of Chinese history! Scary huh. Of course that excludes me, I was never good at history at school.)
Second, I don't like it because it was twisted by tough hands. Therefore it isn't precise, the author's perspective affects it all. Of course it's a history novel, not a chronicle, and the fact that it praises those whom the author liked best makes the definition of "bad guys" and "good guys" really distinctive. For instance, Cao Cao is considered evil. He's bad, just because he opposed Shu Han. Zhuge Liang is treated differently because he's considered "good". Therefore he defeat Zhou Yu. Nonsense. Zhou Yu was dumb-lucked, that's all.
Third, some details are pretty over limit. Like when Liu Bei said goodbye to his "beloved" general Zhao Yun, he cried like a woman  - consider his status as a warlord at the time, this is unacceptable in my opinion 
Overall... I quite liked it  the main reason for this isn't listed above: I love the battle of Red Cliffs  it was awesome!
(Gee, I have to google all these names :| I hate Chinese names :|) |
I read it in Vietnamese also. All the names were Vietnamese-ized so it's a bit if work to figure out the Anglicized names.
It's been a while, but I remember liking Water Margins more. A bit more sex and violence at a time when I was exposed to little TV or movies.