A surprising number of novels written since 1980 deal with the Chinese society
of the 1920s and 1930s. This is surprising because these writers were
born long after that period. .Part of the reason
may be because the 1920s
and 1930s is politically a much safer ground since the cruelty and
inequities of that time can be blamed on the previous regime.
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Mini Review |
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Raise the Red Lantern: Three Novellas
Written by Su Tong (1963-)
Translated by Michael S. Duke
Penguin USA, 1996
267 pages
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A collection of three stories, all set in 1930s China.
The first story was originally titled "Wives and Concubines" but has been
renamed to match the better-known movie name. "Red Lantern" follows the
story of Lotus, a college girl who must abandon school and becomes the fourth
concubine of a rich man. Soon jealousy among the women cause her
downfall. |
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Rice
Written by Su Tong (1963-)
Translated by Howard Goldblatt
Penguin USA, 1996
270 pages
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The first full-length novel by the author of "Raise the
Red Lantern" continues his vision of the bleak world of 1930s China. After his
village get flooded, a young
man called Five Dragons escapes to the city, where he agrees to work
at a rice emporium just for food. Initially overworked
and humiliated by the owner, he eventually ends up marrying both of
the owner's daughter and sets the family on a self-destructive course.
Rice is used in unusual ways throughout the novel. |
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Red Sorghum
Written by Mo Yan (1956-)
Translated by Howard Goldblatt
Penguin USA, 1994
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Mo Yan is China's most popular contemporary novelist.
This is his first work to be
translated into English. It was also the
basis for the 1988 movie of the
same name, which was directed by Zhang Yimou. The story is set
in the 1930s as the Chinese were battling each other as well as
the Japanese invaders. The narrator
tells the story of his father and his grandfather, a former bandit
and guerilla commander who had raped the
narrator's grandmother just three
days after her marriage to a rich wine maker.
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The Three-Inch Golden Lotus
Written by Feng Jicai (1942-)
Translated by David Wakefield
University of Hawaii Press, 1994
248 pages
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The title of this novel, written in 1985, refers to the
ideal size of female feet. The pursuit of the "Golden Lotus" involved
constant and painful foot-binding starting at childhood. Fragrant Lotus is
young girl from a poor household whose feet have been bound from age six.
With her perfectly proportioned feet, she is married to a wealthy
family and eventually becomes
its matriarch, staunchly defending the practice against the anti
food-binding forces that arose in the early 1900s. |
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Green River Daydreams
Written by Liu Heng (1954-)
Translated by Howard Goldblatt
Grove, 2002
336 pages
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Liu Heng's second novel to be translated into English
moves the setting back to 1920s China. The story is told through the eyes of
a seventeen year-old boy called Ears, a house servant in the
household of the Cao family. The Cao's second son has returned from France
after four years of study. He gets involved with anti-imperial forces but
ignores his bride from an arranged marriage, who then has an affair with a
business associate. |
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K: The Art of Love
Written by Hong Ying
Translated by Henry Zhao and Nicky Harman
Marion Boyars, 2002
252 pages
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Unlike the other books banned in the PRC, this one was not
banned by government censors but was banned due to a libel
lawsuit filed by the daughter of Ling Shuhua, the model for Lin, the novel's
main protagonist. In the 1930s, Julian Bell, nephew of Virginia Wolf, is
teaching at a Chinese university and has a passionate affair with Lin Cheng, a
writer and wife of the university dean. The book has been called China's Lady
Chatterley's Lover for its explicit sexual content. |
