1950s china
A01=Eileen Chang
anti communist works
Author_Eileen Chang
Category=DSBH
Category=FBA
chinese novel in english
critique of communism
early nineteen fifties
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_modern-contemporary
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
famine
female writer
hunger
land reform movement
man made and natural disasters
Maoist discourse
modern chinese literature
southern village in china
Product details
- ISBN 9780520210882
- Weight: 227g
- Dimensions: 127 x 203mm
- Publication Date: 10 Aug 1998
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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The first of Eileen Chang's novels to be written in English, The Rice-Sprout Song portrays the horror and absurdity that the land-reform movement brings to a southern village in China during the early 1950s. Contrary to the hopes of the peasants in this story, the redistribution of land does not mean an end to hunger. Man-made and natural disasters bring about the threat of famine, while China's involvement in the Korean War further deepens the peasants' misery. Chang's chilling depiction of the peasants' desperate attempts to survive both the impending famine and government abuse makes for spellbinding reading. Her critique of communism rewrites the land-reform discourse at the same time it lays bare the volatile relations between politics and literature.
David Der-wei Wang is Professor of Chinese Literature at Columbia University. His current publications include Running Wild: Contemporary Chinese Fiction (1994).
