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Remembering 1942
Sweeping, humorous, and moving tales from one of contemporary China’s greatest writers. The bestselling and award-winning author of novels satirizing contemporary China, Liu Zhenyun is also renowned for his short stories. Remembering 1942 showcases six of his best, featuring a diverse cast of ordinary people struggling against the obstacles—bureaucratic, economic, and personal—that life presents. The six exquisite stories that comprise this collection range from an exploration of office politics unmoored by an unexpected gift to the tale of a young soldier attempting to acclimate to his new life as a student and the story of a couple struggling to manage the demands of a young child. A...
Remembering 1942
Sweeping, humorous, and moving tales from one of contemporary China’s greatest writers. The bestselling and award-winning author of novels satirizing contemporary China, Liu Zhenyun is also renowned for his short stories. Remembering 1942 showcases six of his best, featuring a diverse cast of ordinary people struggling against the obstacles—bureaucratic, economic, and personal—that life presents. The six exquisite stories that comprise this collection range from an exploration of office politics unmoored by an unexpected gift to the tale of a young soldier attempting to acclimate to his new life as a student and the story of a couple struggling to manage the demands of a young child. A...
I Did Not Kill My Husband
Li Xuelian, married to Qin Yuhe, is pregnant with their second child. Happy news? Not in China. With its one-child policy, it’s a crime. What is she to do? Her only option is divorcing before the second child is born. “Once the baby has entered into the household registry, we’ll marry again. The baby will be born after the divorce, so we’ll each have one child when we marry again. No law says couples with one child can’t marry.” Perfect! Except that after the divorce, Qin marries . . . another woman who is expecting a baby. Mad with rage, Li runs to the judge begging him to declare the divorce a sham so she may remarry and truly divorce the fool! Mao Dun Prize–winning Liu Zheny...
The Cook, the Crook, and the Real Estate Tycoon
Winner of the Mao Dun Literature Prize The Cook, the Crook, and the Real Estate Tycoon by prize-winning Chinese novelist Liu Zhenyun, paints a microcosm of contemporary China, dealing with classes at the two extremes: the super rich and the migrant workers who make them rich through deceit and corruption. The protagonist, Liu Yuejin, is a work site cook and small-time thief whose bag is stolen. In searching for it he stumbles upon another bag, which contains a flash disk that chronicles high-level corruption, and sets off a convoluted chase. There are no heroes in this scathing, complex, and highly readable critique of the dark side of China’s predatory capitalism, corruption, and the plight of the underclasses. A movie adaptation and TV series appeared in 2008 in China.
Strange Bedfellows
"This intriguing novel-written by one of China's top authors, who has won literary prizes and acclaim internationally-is an important book in China and needs to be known globally. Author Liu Zhenyun's social criticism goes right up to the line that would get him censored or banned in China. The book offers not just criticism of official corruption, but also of China's pervasive new mercenary values, scam artists, and the common folks' vulnerability to scam artists. Hence the novel is not just about China but also a human comedy. This fast-paced but slow-burning farce about the everyday absurdities and challenges of day-to-day existence in China is eloquently delivered in Liu Zhenyun's usual minimalist style and faithfully rendered by the translators"--
Someone to Talk To
Tofu peddler Yang Baishun is a man of few words and few friends. Unable to find meaningful companionship, he settles for a marriage of convenience. When his wife leaves him for another man he is left to care for his five-year-old stepdaughter Qiaoling, who is subsequently kidnapped, never to be seen by Yang again. Seventy years later we find Niu Aiguo, who, like Yang, struggles to connect with other people. As Niu begins learning about his recently deceased mother’s murky past it becomes clear that Qiaoling is the mysterious bond that links Yang and Niu. Originally published in China in 2009 and appearing in English for the first time, Liu Zhenyun’s award-winning Someone to Talk To highlights the contours of everyday life in pre- and post-Mao China, where regular people struggle to make a living and establish homes and families. Meditating on connection and loneliness, community and family, Someone to Talk To traces the unexpected and far-reaching ramifications of seemingly inconsequential actions, while reminding us all of the importance of communication.
The Cook, the Crook, and the Real Estate Tycoon
The Cook, the Crook, and the Real Estate Tycoon by prize-winning Chinese novelist Liu Zhenyun is a novel of Beijing that paints a microcosm of contemporary China, dealing with classes at the two extremes: the super rich and the migrant workers who make them rich through deceit and corruption. The protagonist, Liu Yuejin, is a work site cook and small-time thief whose bag is stolen. In searching for it he stumbles upon another bag, which contains a flash disk that chronicles high-level corruption, and sets off a convoluted chase. There are no heroes in this scathing, complex, and highly readable critique of the dark side of China’s predatory capitalism, corruption, and the plight of the und...
Kitchen and Other Stories
"Chi-Tzu daydreams of home-cooked meals surrounded by family and more while diligently navigating Sun-Tze's bachelor kitchen; a young ex-soldier attempts to escape his prescribed rural life by sitting the national college entrance exam; Qin Shan and his wife grapple with illness, love and loss amidst their precious potato plants; two estranged sisters reflect on memories of a long-lost bond; Liben and Shunshun's fortunes ebb and flow on the shores of Backflow River, where everyone crosses to make it big somewhere else. Five stories from China's foremost writers, including Jia Pingwa, Liu Zhenyun and Chi Zhijian, capture the domestic bonds and dramas of people living in modern China today, exploring the challenges and strange graces of life in this vast and complex land."
Cell Phone
Popular TV host Yan Shouyi has it all: A great job, a loyal wife and a beautiful young lover. It all begins to unravel when he accidently leaves his cellphone at home one fateful day. Cell Phone is part comedy, part romance and part social commentary on the changing nature of Chinese society and the impact of technology on relationships. Beginning in 1968 in the protagonist's childhood rural hometown, Liu's fast-paced, contemporary tale takes us into the complicated family and social relationships of Yan Shouyi, telling a tale of friendship, love and betrayal. The cellphone becomes the "grenade" in this tale that dramatically "detonates" in the life of the main character--a telling tale in a country which is the largest user of mobile phones in the world. The book closes with an epilogue set decades earlier when communications were primitive and unreliable, but with remarkable similarities to the problems and pitfalls of the communication age illustrated in Liu's modern-day story.
The Mouth that Begs
Drawing on narrative works acoss a century and across Chinese and Chinese-American cultural lines, Yue examines Chinese cultural politics of the twentieth century as an "alimentary discourse," where the roles of food and "eating" wi
