The Old Man and other stories
The Old Man and other stories
By Chen Ruoxi
1986
147 pages
ISBN 962-201-384-8
Chen Ruoxi captures the pain of the humble individual crushed by the social and political monolith of modern China more effectively than any other Chinese writer of contemporary fiction.
The five stories collected here provide evidence of Chen Ruoxi's ability to probe sensitively into the psychology of love and power. The first four stories, set in the Cultural Revolution, are consummate literary studies of human dignity and warmth surviving in a grey wilderness of alienation, skilful portraits of ordinary Chinese people who come to life and take on universal significance in these pages. The fifth and most recent of the stories, “Another Fortress Besieged”, represents a new departure, satirizing the antics of an inbred community of Chinese-American academics and their attempts to ingratiate themselves with a visiting delegation from mainland China.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The Old Man Translated by Diane Cornell and Don Cohn — 1
The Tunnel Translated by C. C. Wang — 45
Ding Yun Translated by C. C. Wang — 63
My Friend Ai Fen Translated by Richard Kent and Vivian Hsu — 81
Another Fortress Besieged — 113
Appendix: The April 5th Movement David S. G. Goodman — 143
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AUTHOR(s)
Chen Ruoxi 陳若曦 was born and educated in Taiwan and first established her literary reputation there. The seven years she then spent living and working in China (1966–73) provided her with the raw material for a series of short stories. The first collection of these to be translated into English, The Execution of Mayor Yin, was hailed upon its publication in 1977 as “… absolutely required reading for anyone seeking the reality behind the bland façade of modern China.”
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TRANSLATOR(s)
Don Cohn
Diane Cornell
Vivian Hsu
Richard Kent
C. C. Wang