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A review by levi_masuli
The Execution of Mayor Yin and Other Stories from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution by Ruoxi Chen, Nancy Ing, Howard Goldblatt
3.0
A collection of short stories situated during China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. The very title of this book made me expect a Solzhenitsyn/Orwell type of political battering.
The Execution of Mayor Yin, 3 stars- This being the title story, I expected a lot from it. Truth to say, it was fine. A mayor who served whole-heartedly during the revolution became the object of doubt when he disobeyed the Party's order to collective the farms. The mayor, seeing that the call for collectivization will induce starvation among the citizens, made proposals for minimum retention of private property. He was eventually branded as a rightist, and was executed. We know that he will be executed (hence the title). The drama revolves around the reasons, the circumstances, of his death.
Chairman Mao Is a Rotten Egg, 2 stars- About two Chinese parents whose sole child uttered a blasphemous phrase, "Chairman Mao is a rotten egg." What would the communist officials do to the child? Punish him? Punish the parents? Punish the teacher? Or must it be punished it the first place? These are the baffling questions the story raised.
Night Duty, 2 stars- Some sort of a whoddunit story, but has undertones of how a socialist state deals with crime, specifically theft, and hunger amidst the difficulties of the revolution.
Residency Check, 2 stars- A promiscuous, but nonetheless care-free and naive woman became the subject to random late-night residency checks, meant to catch the woman in the 'act' of adultery. A story of how some people judge others who do not comply to their respective moral tastes.
Jen Hsui-Lan, 3 stars- A story about Jen Hsui-lan, an active member of the Party who eventually became a political enemy because of her extremist political tendencies. The plot revolves around how the townspeople, from the oldest to the youngest, search for fugitive Jen Hsui-lan around the city, even without knowing what she particularly did. There is a plot twist towards the end. All I can say is this is a sad, sad one.
The Big Fish, 2 stars- A very short comical story about an old man who wanted a buy a big fish for his family's dinner, but was not given the right to buy the fish, because foreign visitors are going to visit the market, with the officials wishing to present their best products for the said visitors.
Keng Erh in Peking, 5 stars- My favorite story. It seems as if the other stories are child's play compared to this one. It is about Keng Erh, an intellectual bachelor who studied in the US, looking back at his 49 years of existence. It is about his heartbreaks and his vertiginous solitude. The thing I particularly liked in the story is how Chen Jo-hsi managed to focus the story on the character itself and not on the political environment, while at the same time giving subtle criticisms. Unlike the other stories, it was heartbreaking and not annoying, and political ranting was shown and not told.
Nixon's Press Corps- Nixon is visiting China, and everyone in China are making preparations. A woman was told to demolish her clothes rack because it is an eye-sore. She displays her little rebellion by refusing to do so.
All in all the collection is tolerable. Nonetheless there still remains a certain amount of bitterness and sarcastic edge to the stories, making them somewhat less believable. I also understand that these stories come from the perspective of a privileged middle-class writer, and its aim is to highlight the struggle of the individual amidst the repressive force of the State. But let me just stress: why do middle-class writers often write about what we expect them to write? I mean, there is nothing new in this collection. Solzhenitsyn, Orwell, Zamyatin, Kundera, among others, are already in the bitter fray. It is becoming stale.
The Execution of Mayor Yin, 3 stars- This being the title story, I expected a lot from it. Truth to say, it was fine. A mayor who served whole-heartedly during the revolution became the object of doubt when he disobeyed the Party's order to collective the farms. The mayor, seeing that the call for collectivization will induce starvation among the citizens, made proposals for minimum retention of private property. He was eventually branded as a rightist, and was executed. We know that he will be executed (hence the title). The drama revolves around the reasons, the circumstances, of his death.
Chairman Mao Is a Rotten Egg, 2 stars- About two Chinese parents whose sole child uttered a blasphemous phrase, "Chairman Mao is a rotten egg." What would the communist officials do to the child? Punish him? Punish the parents? Punish the teacher? Or must it be punished it the first place? These are the baffling questions the story raised.
Night Duty, 2 stars- Some sort of a whoddunit story, but has undertones of how a socialist state deals with crime, specifically theft, and hunger amidst the difficulties of the revolution.
Residency Check, 2 stars- A promiscuous, but nonetheless care-free and naive woman became the subject to random late-night residency checks, meant to catch the woman in the 'act' of adultery. A story of how some people judge others who do not comply to their respective moral tastes.
Jen Hsui-Lan, 3 stars- A story about Jen Hsui-lan, an active member of the Party who eventually became a political enemy because of her extremist political tendencies. The plot revolves around how the townspeople, from the oldest to the youngest, search for fugitive Jen Hsui-lan around the city, even without knowing what she particularly did. There is a plot twist towards the end. All I can say is this is a sad, sad one.
The Big Fish, 2 stars- A very short comical story about an old man who wanted a buy a big fish for his family's dinner, but was not given the right to buy the fish, because foreign visitors are going to visit the market, with the officials wishing to present their best products for the said visitors.
Keng Erh in Peking, 5 stars- My favorite story. It seems as if the other stories are child's play compared to this one. It is about Keng Erh, an intellectual bachelor who studied in the US, looking back at his 49 years of existence. It is about his heartbreaks and his vertiginous solitude. The thing I particularly liked in the story is how Chen Jo-hsi managed to focus the story on the character itself and not on the political environment, while at the same time giving subtle criticisms. Unlike the other stories, it was heartbreaking and not annoying, and political ranting was shown and not told.
Nixon's Press Corps- Nixon is visiting China, and everyone in China are making preparations. A woman was told to demolish her clothes rack because it is an eye-sore. She displays her little rebellion by refusing to do so.
All in all the collection is tolerable. Nonetheless there still remains a certain amount of bitterness and sarcastic edge to the stories, making them somewhat less believable. I also understand that these stories come from the perspective of a privileged middle-class writer, and its aim is to highlight the struggle of the individual amidst the repressive force of the State. But let me just stress: why do middle-class writers often write about what we expect them to write? I mean, there is nothing new in this collection. Solzhenitsyn, Orwell, Zamyatin, Kundera, among others, are already in the bitter fray. It is becoming stale.