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"Игрива и възхитително мрачна... Един съвременен Кундера"
Филип Марсдън
Кръводарителят му мята снизходителен поглед.
–Когато бяхме в провинцията, ти говореше за "възвишеното". Даже приказваше за онзи човек Исус. Я се виж сега! Какво си правил цял ден? Чакал си ме да дойда и да сложа месо на масата ти. С парите, дето ти плащат за твоите дълбоки мисли, не можеш да си купиш кой знае каква храна, а? – Кръводарителят сграбчва едно яйце, после избутва чинията към бутилките в средата на масата. Взима щипка сол от буркана до себе си, обелва яйцето. – Получавам три пъти колкото твоята месечна заплата само за едно даряване. като помислиш какво влагаш в работата си и какво получаваш, май не се справяш много добре, а? Иначе казано, аз като съм професионален кръводарител, пък ти си професионален писател, това не значи, че си с нещо по-добър от мен.
Писателят се втренчва с погнуса в устата на донора, в мърдащия вътре жълтък. Често придобива този неодобрителен поглед, когато стомахът му е пълен.
–Ако всички бяха като теб – казва той, – тази страна щеше да е в развалини.
Филип Марсдън
Кръводарителят му мята снизходителен поглед.
–Когато бяхме в провинцията, ти говореше за "възвишеното". Даже приказваше за онзи човек Исус. Я се виж сега! Какво си правил цял ден? Чакал си ме да дойда и да сложа месо на масата ти. С парите, дето ти плащат за твоите дълбоки мисли, не можеш да си купиш кой знае каква храна, а? – Кръводарителят сграбчва едно яйце, после избутва чинията към бутилките в средата на масата. Взима щипка сол от буркана до себе си, обелва яйцето. – Получавам три пъти колкото твоята месечна заплата само за едно даряване. като помислиш какво влагаш в работата си и какво получаваш, май не се справяш много добре, а? Иначе казано, аз като съм професионален кръводарител, пък ти си професионален писател, това не значи, че си с нещо по-добър от мен.
Писателят се втренчва с погнуса в устата на донора, в мърдащия вътре жълтък. Често придобива този неодобрителен поглед, когато стомахът му е пълен.
–Ако всички бяха като теб – казва той, – тази страна щеше да е в развалини.
216 pages, малък формат, меки корици
First published January 1, 1990
43 people are currently reading
1627 people want to read
About the author
Ma Jian
44 books321 followersMa Jian was born in Qingdao,China on the 18th of August 1953. In 1986, Ma moved to Hong Kong after a clampdown by the Chinese government in which most of his works were banned.
He moved again in 1997 to Germany, but only stayed for two years; moving to England in 1999 where he now lives with his partner and translator Flora Drew.
Ma came to the attention of the English-speaking world with his story collection Stick Out Your Tongue Stories, translated into English in 2006.
His Beijing Coma tells the story of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 from the point of view of the fictional Dai Wei, a participant in the events left in a coma by the violent end of the protests. His most recent novel China Dream will be published in the US in May 2019.
He moved again in 1997 to Germany, but only stayed for two years; moving to England in 1999 where he now lives with his partner and translator Flora Drew.
Ma came to the attention of the English-speaking world with his story collection Stick Out Your Tongue Stories, translated into English in 2006.
His Beijing Coma tells the story of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 from the point of view of the fictional Dai Wei, a participant in the events left in a coma by the violent end of the protests. His most recent novel China Dream will be published in the US in May 2019.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 150 reviews
May 1, 2013
Ma Jian is a Chinese writer and a dissident. He was born in 1953, so he is part of the generation of Chinese who lived through Mao's Cultural Revolution as children and young adults, as well as seeing the implementation -- and the limitations -- of Deng Xiaoping's Open Door economic policy. Ma has not been a silent observer of the myriad ways in which the Chinese government has cracked down on freedom of expression in Chinese society; he has been a member of the dissident community of Chinese artists and writers for decades, both while living in China and Hong Kong, and later from exile in Europe. Ma has suffered for his outspokenness. His Stick Out Your Tongue, published in 1987, was censured and his writings were banned by the Chinese government -- a ban that extended to his future publications.
Ma Jian
In addition to his earlier commitment to the dissident arts community in China, Ma participated in the 1989 democracy protests in Beijing, which culminated in the Tiananmen Massacre. In the devastating aftermath of this brutal crackdown, Ma remained in Beijing and wrote The Noodle Maker, an extremely dark satire fueled by Ma's anger and disillusionment with Chinese communist society and politics. The novel is framed by an ongoing conversation between a professional blood donor, who has made millions giving blood and providing others with the means to do so despite limitations of height, weight, or frequency of past donations, and a professional writer, who blends his observations of the world around him with his consideration of the characters that populate a novel he is writing, who often seem more real to him than the people he sees around him every day. That interspersing of reality and fantasy holds true throughout The Noodle Maker, which includes healthy strains of surrealism as we move from framing discussions and interjections from the blood donor and the writer, and stories which introduce us to different characters who are dysfunctionally trying to negotiate life in a society where compassion is difficult to find, where empty slogans guide people's lives, where progress is measured not in terms of happiness or fulfillment, but in terms of economic production, material signs of Westernization, and complete adherence to the latest government dictates.
The novel's stories combine dark flights of fantasy with brutal action. In one story, an entrepreneur buys a ceramics furnace and opens a crematorium along with his elderly mother, in which he provides a special twist -- mourners can pay for him to play specific musical selections while their loved ones are being cremated. In another, an actress decides on her final performance -- committed suicide on stage by being eaten by a tiger. Ma Jian writes with a white-hot anger that practically drips off the page.
This novel accomplished exactly what Ma wanted it to. The characters and stories haunt me. I can't shake them off. As an anguished cry against the inhumanity of life in Communist China, which Ma has devoted his life to fighting, The Noodle Maker is disturbing and difficult to read, but profoundly affecting, one of the strongest examples I have read of dark social satire.
Ma Jian
In addition to his earlier commitment to the dissident arts community in China, Ma participated in the 1989 democracy protests in Beijing, which culminated in the Tiananmen Massacre. In the devastating aftermath of this brutal crackdown, Ma remained in Beijing and wrote The Noodle Maker, an extremely dark satire fueled by Ma's anger and disillusionment with Chinese communist society and politics. The novel is framed by an ongoing conversation between a professional blood donor, who has made millions giving blood and providing others with the means to do so despite limitations of height, weight, or frequency of past donations, and a professional writer, who blends his observations of the world around him with his consideration of the characters that populate a novel he is writing, who often seem more real to him than the people he sees around him every day. That interspersing of reality and fantasy holds true throughout The Noodle Maker, which includes healthy strains of surrealism as we move from framing discussions and interjections from the blood donor and the writer, and stories which introduce us to different characters who are dysfunctionally trying to negotiate life in a society where compassion is difficult to find, where empty slogans guide people's lives, where progress is measured not in terms of happiness or fulfillment, but in terms of economic production, material signs of Westernization, and complete adherence to the latest government dictates.
The novel's stories combine dark flights of fantasy with brutal action. In one story, an entrepreneur buys a ceramics furnace and opens a crematorium along with his elderly mother, in which he provides a special twist -- mourners can pay for him to play specific musical selections while their loved ones are being cremated. In another, an actress decides on her final performance -- committed suicide on stage by being eaten by a tiger. Ma Jian writes with a white-hot anger that practically drips off the page.
This novel accomplished exactly what Ma wanted it to. The characters and stories haunt me. I can't shake them off. As an anguished cry against the inhumanity of life in Communist China, which Ma has devoted his life to fighting, The Noodle Maker is disturbing and difficult to read, but profoundly affecting, one of the strongest examples I have read of dark social satire.
May 26, 2025
Бая мрачни и подтискащи разкази, струва си обаче да се прочетат.
Трошат розови очила с марка КНР на поразия!
Комунистите се прикриват умело, но на мен са ми ясни цялостно, както е видимо и гнусното им паразитиране, върху поробените от тях народи…
Трошат розови очила с марка КНР на поразия!
Комунистите се прикриват умело, но на мен са ми ясни цялостно, както е видимо и гнусното им паразитиране, върху поробените от тях народи…
August 5, 2016
The Noodle Maker deserves way better than its current 3.33 rating (will or will not grow over time?).
It consists of several loosely interconnected short stories, sometimes with a touch of surreal, often with a delicious dark humor, and mostly absurd.
A satire of the Chinese society influenced by the Open Door Policy (instituted by Deng Xiaoping in 1978), this collection has an interesting array of characters: the failed writer who dreams of his big novel, but instead writes political-oriented articles about everyday made-up heroes; the professional blood donor who has become a rich man by exploiting the benefits of his occupation; the jealous actress who wants to get revenge on her lover by committing a most peculiar suicide; the young woman whom nobody thinks is still a virgin because of her rather huge breasts; a talking dog and a man debating over the former's belief that dogs are superior to humans.
My favorite was the story of a middle-aged man who was still living with his mother, both taking care of their business - an independent crematorium. Man, was that a bizarre and twisted story! The son has a whole philosophy in choosing the right music for the dead, according to their status in life and the money their relatives pay.
There was also a mention of Nicolae Ceaușescu, our late Romanian dictator, in a humorous context (I will attempt a translation below):
The year when Ceausescu was due to visit their town, the mayoralty decided to hide the ugliest buildings, on the main boulevards, behind pressed wood panels, painted as to resemble a line of fine-looking houses. Ceausescu was passing in a hurry anyway; what mattered was only his first impression.
What Wikipedia says about the author:
I strongly recommend this book if you want to get a cynical glimpse of China, if you enjoy dark humor and don't mind a heavy dose of absurd and surreal.
P.S.: A piece of music from the "father of Chinese rock", Cui Jian:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPvMuC...
It consists of several loosely interconnected short stories, sometimes with a touch of surreal, often with a delicious dark humor, and mostly absurd.
A satire of the Chinese society influenced by the Open Door Policy (instituted by Deng Xiaoping in 1978), this collection has an interesting array of characters: the failed writer who dreams of his big novel, but instead writes political-oriented articles about everyday made-up heroes; the professional blood donor who has become a rich man by exploiting the benefits of his occupation; the jealous actress who wants to get revenge on her lover by committing a most peculiar suicide; the young woman whom nobody thinks is still a virgin because of her rather huge breasts; a talking dog and a man debating over the former's belief that dogs are superior to humans.
My favorite was the story of a middle-aged man who was still living with his mother, both taking care of their business - an independent crematorium. Man, was that a bizarre and twisted story! The son has a whole philosophy in choosing the right music for the dead, according to their status in life and the money their relatives pay.
There was also a mention of Nicolae Ceaușescu, our late Romanian dictator, in a humorous context (I will attempt a translation below):
The year when Ceausescu was due to visit their town, the mayoralty decided to hide the ugliest buildings, on the main boulevards, behind pressed wood panels, painted as to resemble a line of fine-looking houses. Ceausescu was passing in a hurry anyway; what mattered was only his first impression.
What Wikipedia says about the author:
Ma Jian is a vocal critic of China's Communist regime. His works explore themes and subjects that are taboo in China. He has continually called for greater freedom of expression and the release of jailed writers and other political prisoners. As a result, his books have been banned in China for the last 25 years, and since the summer of 2011, he has been denied entry into the mainland.
I strongly recommend this book if you want to get a cynical glimpse of China, if you enjoy dark humor and don't mind a heavy dose of absurd and surreal.
P.S.: A piece of music from the "father of Chinese rock", Cui Jian:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPvMuC...
February 6, 2016
Let it be known that I did not read this under the best circumstances: short works give me trouble, short stories even more so, and what with the last few days consisting of the overbearing War and Peace competing with my current under the weather state, I in no way gave this introduction to a brand new author the attention it deserved. Ema and Kris do a far better job, and I am planning on coming back to Ma with Beijing Coma. But enough excuses.
Despite all that, I know dark satire when I see it, and Ma's constant references to the Open Door Policy and its capitalistic rampage across Communist China clinched the urgency. The problems stem from my own experiences, deluged as they are in hating the lie of the patriarchal 'free market' without having but the slightest awareness of the social, cultural, and historical context Ma is coming from. It was only after finishing the book and subsequently rereading Kris' review that I realized the undercurrent of anger, a truth I couldn't see for all the gratuitous beating and raping and ultimate trivializing of the female form. I will read about the horrors of Communism and Capitalism and appreciate the truth of the stories any day, but not at the expense of myriad female caricatures sacrificed without ado.
As mentioned, the work is short, time was shorter, and I didn't have the tools to engage with the stories enough to distract me from one of my major caveats. However, I did very much enjoy the story of the mother and son and their choreographing crematorium, where bodies are burnt to the sound of their favorite music as calculated by their Party status and other officiated characteristics. And, of course, the noodle maker. I understand that metaphor all too well, and will be coming back for more.
Despite all that, I know dark satire when I see it, and Ma's constant references to the Open Door Policy and its capitalistic rampage across Communist China clinched the urgency. The problems stem from my own experiences, deluged as they are in hating the lie of the patriarchal 'free market' without having but the slightest awareness of the social, cultural, and historical context Ma is coming from. It was only after finishing the book and subsequently rereading Kris' review that I realized the undercurrent of anger, a truth I couldn't see for all the gratuitous beating and raping and ultimate trivializing of the female form. I will read about the horrors of Communism and Capitalism and appreciate the truth of the stories any day, but not at the expense of myriad female caricatures sacrificed without ado.
As mentioned, the work is short, time was shorter, and I didn't have the tools to engage with the stories enough to distract me from one of my major caveats. However, I did very much enjoy the story of the mother and son and their choreographing crematorium, where bodies are burnt to the sound of their favorite music as calculated by their Party status and other officiated characteristics. And, of course, the noodle maker. I understand that metaphor all too well, and will be coming back for more.
May 28, 2016
Когато нямаме сили да се борим с този насилнически свят, обръщаме се към себе си и започваме сами да се нараняваме.
Гъсто, наситено повествование, герои, които отвращават и привличат едновременно. Тежка и болезнена книга, която реже като нож. После дълго се оглеждаме в прорезите. Когато я започнах, хладината на очертанията на въздуха почти ме беше заблудила, че зимата се връща. Дочитам я в едно лудо 48-часово денонощие, в което денят и нощта размиват границите си. Сега отвън се носи миризма на лято – такова, каквото го усещам от малка, ухаещо на горещо дърво, на огън, на пепел. Нищо не се е променило кой-знае колко – само един сезон, но добре знаем, че разстоянието никога не е само един сезон.
Книга за тоталитарно мракобесие, толкова далечно от мен – във всички смисли, некомпетентна се чувствам да говоря за него, – но същевременно адски важна за разбирането на онова, което е било, онова, което е отвъд ширините ни (не само географски, а понятийни и пр.), и най-вече на онова, което продължава да се случва.
Дори тук, дори сега.
Гъсто, наситено повествование, герои, които отвращават и привличат едновременно. Тежка и болезнена книга, която реже като нож. После дълго се оглеждаме в прорезите. Когато я започнах, хладината на очертанията на въздуха почти ме беше заблудила, че зимата се връща. Дочитам я в едно лудо 48-часово денонощие, в което денят и нощта размиват границите си. Сега отвън се носи миризма на лято – такова, каквото го усещам от малка, ухаещо на горещо дърво, на огън, на пепел. Нищо не се е променило кой-знае колко – само един сезон, но добре знаем, че разстоянието никога не е само един сезон.
Книга за тоталитарно мракобесие, толкова далечно от мен – във всички смисли, некомпетентна се чувствам да говоря за него, – но същевременно адски важна за разбирането на онова, което е било, онова, което е отвъд ширините ни (не само географски, а понятийни и пр.), и най-вече на онова, което продължава да се случва.
Дори тук, дори сега.
December 1, 2014
За Китай може да се напишат хиляди страници със статистики и примери, но нито една страница няма да притежава силата на разказите от Ма Дзиен, от които може да получиш творческа клаустрофобия и да разбереш защо творците се задушават в подобни тоталитарни системи (или както по-точно може да се опише: авторитарен режим с капиталистическа икономика).
В един от разказите Ма Дзиен е описал тази система като ябълка. Писателят-червей яде по инерция от тази ябълка, оставяйки тъмно-кафяви тунели от изпражнения. Червейчето не смее да отиде до центъра на ябълката, защото се страхува да не попадне на вожда Мао и Централния комитет. От време на време си подава главата навън и страхливо се връща малкия свят от постепенно прогниващата ябълка.
В "Майсторът на фиде" се засичаме с двама главни герои - с "Професионалният писател", и с "Кръводарителят". Професионалният писател започва да разказва истории за познати хора, които са от работническата класа или са автори, творци. Така Ма Дзиен оформя две групи от герои. От една страна имаме образи от артистичните/интелектуални среди - актриса, художник, поетеса и съпруга й писател, уличен писар. От другата страна са работниците: кръводарител, предприемач с крематориум и неговата майка-съдружник, работничка в завод, обикновени хора. Този сборник обхваща един интересен период от историята на Китай. Началото на "политиката на отворени врати", която позволява на хората вече да имат малка собственост и да развиват бизнес. Китай се отваря малко към света, навлизат модни течения от Запад.
Професионалният писател получава задачата да напише пропаганден роман, възхваляващ народния герой от работническата класа Лей Фън. Така писателят се чувства задушен, ограничен, притиснат с огромна тежест, която не му дава друго място, освен това на евтин пропагандатор. Това е и основната линия на "Майсторът на фиде". Този социален задух се проявява и в актрисата, която решава красиво да се самоубие на сцената. Как може да се очаква една жена да е изискана и елегантна, когато израства четейки "Анализ на диктатурата на пролетариата" и "Избрани съчинения" на Мао Дзедун? Ма Дзиен не разглежда само проблемите, пречупени през китайските изкуствени лещи, но ги разширява и в по-глобален мащаб. Както и в "Изплези си езика", така и в това произведение срещаме един много сериозен въпрос относно мястото на жената и нейните права. "Мъжете ни принуждават да носим тези флинтифлюшки", "...всичките ми вкусове и представи са оформени заради мъжете."
Един от най-силните разкази е този с бащата, който се опитва да изостави умствено изостаналата си дъщеря, за да може властите да му разрешат да зачене момче. Всеки сам може да си направи изводите. Друг любопитен момент е съжителството между говорещо трикрако куче и художник. Сюрреалистичната нотка на този разказ вибрира и засяга две пласта - първият е отношенията на властите към кучетата, а във втория е поставен въпроса, дали пък ако кучетата вземат властта, няма да се отнасят по-добре към хората.
Пореден силен роман на Ма Дзиен, а слабите оценки в goodreads ме озадачават. Явно хората са очаквали твърде пряко и директно да се разказва. А писателите все пак са вид артисти.
В един от разказите Ма Дзиен е описал тази система като ябълка. Писателят-червей яде по инерция от тази ябълка, оставяйки тъмно-кафяви тунели от изпражнения. Червейчето не смее да отиде до центъра на ябълката, защото се страхува да не попадне на вожда Мао и Централния комитет. От време на време си подава главата навън и страхливо се връща малкия свят от постепенно прогниващата ябълка.
В "Майсторът на фиде" се засичаме с двама главни герои - с "Професионалният писател", и с "Кръводарителят". Професионалният писател започва да разказва истории за познати хора, които са от работническата класа или са автори, творци. Така Ма Дзиен оформя две групи от герои. От една страна имаме образи от артистичните/интелектуални среди - актриса, художник, поетеса и съпруга й писател, уличен писар. От другата страна са работниците: кръводарител, предприемач с крематориум и неговата майка-съдружник, работничка в завод, обикновени хора. Този сборник обхваща един интересен период от историята на Китай. Началото на "политиката на отворени врати", която позволява на хората вече да имат малка собственост и да развиват бизнес. Китай се отваря малко към света, навлизат модни течения от Запад.
Професионалният писател получава задачата да напише пропаганден роман, възхваляващ народния герой от работническата класа Лей Фън. Така писателят се чувства задушен, ограничен, притиснат с огромна тежест, която не му дава друго място, освен това на евтин пропагандатор. Това е и основната линия на "Майсторът на фиде". Този социален задух се проявява и в актрисата, която решава красиво да се самоубие на сцената. Как може да се очаква една жена да е изискана и елегантна, когато израства четейки "Анализ на диктатурата на пролетариата" и "Избрани съчинения" на Мао Дзедун? Ма Дзиен не разглежда само проблемите, пречупени през китайските изкуствени лещи, но ги разширява и в по-глобален мащаб. Както и в "Изплези си езика", така и в това произведение срещаме един много сериозен въпрос относно мястото на жената и нейните права. "Мъжете ни принуждават да носим тези флинтифлюшки", "...всичките ми вкусове и представи са оформени заради мъжете."
Един от най-силните разкази е този с бащата, който се опитва да изостави умствено изостаналата си дъщеря, за да може властите да му разрешат да зачене момче. Всеки сам може да си направи изводите. Друг любопитен момент е съжителството между говорещо трикрако куче и художник. Сюрреалистичната нотка на този разказ вибрира и засяга две пласта - първият е отношенията на властите към кучетата, а във втория е поставен въпроса, дали пък ако кучетата вземат властта, няма да се отнасят по-добре към хората.
Пореден силен роман на Ма Дзиен, а слабите оценки в goodreads ме озадачават. Явно хората са очаквали твърде пряко и директно да се разказва. А писателите все пак са вид артисти.
September 26, 2020
On the blurb the author is compared to Kundera - I would add Borges to the inspirations Ma Jian may have enjoyed on the road to finishing The Noodle Maker, ´cause there are so many stories which in the end finally finds their connection point.
Living inside the head of a professional writer there will be fragments of stories never to be told, little anecdotes hardly worth elaborating on and scenes you pass in daily life which ignites and fires up a string of thoughts.
"Maybe there is a story hidden here ..." and it turns out there is.
Living inside the head of a professional writer there will be fragments of stories never to be told, little anecdotes hardly worth elaborating on and scenes you pass in daily life which ignites and fires up a string of thoughts.
"Maybe there is a story hidden here ..." and it turns out there is.
November 8, 2019
„Битките им продължаваха и във вечеринките за политическа просвета. Когато възрастната библиотекарка изчете своя реферат за местния герой, който се удавил трагично в опита си да спаси едно държавно прасе, преводачката и секретарката не реагираха. Изобщо не се и постараха да покажат някаква скръб. Председателката Фан отбеляза поведението им и си го записа в тефтерчето.“
June 18, 2013
"The Noodle Maker", for me, oscillates between two and three stars. The skill is undeniable--the occasionally lovely passage and, more importantly, full characters and a coherent, if shattering, vision. This is the post-Maoist, crony capitalism of the current People's Republic, and Ma Jian's dissection of it is withering. Two friends meet for dinner--a writer and a man who runs a blood-donation ring that supplies what the wealthy ill seek. Most of the novel is made up of stories that the writer wants to tell, rather than the orthodox patriotism that he is paid very little for. They are stories of a world poisoned by corruption and despair: a man who makes an excellent living catering to wishes for an impressive cremation, an actress who commits suicide as performance art, a talentless literary editor who exploits the women writers who seek publication (with the possible exception of his wife, with whom he is engaged in a Strindbergian dance of death), a man who makes his living writing letters of faithless love, a girl persecuted for her beauty, and an assassinated talking dog who makes greater sense than most if not all of the humans. I have read books written out of despair before, but never put one down with a sense that it is a work without hope. Yet any power that its refutation of hope fades when placed beside the outrage of Ai Weiwei that addresses corruption irrefutably--I am thinking of the wall of small backpacks that evokes the death of children during an earthquake because of the shoddy construction of their schools. In the end, perhaps Ma Jian's letter writer says it best: "My first piece of advice is: never believe anything a man tells you. Above all, never trust a writer--they trap you in a web of words from which there is no escape. They make their living making things up, they are professional liars." Very post-modern, with more than a teaspoon of truth, but in the end paralyzing.
June 1, 2016
Кошмарният сюреализъм на Ма Дзиен е велик.
Героите му са изтъкани от нескончаеми зависимости, които ги правят неспособни да се самоопределят в отсъствието на другия. Тези сдвоени персонажи - някои устойчиви, други лабилни и летливи - често проявяват (авто)агресия, което може да смути по-чувствителния читател. Краят беше великолепен и само заради него "Майсторът на фиде" заслужава далеч по-висок рейтинг от даденото му до момента (първи абзац на 184стр. - уау!).
Книгата е тежка, дори вулгарна, но майсторски написана.
Препоръчвам със забележката, че може да смути съня.
Героите му са изтъкани от нескончаеми зависимости, които ги правят неспособни да се самоопределят в отсъствието на другия. Тези сдвоени персонажи - някои устойчиви, други лабилни и летливи - често проявяват (авто)агресия, което може да смути по-чувствителния читател. Краят беше великолепен и само заради него "Майсторът на фиде" заслужава далеч по-висок рейтинг от даденото му до момента (първи абзац на 184стр. - уау!).
Книгата е тежка, дори вулгарна, но майсторски написана.
Препоръчвам със забележката, че може да смути съня.
August 22, 2021
Pe fondul unui context politic fals utopic, gasim amestecate, ca intr-o supa, bucati mari de tristete, ipocrizie, ratare, pierdere, egoism, obsesie si nebunie, toate plutind intr-o zeama de neputinta si limitare, cu un strop de suprarealism. Greu de ingerat, dar satioasa, cu siguranta dificil de uitat.
Desi fiecare povestire este unica, se pastreaza ideea de dualitate, relevata chiar din titluri - toate personajele sunt si victime si abuzatori, condamnati si calai, judecatori si acuzati.
Preferatele mele au fost "Supravietuitor sau spectator" si "Delectat sau teapan".
Desi fiecare povestire este unica, se pastreaza ideea de dualitate, relevata chiar din titluri - toate personajele sunt si victime si abuzatori, condamnati si calai, judecatori si acuzati.
Preferatele mele au fost "Supravietuitor sau spectator" si "Delectat sau teapan".
September 18, 2016
A courageous voice into the Chinese cultural revolution, painted with sad and miserable characters that don't know they are that way because of the brainwashing of the Party since they were born. The characters are sometimes named but more importantly defined by their occupation, their abuse, the sexist way they act towards others, and their relationship with the Party. Very powerful story telling.
February 13, 2024
2.25 stars
DNF at 80-something % bc I had to return it to the library plus I lost interest, but there were some stories I liked.
DNF at 80-something % bc I had to return it to the library plus I lost interest, but there were some stories I liked.
October 28, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
"The Noodle Maker" by Ma Jian
The Noodle Maker by Ma Jian (1991, trans. from Chinese 2004 by Flora Drew) is the 3rd work I have read for Jeannie's Chinese Challenge. The Challenges runs from Sept 1, 2009 to Sept 1, 2010. I have posted prior to this on The Uninvited and Miss Chopsticks.
The Noodle Maker is set China, in the 1980s. It begins with two old friendly enemies having dinner together as they often do. One is a writer of articles for the government about heroic workers giving their lives to save pigs on state farms. The other is a professional blood donor who has found a way to become wealthy and have a big social standing by donating his blood. (How this can happen is just part of the wonderful twisted humor of this book.) The writer dreams of one day giving up his party propaganda work and writing the great novel he has been working on in his mind for years. The blood donor tells him he is a delusional fool and should just try to write more and better stories about heroic workers who would rather work themselves to death than miss their factory production quotas. After the opening chapter in which the two lead characters have a meal and solve the problems of China, the book develops into a set of very loosely related tales (each could stand on its own a short story) that are ideas for the book the writer hopes to write one day. The blood donor feels free to but in at times telling the writer how stupid his stories are.
There are eight stories. The first one sort of explains how the blood donor got rich during the period of the open door policy. The second one is an insane story about a mother and her 35 year old son who run a for profit crematorium where much care is devoted to considering what songs to play while your love one is burned. The son tells us all about dead bodies in China, what days certain types of people die on etc. He is always happy to see a party official come in as it is time for some well deserved revenge on the oppressor. He has observations on all the people brought in, sort of summing up their lives in a few words, grave yard humor at it best or worst. (If you are a young attractive female I would not go here for cremation).
One of the stories is about a once beautiful actress (women are very much valued based on the appeal of their bodies in the world of The Noodle Maker ) who decides to kill herself by having a tiger eat her on stage. The owner of the venue sees nothing odd about this and is maybe interested in allowing her to do it but then agrees when she offers to have sex with him, if he feels like it. There is nobody with a healthy self image in this world.
One chapter "Let the Mirror Be the Judge" is a viciously nasty look at the reaction of the women in a small all female office to a new twenty year old coworker with what seem to be ideal breasts. The character of women is somehow reflected in the size and shape of their breasts in common folk views. Large round breast signify a virtuous wife and a good mother. Medium size means the woman is suitable as a mistress.
A woman with small breasts is normally the most intelligent sort. The other women hate the new employee with perfect breasts as soon as they see her. When she leaves the office they speculate about her breasts. The office manager, a totally loveless 51 year old, says her breasts are large because she has allowed many men to fondle them. (This is presented as assumed to be true by all common sense.) Some of the women insist she must make use of a breast pump, another speculates that she had implants. All of them assume the woman, who has never had any sort of romantic encounter in her life, is very promiscuous and freely tell everyone who knows her this. One of the women pretends to be her friend then asks her to let her see her breasts. The woman is driven to despair by this and begins to take sleeping pills. One take she decides to prove to everyone that her breasts are real by running naked through the streets. Her and her family end up discgraced and they move to the country side. She ends up married years later to a farm work, still never having had the first romantic episode in her life. The farmer finds about her old reputation and assumes he has been tricked into marrying a woman with a very bad past and beats her for the rest of her life. This is presented as if it were a simple narration of normal events and attitudes.
No one in this book is spared. Nobody comes off looking good. Men are sexual predators and women are all one step above prostitutes. This is not presented as if it were a bad thing, it simply life in China. Every body is envious of anything someone else has and takes joy in the misfortunes of others. If someone out ranks you, suck up to them until they are out then suck up to whoever takes their place. If someone is below you, exploit them as much as you can. Personal relationships are power struggles not partnerships. Life is a macabre joke so grab all the pleasure you can.
One of the funniest chapters is a debate between a dog and a man who mouths the party line on everything because he is scared to do otherwise. No one is seen as actually believing in the party doctrines but everyone pretends they do.
The Noodle Maker is a very funny book. It is a bit nasty twisted kind of laughter. I thought to myself, these things should not be treated as jokes then I wanted to get onto the next joke.
If you can imagine George Orwell and Nikolai Gogol collaborating on a Mad Magazine article illustrated by R C Crumb and you sort of can see the flavor of this hilarious evil book. Tyranny does not stand up well against laughter.
I endorse this book for those with a bit of a twisted sense of humor but will advise parts of it shows misogistic actions and thoughts. There is sexual violence. In fact the only admirable character in the book is a talking dog. Ma Jian's writings are banned in China. He now lives in England.
"The Noodle Maker" by Ma Jian
The Noodle Maker by Ma Jian (1991, trans. from Chinese 2004 by Flora Drew) is the 3rd work I have read for Jeannie's Chinese Challenge. The Challenges runs from Sept 1, 2009 to Sept 1, 2010. I have posted prior to this on The Uninvited and Miss Chopsticks.
The Noodle Maker is set China, in the 1980s. It begins with two old friendly enemies having dinner together as they often do. One is a writer of articles for the government about heroic workers giving their lives to save pigs on state farms. The other is a professional blood donor who has found a way to become wealthy and have a big social standing by donating his blood. (How this can happen is just part of the wonderful twisted humor of this book.) The writer dreams of one day giving up his party propaganda work and writing the great novel he has been working on in his mind for years. The blood donor tells him he is a delusional fool and should just try to write more and better stories about heroic workers who would rather work themselves to death than miss their factory production quotas. After the opening chapter in which the two lead characters have a meal and solve the problems of China, the book develops into a set of very loosely related tales (each could stand on its own a short story) that are ideas for the book the writer hopes to write one day. The blood donor feels free to but in at times telling the writer how stupid his stories are.
There are eight stories. The first one sort of explains how the blood donor got rich during the period of the open door policy. The second one is an insane story about a mother and her 35 year old son who run a for profit crematorium where much care is devoted to considering what songs to play while your love one is burned. The son tells us all about dead bodies in China, what days certain types of people die on etc. He is always happy to see a party official come in as it is time for some well deserved revenge on the oppressor. He has observations on all the people brought in, sort of summing up their lives in a few words, grave yard humor at it best or worst. (If you are a young attractive female I would not go here for cremation).
One of the stories is about a once beautiful actress (women are very much valued based on the appeal of their bodies in the world of The Noodle Maker ) who decides to kill herself by having a tiger eat her on stage. The owner of the venue sees nothing odd about this and is maybe interested in allowing her to do it but then agrees when she offers to have sex with him, if he feels like it. There is nobody with a healthy self image in this world.
One chapter "Let the Mirror Be the Judge" is a viciously nasty look at the reaction of the women in a small all female office to a new twenty year old coworker with what seem to be ideal breasts. The character of women is somehow reflected in the size and shape of their breasts in common folk views. Large round breast signify a virtuous wife and a good mother. Medium size means the woman is suitable as a mistress.
A woman with small breasts is normally the most intelligent sort. The other women hate the new employee with perfect breasts as soon as they see her. When she leaves the office they speculate about her breasts. The office manager, a totally loveless 51 year old, says her breasts are large because she has allowed many men to fondle them. (This is presented as assumed to be true by all common sense.) Some of the women insist she must make use of a breast pump, another speculates that she had implants. All of them assume the woman, who has never had any sort of romantic encounter in her life, is very promiscuous and freely tell everyone who knows her this. One of the women pretends to be her friend then asks her to let her see her breasts. The woman is driven to despair by this and begins to take sleeping pills. One take she decides to prove to everyone that her breasts are real by running naked through the streets. Her and her family end up discgraced and they move to the country side. She ends up married years later to a farm work, still never having had the first romantic episode in her life. The farmer finds about her old reputation and assumes he has been tricked into marrying a woman with a very bad past and beats her for the rest of her life. This is presented as if it were a simple narration of normal events and attitudes.
No one in this book is spared. Nobody comes off looking good. Men are sexual predators and women are all one step above prostitutes. This is not presented as if it were a bad thing, it simply life in China. Every body is envious of anything someone else has and takes joy in the misfortunes of others. If someone out ranks you, suck up to them until they are out then suck up to whoever takes their place. If someone is below you, exploit them as much as you can. Personal relationships are power struggles not partnerships. Life is a macabre joke so grab all the pleasure you can.
One of the funniest chapters is a debate between a dog and a man who mouths the party line on everything because he is scared to do otherwise. No one is seen as actually believing in the party doctrines but everyone pretends they do.
The Noodle Maker is a very funny book. It is a bit nasty twisted kind of laughter. I thought to myself, these things should not be treated as jokes then I wanted to get onto the next joke.
If you can imagine George Orwell and Nikolai Gogol collaborating on a Mad Magazine article illustrated by R C Crumb and you sort of can see the flavor of this hilarious evil book. Tyranny does not stand up well against laughter.
I endorse this book for those with a bit of a twisted sense of humor but will advise parts of it shows misogistic actions and thoughts. There is sexual violence. In fact the only admirable character in the book is a talking dog. Ma Jian's writings are banned in China. He now lives in England.
April 23, 2013
The Noodle Maker (2004) is set during the early 90s, in a China supposedly transformed by Deng's reform politics; everything is for sale now, you can go to McDonald's, you can start your own business feeding, clothing or burying your fellow comrades, women are learning to wear western makeup and men to expect them to. Of course, deep down, not much has changed; communism falling in Albania and Romania and the Tiananmen square massacre pretty much go unreported in favour of renewed efforts by the Party to find new ways of maintaining control. As long as you can control what people read and watch, you control what they want to spend their newfound wealth on, and so you can sit back and let capitalism serve the greater goal.
The novel finds two friends sharing dinner: a writer, who never does anything but write what he's told, and a blood donor. That's his profession: he sells his own blood, is paid in cash, and spends his money on western goods and eastern women. The writer is complaining that he's been commissioned to write yet another book praising a revolutionary hero. You're the one who chose to be a writer, says his friend; what the hell did you expect? You can't change anything. And so the writer starts telling him what he wants to write but isn't allowed to. Cue a series of interwoven short stories about men and women he knows (or knows of, or just made up) and their attempts to find their way out of a situation where three seemingly opposing systems - old traditions, Maoist dogma and cutthroat capitalism - work beautifully together to keep everything as it was.
OK, it's not perfect; Ma is a little too fond of epithets (necessary in-story, of course, since the narrator can't name any names), and I'm honestly not sure if some of the views on women presented are supposed to be the characters', the narrator's, or Ma's. But what impresses me about The Noodle Maker isn't just how vivid the stories are, ranging from gallows humour (the way one character can't see a naked woman without praising Mao, for instance) to soul-hurtingly depressing, but also the way the narratives keep getting sneakily hijacked - by the narrator, by the propaganda that inevitably pops up everywhere whether it says "Praise the Party" or "Buy Coke". He does his best to subvert it, but he can never escape it; he can take control of the story as long as he doesn't say it out loud, but language itself has been politicized to the degree that writers can only write in slogans, and characters can only act by either serving something or heroically sacrificing themselves. Orwellian in the best and worst sense.
The novel finds two friends sharing dinner: a writer, who never does anything but write what he's told, and a blood donor. That's his profession: he sells his own blood, is paid in cash, and spends his money on western goods and eastern women. The writer is complaining that he's been commissioned to write yet another book praising a revolutionary hero. You're the one who chose to be a writer, says his friend; what the hell did you expect? You can't change anything. And so the writer starts telling him what he wants to write but isn't allowed to. Cue a series of interwoven short stories about men and women he knows (or knows of, or just made up) and their attempts to find their way out of a situation where three seemingly opposing systems - old traditions, Maoist dogma and cutthroat capitalism - work beautifully together to keep everything as it was.
OK, it's not perfect; Ma is a little too fond of epithets (necessary in-story, of course, since the narrator can't name any names), and I'm honestly not sure if some of the views on women presented are supposed to be the characters', the narrator's, or Ma's. But what impresses me about The Noodle Maker isn't just how vivid the stories are, ranging from gallows humour (the way one character can't see a naked woman without praising Mao, for instance) to soul-hurtingly depressing, but also the way the narratives keep getting sneakily hijacked - by the narrator, by the propaganda that inevitably pops up everywhere whether it says "Praise the Party" or "Buy Coke". He does his best to subvert it, but he can never escape it; he can take control of the story as long as he doesn't say it out loud, but language itself has been politicized to the degree that writers can only write in slogans, and characters can only act by either serving something or heroically sacrificing themselves. Orwellian in the best and worst sense.
July 27, 2010
A scathing and sometimes funny portrayal of the period just after Deng Xiaoping's proclamation of the Open Door Policy and encouragement of capitalist initiatives. Suddenly every kind of small enterprise popped up, and ideals, whether traditional or Maoist, evaporated. Ma Jian satirizes this period with such characters as a professional blood donor, a young man who buys a pottery kiln and uses it for his own small cremation business, a woman who sacrifices herself on stage to a tiger as a piece of performance art, and others who wander through this novel, which is constructed from a series of interwoven stories. What binds these stories together is that they all seem to emerge from the fantasies, or perhaps experiences, of a professional writer who seems unable to write but quite capable of oral narration. The writer reaches the conclusion of his stories, and the nadir of his pessimism, with the tale of a three-legged dog who can talk and presents the argument that dogs are far superior to humans. One indeed finds little justification in this novel to believe otherwise. Ma Jian's book is one of the best satires I have read of the moral bankruptcy of those years, and, I regret to say, much of what he describes here resonates in contemporary China as well. Expect to be shocked, and at times disgusted, but this is an instructive read.
October 22, 2023
„Meštar od rezanaca“ napisan je u duhu grotesknog, ciničnog humora čiji je mrak prožet tračcima nade koja se javlja u ljudskoj otpornosti, prijateljstvu i ljubavi. Radnja romana smeštena je neposredno posle masakra na Tijenanmenu. Počinje sa dva prijatelja – profesionalnim piscem i profesioanlnim davaocem krvi – koji svakog dana zajedno večeraju. Šeng, pisac, udaljen je za samo jedan propagandni roman od ulaska u Veliki leksikon kineskih pisaca. On žudi da napiše roman zasnovan na životima koje svakodnevno sreće ili lično poznaje, ali ga parališu posledice Partije koja može da mu potpuno unizi i cenzuriše karijeru. Kroz svoja razmišljanja on pretvara živote ljudi koji ga okružuju u umetnost, na isti način na koji jedan zanatlija od testa pravi ukusne rezance.
„Meštar od rezanaca“ je uznemirujuć roman koji je u navratima pomalo težak za čitanje, ali duboko pogađa u srca čitalaca, baš kao ogorčeni vapaj njegovih likova protiv nečovečnost u komunističkoj Kini. Nije potrebno da u pričama ovog romana čitamo između redova da bismo osetili gorki bes i jad koji je Ma Đijen smelo usadio u svoje reči.
„Meštar od rezanaca“ je uznemirujuć roman koji je u navratima pomalo težak za čitanje, ali duboko pogađa u srca čitalaca, baš kao ogorčeni vapaj njegovih likova protiv nečovečnost u komunističkoj Kini. Nije potrebno da u pričama ovog romana čitamo između redova da bismo osetili gorki bes i jad koji je Ma Đijen smelo usadio u svoje reči.
February 9, 2021
I found this really interesting, but I only made it 2/3 through before I had to stop. The sexism and use of rape just made this something I didn’t want to get through. I’m not saying the author was presenting these things favorably, but I still couldn’t handle it.
February 26, 2008
Wins the I am uncomfortable and I am laughing and I am going to have bad dreams tonight award
December 29, 2021
Through a collection of portraits of different caricatures from 1980s China, Majian delivers a subtle criticism of the CCP's corrupted governance. I really enjoyed reading this book, as all the short stories were well connected to each other and they were well focused on the development of a specific character. Each story presents how Deng's opening policies affect the main character's life. The characters are conceived as the creation of an idealist writer/narrator - Majian himself? - whose only way to escape reality under an authoritarian state is to write. Throughout the novel he dialogues with a blood-merchant, who exemplifies the opposite approach to Chinese everyday life: he thinks that "man needs to delve into life as it is, accepting as normal what he disgusts for the sake of profit, and to satisfy his needs"
Some interesting portraits: A father who desperately wants a son, is 'forced' by the One-Child policy to abandon his retarded daughter; an actress kills herself in public presenting the action as a "new performance from Japan"; an editor whose wife is obsessed with the new liberal reforms is influenced into leaving novel-writing, becoming a trader in the black market; a girl who loses her mind because the size of her breast arouses suspicions of plastic surgery among her colleagues, a dog who starts learning about human culture, eventually killing itself after reading "the reactionary thoughts of Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Freud and Hegel [...] which led him to lose his capacity of judgement".
My favourite story is the one describing a patriotic cremator, who, after hearing that China needs to reduce its population in order to keep its GDP growth rate, decides to promote his crematory as a patriotic industry that is "putting effort into doubling national output by the XXI century". This unhealthy obsession with country's directives leads him to convince his own mum to sacrifice herself in the name of population reduction, eventually cremating with "the internationale" in the background. I found this metaphor very witty, as it criticizes the absurdity of social-engineering projects such as the One-Child policy, and the way people blindly follow the Party's orders.
Some interesting portraits: A father who desperately wants a son, is 'forced' by the One-Child policy to abandon his retarded daughter; an actress kills herself in public presenting the action as a "new performance from Japan"; an editor whose wife is obsessed with the new liberal reforms is influenced into leaving novel-writing, becoming a trader in the black market; a girl who loses her mind because the size of her breast arouses suspicions of plastic surgery among her colleagues, a dog who starts learning about human culture, eventually killing itself after reading "the reactionary thoughts of Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Freud and Hegel [...] which led him to lose his capacity of judgement".
My favourite story is the one describing a patriotic cremator, who, after hearing that China needs to reduce its population in order to keep its GDP growth rate, decides to promote his crematory as a patriotic industry that is "putting effort into doubling national output by the XXI century". This unhealthy obsession with country's directives leads him to convince his own mum to sacrifice herself in the name of population reduction, eventually cremating with "the internationale" in the background. I found this metaphor very witty, as it criticizes the absurdity of social-engineering projects such as the One-Child policy, and the way people blindly follow the Party's orders.
December 23, 2024
picked this up from a charity shop in glasgow and read it on the plane home :^)
the stories are framed as fragments of an unfinished novel, but they aren't written from the perspective of the professional writer character who dreamt them up. he even gets mentioned tangentially in them.
in my opinion, the most interesting characters in this are the blood donor (who becomes obscenely wealthy from not only selling his own blood but exploiting other impoverished desperate people and circumventing regulations meant to protect them), the street writer, and the mother/son duo running the crematorium.
the rest of the short stories mostly paint a bleak picture of love and sex-- animalistic, degrading, domineering, manipulative, etc.
the stories are framed as fragments of an unfinished novel, but they aren't written from the perspective of the professional writer character who dreamt them up. he even gets mentioned tangentially in them.
in my opinion, the most interesting characters in this are the blood donor (who becomes obscenely wealthy from not only selling his own blood but exploiting other impoverished desperate people and circumventing regulations meant to protect them), the street writer, and the mother/son duo running the crematorium.
the rest of the short stories mostly paint a bleak picture of love and sex-- animalistic, degrading, domineering, manipulative, etc.
April 17, 2024
Je partais avec une sensation plutôt négative (peut être à cause de cette hideuse couverture). Mais plus les histoires s'enchaînent, plus j'ai été prise dans la profondeur du propos. Résultat : je dois dire que c'est un livre très malin.
April 16, 2015
Ще използвам сравнение от книгата, за да опиша най-ясно чувството, което преобладаваше, докато я четях - все едно някой натиква памук в гърлото ми, бавно и методично.
Болезнено и задушаващо четиво за отсъствието на човешкото в един пост-Мао Китай. Препоръчвам.
Болезнено и задушаващо четиво за отсъствието на човешкото в един пост-Мао Китай. Препоръчвам.
December 21, 2024
- No noodles were made
- Interesting at times but a huge portion of the subject matter was revolting
- Could not wait for this to be over
- The person (presumably old white woman) who read this before me underlined some very questionable things
- Interesting at times but a huge portion of the subject matter was revolting
- Could not wait for this to be over
- The person (presumably old white woman) who read this before me underlined some very questionable things
July 13, 2013
Haunting and disturbing, but truly one that you must read. Like it should be magical realism, but this is not magic..just life. Definitely want to read more by Ma Jian
October 1, 2015
What a depressing view of people.
February 17, 2023
Ouf enfin fini, je suis épuisée. Pas aimé. Lecture suivante
March 26, 2021
Cina, anni ’90. Uno scrittore professionista è chiamato dai suoi capi a scrivere un omaggio alle persone che emulano l’eroe Lei Feng, che mise la sua vita al servizio della causa rivoluzionaria. Tuttavia, segue la sua vena creativa che lo porta a narrare la vita di una serie di personaggi complicati e problematici, persone che ha avuto modo di conoscere nella vita reale: abbiamo quindi un imprenditore che, acquistando una fornace dall’Accademia di belle arti, si mette in proprio mettendo su un crematorio privato, una bella attrice che, tormentata dai suoi incubi, finisce per compiere un suicidio pubblico e ancora, un padre che nella speranza di avere un figlio maschio cerca di liberarsi della primogenita ritardata, e altri ancora…
Il romanzo si snoda in una duplice narrazione: da una parte i racconti composti dallo scrittore, dall’altra la conversazione che intavola con il suo amico donatore di sangue professionista, il quale si presenta all’opposto del protagonista: con una mente pragmatica, non si fa scrupoli a svendere sé stesso e gli altri per inseguire il profitto.
L’opera in questione s’inquadra nella Cina post Politica di Riforma e Apertura, avviata con Deng Xiaoping con il lancio delle Quattro Modernizzazioni nel 1978, ma che ancora accusa gli eventi legati alla Rivoluzione Culturale. In diversi punti è possibile individuare riferimenti ai numerosi cambiamenti introdotti dopo tali politiche, dai più piccoli, come la possibilità di tinteggiare le pareti di rosa o di acquistare registratori, a quelli più grandi come l’emergere di scrittori d’avanguardia, ma tante sono ancora le limitazioni politiche e il rischio di essere bollato come “liberal borghese”.
Grazie alla splendida traduzione di Nicoletta Pesaro possiamo godere di un’opera davvero originale: un testo che disorienta in più punti il lettore, lo fa viaggiare tra i fili dei pensieri del protagonista, si spazia dalla crisi interiore a quella della società, alle prese con questioni come il permesso di residenza, il programma di controllo delle nascite…
A tratti cruento, comico, drammatico, l’opera rappresenta una evidente critica nei confronti del governo e della società cinese da parte di un autore le cui opere sono tutt’oggi censurate in Cina.
Il romanzo si snoda in una duplice narrazione: da una parte i racconti composti dallo scrittore, dall’altra la conversazione che intavola con il suo amico donatore di sangue professionista, il quale si presenta all’opposto del protagonista: con una mente pragmatica, non si fa scrupoli a svendere sé stesso e gli altri per inseguire il profitto.
L’opera in questione s’inquadra nella Cina post Politica di Riforma e Apertura, avviata con Deng Xiaoping con il lancio delle Quattro Modernizzazioni nel 1978, ma che ancora accusa gli eventi legati alla Rivoluzione Culturale. In diversi punti è possibile individuare riferimenti ai numerosi cambiamenti introdotti dopo tali politiche, dai più piccoli, come la possibilità di tinteggiare le pareti di rosa o di acquistare registratori, a quelli più grandi come l’emergere di scrittori d’avanguardia, ma tante sono ancora le limitazioni politiche e il rischio di essere bollato come “liberal borghese”.
Grazie alla splendida traduzione di Nicoletta Pesaro possiamo godere di un’opera davvero originale: un testo che disorienta in più punti il lettore, lo fa viaggiare tra i fili dei pensieri del protagonista, si spazia dalla crisi interiore a quella della società, alle prese con questioni come il permesso di residenza, il programma di controllo delle nascite…
A tratti cruento, comico, drammatico, l’opera rappresenta una evidente critica nei confronti del governo e della società cinese da parte di un autore le cui opere sono tutt’oggi censurate in Cina.
June 7, 2023
This is a book I bought solely based on its cover, having no idea what the book is or who the author is, I decided to take a gamble, and that gamble paid off magnificently. The book follows the conversations between a writer and a blood donor and is a compilation of short stories that happen in the same town and are somewhat interlinked. Each story revolves around "writers" and the different ways they impact the world, some using their gifts to make the world a bit better while others use written words to manipulate people. It goes from one extreme to another and makes you understand each extreme. Definitely worth reading if you are someone who loves the craft of writing
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