Camel Xiangzi (Bilingual Series on Modern Chinese Literature) [Paperback]

Lao She (Author), Shi Xiangzi (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 22, 2005 | Series: Bilingual Series on Modern Chinese Literature

This novel marks the peak of Lao She's career as a professional writer and registers a new approach to the representation of China in its absurdist situation. It can be read as an "epic" of modern China.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Chinese (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Renowned for his absurdist re-visioning of the world and experimentation with the techniques of humour in his satirical writings. Lao She (pen-name of Shu Qingchun, also named Sheyu, 1899-1966) is one of the few writers who has written on almost all of the major events in modern China. To say that his works are mirrors of modern Chinese sociocultural changes is no exaggeration. His works, fictional and dramatic, are not simply historical writings; but the author's reflections upon history, as well as the voices of the common people trapped in the social turmoil in modern China.

Product Details

• Paperback: 600 pages
• Publisher: The Chinese University Press; Bilingual edition (June 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9629961970
• ISBN-13: 978-9629961978
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #574,046 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lao She must be rolling over in his grave! The exploiting class is back with a vengeance., May 1, 2007

By 

D. Goodpasture (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Camel Xiangzi (Bilingual Series on Modern Chinese Literature) (Paperback)

(This book is also known as Rickshaw Boy and has had different translators. I read the version translated by Shi Xiaoqing and illustrated by Gu Bingxin that I bought in China. ISBN 7-119-00512)

This is the great classic novel of exploitation in Old China, before the 1949 Revolution. It's also anti-individualist. It's the early 1930s and Xiangzi arrives alone in Beiping (Beijing) with dreams of making a living as a rickshaw puller. He is a loner who constantly struggles against forces beyond his control. On more than one occasion his rickshaw is destroyed and each time he tries to bounce back. Class struggle is woven throughout the tapestry of this story.

I read this after Nawal El Saadawi's Woman at Point Zero. So what really caught my attention was the character, Joy, who enters in the last third of Camel Xiangzi. I decided to use both of these novels in my thesis on women forced into prostitution. Joy is sold to an army officer by her lazy greedy father. Joy learns that temporary "marriages" are the MO of her officer "husband." Each time he is transferred he just buys a new wife, because it's cheaper than hiring housekeepers and prostitutes, and he leaves them with the bills.

When Joy returns home she's damaged goods and her father forces her to prostitute in order to support his drinking habit and her two younger brothers. Her life becomes hell on earth. I don't really want to spoil the ending. Let me just say that Chinese novels rarely have happy endings.

In his 1954 afterword Lao She reflects back on how much China has evolved since those dark days and how "Today, nineteen years later, the working people have become masters of their own destiny." Tragically more than half a century later, while China has the fastest growing economy in the world, many of its citizens, especially girls, are much worse off. The great exploitation novel of 21st century China would be called Sweatshop Girl or Hostage Hooker. The protagonist would be a teenage girl from one of the inner provinces like Sichuan or Hunan. She would be forced to leave school and migrate to a city like Guangzhou. She would lie about her age to obtain a job in a sweatshop working around the clock, for pennies an hour, to support herself and send money home. Another worse, but unfortunately very common scenario (in Russia as well), she would be abducted walking home from school by a pimp from organized crime. When her parents try to find her the police sit back and do nothing because they are working with organized crime. A search engine turned up numerous articles about this. China is also the only country where more females than males commit suicide. Its one-child policy has led to a birth ratio of 119 males to 100 females. Rather than leading to a greater appreciation of women, who "hold up half of the sky," it has fueled a higher demand for trafficking in women.

I am reading Will the Boat Sink the Water: The Life of China's Peasants by Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntao. It was written in the last few years by a husband and wife who are journalists from Anhui Province. The suffering of China's billion peasants seems even worse than in Lao She's day. I also recommend The Garlic Ballads, a novel by Mo Yan.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of 20th century's greatest Chinese novels., October 30, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Camel Xiangzi (Hardcover)

Lao She (pen name for the Chinese author, 1899-1966) wrote this moving story about a rickshaw puller during the 1920s in Beijing, China. An earlier English translation by Evan King (1945) was BOMC choice but not a good translation. King changed the ending and did other things a translator should not do. This edition is good. For a view of the ordinary people, the underdogs and poor of China during difficult times this is a most helpful book.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT FEEL FOR CHINA BEFORE THE REVOLUTION, June 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Camel Xiangzi (Phoenix Books) (Paperback)

having read both versions i strongly prefer the older evan king translation for it's clarity and readability. this version was written, translated, and printed before the revolution under the title "rickshaw boy" by lau shaw. if you are new to this book try to find one of these increasingly scarce editions to read first. it is a tale simply told with easy running narration like in a first rate biography. it is a great portrayal of old china as seen through the eyes of the chinese.