Hunger Trilogy (Hardcover)

by Wang Ruowang (Author), Kyna Rubin (Translator), Ira Kasoff (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This tautly written autobiographical novella sparked controversy in 1980 when it was first published in China; according to Rubin, many reviewers reacted negatively to Ruowang's revelations of how both Chiang Kai-shek and Mao used starvation as a political tool, a comparison previously taboo, and to the graphic descriptions of hunger, which flouted cultural traditions. While Westerners may find the idealism of the characters here somewhat old-fashioned (on his deathbed, one says, ``I'll be going to see Marx with a clear conscience''), the exposition is gripping, especially the harrowing passages about prison life. Thrown into prison in 1934 at age 16, the narrator is sustained by his comrades' simple faith in the ultimate triumph of the Red Army. The revolutionaries stage a successful hunger strike and, as part of a general amnesty, the narrator is released. In a second brush with starvation, the narrator with his military unit flees the occupying Japanese army in 1942 and becomes lost in a remote forest. Finally, in a bitter indictment of the Cultural Revolution, the narrator describes his incarceration in 1966 for ``counter-revolutionary'' activities, occasioning his third and final bout with hunger. Ruowang, a prominent Chinese intellectual, was jailed for his involvement in the recent pro-democracy movement.

Copyright 1991 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
This autobiographical novella was written in 1980 by one of China's leading dissidents, who was released from jail in late October 1990 again after being imprisoned as a pro-democracy activist in the wake of the Tiananmen incident of spring 1989. Wang recounts three episodes of extreme hardship in his life: incarceration in a Guomindang jail during the 1930s for his communist activism, on the run from Japanese troops during the 1940s in a bleak part of Shandong Province, and imprisonment as a "rightist" in Shanghai during the 1960s cultural revolution. The central theme of the three stories is extreme deprivation and "Hunger".

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 135 pages
• Publisher: M.E. Sharpe (April 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087332739X
• ISBN-13: 978-0873327398
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
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• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,416,868 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)