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Beijing Comrades Paperback – March 15, 2016
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The sensational underground novel of homosexuality in late-1980s China that’s been declared “one of the most significant Chinese novels of our time” (The New York Times).
When Handong, the ruthless, wealthy son of Communist party officials, is introduced to Lan Yu, a naïve, working-class architecture student, the attraction between the two young men is instant and all-consuming. Despite their very different lives, they spend their nights together, establishing a deep connection. But when their loyalties are tested, Handong is left questioning his secrets, his choices, and his very identity . . .
Beijing Comrades is the story of a tumultuous love affair set against the sociopolitical unrest of late-eighties China. Due to its depiction of gay sexuality and its critique of the totalitarian government, it was originally published anonymously on an illegal gay-themed website within mainland China.
This riveting and heartbreaking novel quickly developed a cult following, and remains “a meaningful excavation of homophobia and daily life in a rapidly changing China,” and “a traditional story of forbidden love in all the most classic, wonderful, and devastating ways” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
- Print length312 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherThe Feminist Press at CUNY
- Publication dateMarch 15, 2016
- Dimensions5.5 x 1.25 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-101558619070
- ISBN-13978-1558619074
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"While Beijing Comrades provides a meaningful excavation of homophobia and daily life in a rapidly changing China, it is ultimately a traditional story of forbidden love in all the most classic, wonderful, and devastating ways.” ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Beijing Comrades is both a valuable piece of global gay history and a political phenomenon... But the universal themes, and the deeply personal rendering of the story, endear the characters to us in ways quite distinct from the book’s importance as a monument of literature and queer theory." ―Lambda Literary Review
"The novel moves seamlessly from humor to frantic passion to sorrow, and Myers’s use of language captures these disparate emotions perfectly.” ―LA Review of Books
"The book falls significantly higher on the erotica spectrum than Fifty Shades of Gray.... Created on a website, crowd-sourced in serial, Beijing Comrades is the people’s public fantasy of intimacy." ―The Millions
"Emotional, sexy, and engrossing."― Book Riot
“A melancholic parable in which desire and self-interest reconfigure revolutionary ideals and unbridled investments in a neoliberal new world order.” ―David L. Eng, author of The Feeling of Kinship
"Scott Myers's translation of this landmark work of Chinese queer fiction does not disappoint. A pure joy on a literary level, this is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding sexual diversity beyond the West." ―Fran Martin, author of Backward Glances: Contemporary Chinese Cultures and the Female Homoerotic Imaginary
"A candid, courageous exploration of the conjunction of love, money, and politics in a pivotal moment in postsocialist China." ―Sheldon Lu, author of Chinese Modernity and Global Biopolitics
About the Author
Scott E. Myers is a translator of Chinese who focuses on contemporary queer fiction from the PRC. He holds a BA in philosophy from Hampshire College and master’s degrees in Comparative Literature from New York University, in Chinese Translation from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago. A former union organizer with experience in China's workers' rights movement, his translation of the diary of a retail worker in China appears in the book Walmart in China (ILR Press/Cornell University Press, 2011). Recently, he has been translating the work of avant-garde poet and novelist Mu Cao. His translations of Mu’s poems have appeared in Epiphany journal (Winter 2014), and he is currently translating Mu’s 2003 novel Outcast. Originally from California, he is a Mandarin teacher at a high school in Denver, Colorado.
Product details
- Publisher : The Feminist Press at CUNY (March 15, 2016)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 312 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1558619070
- ISBN-13 : 978-1558619074
- Item Weight : 1.35 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 1.25 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #970,615 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #818 in Censorship & Politics
- #24,193 in LGBTQ+ Romance (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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The translation is also good - the dialogue and narration seem very natural.
Besides describing gay life, the novel also does a good job capturing the feeling of Beijing in the late 1980s and early 1990s when the economy started to take off. The hutongs have almost all been torn down and that world has disappeared forever, so this novel is also an unintended document of a vanished era.
However, the novel is not strong enough to give such a character his due. Some conflicts resolve themselves too easily, sometimes through the power of "tell; don't show." The supporting characters often show extremes of loyalty, when in real life, they would likely think that Handong was getting what was coming to him. Sometimes, the novel seems to veer into the realm of escapism and wish fulfillment, with unlimited money, beauty, and sex and no worry about HIV or other sexually transmitted illnesses. The ending is mawkish and clichéd.
The novel also often falls flat in terms of giving a sense of time and place, although Chinese censorship could have to do with it. In much of the novel, Beijing during a tumultuous period in Chinese history could just as well be Northern Virginia during a relatively placid period in American history.
If you read it, I recommend that you skip the afterword by Petrus Liu. Writing in humanities-department-speak, Liu shoehorns the novel, and everything else, into a world view in which he is obviously a true believer. As other reviewers have pointed out, he sometimes rewrites the novel to do so.
Adding to my disappointment is the total confusion about the author, who ought to be proud enough to nail his or her creativity to the masthead and the endless doubts about the book's origins. Staying anonymous further dilutes the effect this book has on me. I have given it a generous 3 stars largely because I did become engrossed in the two characters of Handong and Lan Yu but the ending was a huge let down that left me wanting.
Top reviews from other countries
I was pulled in the story, wonderfull.
I cry for Yan Lu, such a good, lovely guy, i want him anytime.




