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The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories: China From the Bottom Up Paperback – May 5, 2009

by Liao Yiwu (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 234 ratings
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The Corpse Walker introduces us to regular men and women at the bottom of Chinese society, most of whom have been battered by life but have managed to retain their dignity: a professional mourner, a human trafficker, a public toilet manager, a leper, a grave robber, and a Falung Gong practitioner, among others. By asking challenging questions with respect and empathy, Liao Yiwu managed to get his subjects to talk openly and sometimes hilariously about their lives, desires, and vulnerabilities, creating a book that is an instance par excellence of what was once upon a time called “The New Journalism.” The Corpse Walker reveals a fascinating aspect of modern China, describing the lives of normal Chinese citizens in ways that constantly provoke and surprise.
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  1. Print length
    352 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Anchor
  4. Publication date
    May 5, 2009
  5. Dimensions
    5.2 x 0.78 x 7.9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0307388379
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0307388377
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Revealing. . . . full of forbearance and forgiveness. . . . Each re-created interview…captures a particular individual at a crucial time in Chinese history.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Stunning. . . . Revealing in its incidental details. . . . Liao brings us fascinating insights into the lives of all manner of workers....an addictive book.”
—Bookforum

“Reading The Corpse Walker is like walking with Liao: Even though our feet are not blistered and our bodies are not starved, in the end we are shaken and moved.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

About the Author

Liao Yiwu is a poet, novelist, and screenwriter. In 1989, he published an epic poem, "Massacre," that condemned the killings in Tiananmen Square and for which he spent four years in prison. His works include Testimonials and Report on China's Victims of Injustice. In 2003, he received a Human Rights Watch Hellman-Hammett Grant, and in 2007, he received a Freedom to Write Award from the Independent Chinese PEN Center. He lives in China.

Wen Huang is a writer and freelance journalist whose articles and translations have appeared in The Wall Street Journal Asia, the Chicago Tribune, the South China Morning Post, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Paris Review.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Anchor; Reprint edition (May 5, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0307388379
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0307388377
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 0.78 x 7.9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 234 ratings

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Liao Yiwu

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
234 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book fascinating, engrossing, and mind-opening. They describe it as readable, beautifully written, and well-done. Readers also mention the interviews allow the author to portray a narration of life during the first 60 years of communist rule. Overall, they say the book is enjoyable.

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InsightReadability
15 customers mention "Insight"15 positive0 negative

Customers find the book fascinating and engrossing. They say it provides good insights into China's hidden dimensions and gives more depth to their general education. Readers also mention the stories are lovely.

"This is a fascinating and engrossing book that provides 27 glimpses into lives that have not faired so well in China...." Read more

"...I am reading a lot of books on China and this one gives more depth to the general education I am receiving on the subject as I go...." Read more

"This is an eye-opening, morbidly fascinating, ultimately devastating glimpse in to the unbearable suffering and inhumanity of Communism, corrupt..." Read more

"...Easy to read but not dumbed down, and very informative." Read more

9 customers mention "Readability"9 positive0 negative

Customers find the book very readable, beautifully written, and well-done. They say it's an excellent narration of life during the first 60 years of communist rule.

"...This extremely well-done English translation draws upon 27 interviews from the 60 in the original Chinese book...." Read more

"This collection of short stories is easy to read and never boring...." Read more

"...Easy to read but not dumbed down, and very informative." Read more

"A very well written narration of life (lives) during the first 60 years of communist rule in China.each chapter is about one life and reveals the..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

A. Silverstone
5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing Interviews with the People at the Bottom of Society
Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2009
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This is a fascinating and engrossing book that provides 27 glimpses into lives that have not faired so well in China. The author, Liao Yiwu, is a poet who has drawn upon his own life to conduct interviews with people from the bottom of society. This extremely well-done English translation draws upon 27 interviews from the 60 in the original Chinese book. The people range from the occupation from which the book draws the title - an ancient method of transporting dead bodies for burial - to a 103 year-old Buddhist abbot to a rest room manager to a blind street erhu player. Liao is by no means an objective interviewer; he does not let the Human Trafficker (already in jail) of easily. Each chapter is titled by the role or occupation of the interviewee. These are people who have suffered under the various deprivations of revolutionary communism, the cultural revolution, or the newest era of capitalist communism. Liao brings a harsh light to many of the sufferings of the past. However, despite the accumulated human misery, this is not a depressing book. Many of the people interviewed, as the original Chinese title describes "Interviews with People from the Bottom Rung of Society", are not the wildly successful, they often have come to accept their lot in life, and they have a quiet dignity the perfuses their words. I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants to see a very different view of life in China.
10 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer Jala
5.0 out of 5 stars After a general concept through other books I can confront the reality of this one better. It is amazing to realize the resilien
Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2016
Verified Purchase
Fascinating book ! China as it its and as it was through the words and eyes of Chinese people who experienced it in its most brutal and aberrant historical way. The interview conducted by a Chinese Author, who himself had to suffer through the same historical period and can understand,
- please don't skip the foreword and introduction - makes it much closer to the reality of it all. I am reading a lot of books on China and this one gives more depth to the general education I am receiving on the subject as I go. I don't think that I would have started with this one though and would have been able to continue reading without being prepared by other books. After a general concept through other books I can confront the reality of this one better. It is amazing to realize the resilience of Chinese people and of individuals who, I had no idea, could survive under such harsh conditions even though I had heard 1st hand all kind of 2nd World War European stories. I could not put this book away. IT IS HISTORY !
3 people found this helpful
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Forgiven
4.0 out of 5 stars Very Intense Read
Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2012
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This is an eye-opening, morbidly fascinating, ultimately devastating glimpse in to the unbearable suffering and inhumanity of Communism, corrupt government and civic leaders. If you are desensitized due to hearing of the "millions killed" by Mao etc., I highly recommend this book. It is a genuine testimony of what living in a Godless society is like. Very scary, and I found myself wishing this wasn't real. I'm very glad to have read it.
4 people found this helpful
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Shirley Evans
5.0 out of 5 stars An enlightening easy read.
Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2008
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This collection of short stories is easy to read and never boring. It gives the reader a picture of life in China that is very different from the propaganda we get from the governments in China and in the United States. If anyone wants to know about a culture or a country, observing the bottom of society is much more enlightening and accurate than looking at the society from the top. I suspect that most of us, in China and the rest of the world, are much closer to the bottom of our societies than we are to the leaders of those societies. I thank the author for braving the wrath of his government to show us a glimpse of real life in the real China. It makes me think that the more different we appear to be, the more we are all the same.
44 people found this helpful
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James Bond
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, brave people tell their stories
Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2015
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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The author interviews various people, and they tell their stories. It's very eye-opening. Though I have heard stories about the chinese government, before I read this book I had little idea how horrible that government actually is. For those of you who find books like "Mao" (by Chang and Halliday) too daunting, this might be more your speed. Easy to read but not dumbed down, and very informative.
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J. A. Smith
3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2008
Verified Purchase
I wanted the book to be more than it is. It claims to contain the 'real life-stories' of some of China's social outcasts. Are these authentic, first-person accounts of life as it was suffered on the bottom rung? I wish they were. Instead they are recollections (not transcriptions) of conversations, written down after the fact of the author's meetings with his subjects, reworked by the author and others still later, then translated from Chinese into English. The voices of the characters of these tales were hard to hear, and I was left to wonder who was saying what to whom.
16 people found this helpful
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Rick Skwiot
5.0 out of 5 stars A stunning glimpse inside the hard lives of today's Chinese people
Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2013
Verified Purchase
An engrossing and powerful expose of Communist China in the words of people who have suffered its indignities, tortures and inhumanity, as rendered by a poet imprisoned for publishing a poem about the Tiananmen Square killings. Liao Yiwu's interviews with men and women from across Chinese society--from a safecracker to a village teacher to a neighborhood committee director to a former Red Guard--reveal the hardships, sorrows, depravities and generosities of a people beset by almost incredible punishments, dished out by both Man and Fate. Though not for the squeamish, Liao laces the interviews, conducted over a span of years, with tough humor and a scolding morality--such as when he tells one interviewee, "You are such a jerk." Highly recommended.
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robert bennett
5.0 out of 5 stars The Corpse Walker
Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2013
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A very well written narration of life (lives) during the first 60 years of communist rule in China.each chapter is about one life and reveals the perils of an autocratic society. The author interviews these individuals and they present a limited autobiography in response. An oriental 1984.

Would heartily recommend to anyone trying to understand the evolution that has taken place and continues today with somewhat less draconic consequences for the "counter-revolutionary"
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Marc T
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful stories, entertaining and educational all at the same time.
Reviewed in Canada on September 16, 2021
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I loved how this book was broken down into small easy to read chapters and how the stories helped understand not only some cultural differences but also the history and development of a foreign society.
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Emma
5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely recommend, fascinating insight.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 27, 2020
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Rarely if ever have I been so moved by a book. I'd never heard of corpse walkers or understood just how much suffering or challenging times were faced by ordinary people in China and the strength and courage they show. The way the book is written ( a series of interviews) is very engaging. I think this book should be studied in schools. I learned such a lot and really felt as though I connected to the people who were interviewed.
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Alena
5.0 out of 5 stars Everybody should read it
Reviewed in Germany on February 10, 2014
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The book reads very easy, English is not so complicated.
The book first seems to be shocking, on the other hand I think it gives minimum we should know about China of those years, also there are facts there about which I've never read before, and I dont know where else I could learn about them.
Also it shows how regular people take their life (or rather their fate) in China, it shows their reaction (or rather acceptance) to all the terrible occurrences. Totally different (from European) point of view.
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Brian Lait
5.0 out of 5 stars Something different about China
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 14, 2020
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A very entertaining book, with a host of well written/translated stories from a wide range of individuals from, as the book says, the bottom of Chinese life. They range from the likes of a composer, via an abbot to a former Red Guard and on to a safecracker. Each story is easy to read and is entertaining and never too long.

Many of the stories relate to the ghastly Mao's Great Leap Forward and his equally obnoxious Cultural Revolution. While the stories are fascinating, I am still left puzzled as to how so many people can blindly follow an obnoxious individual with such apparently incredible stupidity. It was the same with the Nazis and Hitler. Mind numbing.
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OneProudNana
5.0 out of 5 stars Stories of truly resilient people
Reviewed in Canada on June 2, 2016
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This book has taught me a lot about China - the China since 1949. Although not a history book, it contains a lot of historical detail, some of it horrifying, as each person talks about his or her life in turbulent or stable times. Each chapter is an interview with a person from a different walk of life and the interviews cover many different years. Some chapter titles are The Public Restroom Manager; The Feng Shui Master; The Abbot; The Former Landowner; The Grave Robber; The Village Teacher; The Tiananmen Father; and of course, the Corpse Walker. An educational read.
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