{"id":15545,"date":"2011-12-08T08:32:06","date_gmt":"2011-12-08T13:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=15545"},"modified":"2014-05-16T23:03:39","modified_gmt":"2014-05-17T03:03:39","slug":"china-in-ten-words-by-yu-hua-translated-by-allan-h-barr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/china-in-ten-words-by-yu-hua-translated-by-allan-h-barr\/","title":{"rendered":"China in Ten Words by Yu Hua, translated by Allan H. Barr"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"China<\/a>Yu Hua is a grand master of subversion. Just as his title \u2013 China In Ten Words<\/em> \u2013 promises, Yu \u201ccompress[es] the endless chatter of China today into ten simple words … to finally clear a path through the social complexities and staggering contrasts of contemporary China.\u201d Through laconic reduction, Yu exposes a China far beyond current Western assumptions based on adoptable baby girls, fears about Chinese \u00fcberstudents out-performing America\u2019s own, and the looming US-to-China foreign debt.<\/p>\n

Yu is well known for his internationally award-winning novels \u2013 including To Live<\/a><\/em> (which became a lush Zhang Yimou film), Chronicle of a Blood Merchant<\/a><\/em>, and Brothers<\/a><\/em> \u2013 but China in Ten Words<\/em> is his first nonfiction work in English translation.\u00a0\u201cIn the thirty odd years since Mao\u2019s death China has fashioned an astonishing economic miracle,\u201d writes Yu from his insider\u2019s vantage point, \u201cbut the price it has paid is even more astounding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here, he combines history, sociopolitical analysis, economic observations, with his own personal experiences to illustrate for readers the contrast between the deprivation that defined the Cultural Revolution of his youth and the extravagance of contemporary China.<\/p>\n

Yu begins almost nostalgically with \u201cthe first words [he] mastered\u201d: \u201cthe people.\u201d During Mao\u2019s rule, \u201cthe people\u201d projected power and gravitas, from Mao\u2019s directive to \u201c\u2018serve the people,\u2019\u201d to the People\u2019s Republic of China, to the country\u2019s most important newspaper, People\u2019s Daily<\/em>. Three decades later, Yu muses, \u201cI can\u2019t think of another expression in the modern Chinese language that is such an anomaly \u2013 ubiquitous yet somehow invisible.\u201d In a new China \u201cwhere money is king,\u201d \u2018the people\u2019 have been \u201cdenuded of meaning by Chinese realities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet even more than \u2018the people,\u2019 \u201cthe word that has lost the most value the fastest during the last thirty years … would surely have to be \u2018leader,\u2019\u201d Yu\u2019s word #2. \u201cMany years after the 1976 death of a genuine leader\u201d \u2013 Chairman Mao \u2013 today\u2019s Chinese are in the midst of cutthroat competition for mere survival: \u201cthe strong prey on the weak, people enrich themselves through brute force and deception, and the meek and humble suffer while the bold and unscrupulous flourish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yu balances such vehemence with three chapters of personal reflection on \u201creading\u201d (word #3), \u201cwriting\u201d (word #4), and \u201cLu Xun\u201d (word #5). In \u201creading,\u201d Yu recalls the oppressive scarcity of books during the Cultural Revolution only to have books become worth less than wastepaper three decades later.<\/p>\n

In \u201cwriting,\u201d he shares some of his own literary history, from his early career as a small-town dentist to his aspirations toward \u201ca loafer\u2019s life in the cultural center\u201d as a writer; he laughs off the critical praise he eventually receives for his \u201cplain narrative language\u201d as little more than the result of his untrained, limited vocabulary.<\/p>\n

Yu confesses to his youthful disrespect toward China\u2019s most influential 20th-century prose writer, Lu Xun, who was revered then reduced to a mere \u201ccatchphrase.\u201d As a mature, acclaimed author himself, Yu is finally able to recognize and reclaim Lu Xun\u2019s literary potency.<\/p>\n

Continuing on through the second half of his 10 words, Yu\u2019s sharp gaze proves unrelenting. He traces the evolving violence of \u201crevolution\u201d (word #6) over a span of 30 years, and examines the resulting \u201cdisparity\u201d (word #7) between those who absconded with ill-gotten luxuries and those who remain trapped in \u201cdesolate ruins.\u201d He captures the ruthless determination of \u201cgrassroots\u201d (word #8) citizens, \u201cwho have nothing to lose, since they began with nothing at all,\u201d who don\u2019t allow concerns about morality or legality to obstruct their unwavering path toward financial gains.<\/p>\n

When such ends seem to justify any means \u2013 methods employed can be described by words such as \u201ccopycat\u201d (#9) and \u201cbamboozle\u201d (#10) \u2013 then \u201cHarvard Communications\u201d can use President Obama to sell their \u201cBlockberry Whirlwind 9500,\u201d and the penthouse allegedly leased by Bill Gates during the Beijing Olympics will \u201cconvert an obscure housing development into an apartment complex famous all over the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chapter by chapter, word by word, Yu drolly pulls off the proverbial white gloves, exposing one finger at a time until the guilty hands are stripped bare. Unblinking, Yu muses at the ‘you-can\u2019t-make-this-stuff-up’ reality that is today\u2019s China: \u201cHere, where everything is tinged with the mysterious logic of absurdist fiction, Kafka or Borges might feel quite at home.\u201d As a consummate author, Yu contemplates \u201cwrit[ing] such a story myself. Bamboozletown might be its title.\u201d<\/p>\n

Review<\/strong>: Christian Science Monitor, December 8, 2011<\/a><\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2011 (United States)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yu Hua is a grand master of subversion. Just as his title \u2013 China In Ten Words \u2013 promises, Yu \u201ccompress[es] the endless chatter of China today into ten simple words … to finally clear a path through the social complexities and staggering contrasts of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,67,107,20,66],"tags":[780,6608,2330,59,128,2331,10,24,51,28,364,2329],"class_list":["post-15545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-chinese","category-memoir","category-nonfiction","category-translation","tag-allan-h-barr","tag-bookdragon","tag-china-in-ten-words","tag-cultural-exploration","tag-cultural-revolution-in-china","tag-economics","tag-family","tag-historical","tag-identity","tag-politics","tag-sociology","tag-yu-hua"],"yoast_head":"\nChina in Ten Words by Yu Hua, translated by Allan H. 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