{"id":48130,"date":"2021-06-10T11:12:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T15:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=48130"},"modified":"2022-03-17T21:40:36","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T01:40:36","slug":"hard-like-water-by-yan-lianke-translated-by-carlos-rojas-in-booklist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/hard-like-water-by-yan-lianke-translated-by-carlos-rojas-in-booklist\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard Like Water by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas [in Booklist]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2021\/04\/Yan-Lianke-.-Hard-Like-Water-BookDragon-522x800.jpg\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-48058\" width=\"522\" height=\"800\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2021\/04\/Yan-Lianke-.-Hard-Like-Water-BookDragon-522x800.jpg 522w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2021\/04\/Yan-Lianke-.-Hard-Like-Water-BookDragon.jpg 618w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 522px) 100vw, 522px\" \/>In China, notes Yan Lianke\u2019s Anglophone enabler-of-choice Carlos Rojas, there exists \u201ca literary subgenre known as \u2018revolution plus love,\u2019 which was popular &#8230; in the late 1920s and 1930s.\u201d Always rather subversive, Yan (<em>Three Brothers<\/em>, 2020) transplants this subgenre into the turbulence of the Cultural Revolution (1966\u201376) to showcase \u201cthe erotics of revolutionary activism\u201d as exemplified by an impossible love story.<\/p>\n<p>Gao Aijun has spent the last 20 months of military service digging a tunnel through the mountains. While returning to his home village, he encounters Xia Hongmei sitting on the train tracks. In admiration, she asks Aijun for an article of clothing, and then, unbidden, bares her red-painted toenails and opens her pink blouse for his viewing pleasure. If not love, then certainly lust-at-first-sight ensues.<\/p>\n<p>Despite marriages (and children) with others, their all-consuming affair translates to impassioned revolutionary fervor that leads to suicide, madness, unimagined power, and horrific downfall. In between, the lovers\u2019 boldness galvanizes their radical (albeit, not quite clear) demands for change.<\/p>\n<p>Yan\u2019s signature biting wit creates another indelible work of bittersweet humor and sociopolitical&nbsp;insight.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Review<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.booklistonline.com\/Hard-Like-Water-\/pid=9745652\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">&#8220;Fiction,&#8221; <em>Booklist<\/em>, May 15, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 2001 (China), 2021 (United States)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In China, notes Yan Lianke\u2019s Anglophone enabler-of-choice Carlos Rojas, there exists \u201ca literary subgenre known as \u2018revolution plus love,\u2019 which was popular &#8230; in the late 1920s and 1930s.\u201d Always rather subversive, Yan (Three Brothers, 2020) transplants this subgenre into the turbulence of the Cultural&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,67,6,6535,66],"tags":[84,6608,6668,1573,22,128,75,10,9715,24,13,28,1575],"class_list":["post-48130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-chinese","category-fiction","category-repost","category-translation","tag-betrayal","tag-bookdragon","tag-booklist","tag-carlos-rojas","tag-civil-rights","tag-cultural-revolution-in-china","tag-death","tag-family","tag-hard-like-water","tag-historical","tag-love","tag-politics","tag-yan-lianke"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hard Like Water by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas [in Booklist] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/hard-like-water-by-yan-lianke-translated-by-carlos-rojas-in-booklist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hard Like Water by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas [in Booklist] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In China, notes Yan Lianke\u2019s Anglophone enabler-of-choice Carlos Rojas, there exists \u201ca literary subgenre known as \u2018revolution plus love,\u2019 which was popular &#8230; in the late 1920s and 1930s.\u201d Always rather subversive, Yan (Three Brothers, 2020) transplants this subgenre into the turbulence of the Cultural...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/hard-like-water-by-yan-lianke-translated-by-carlos-rojas-in-booklist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-06-10T15:12:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-18T01:40:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2021\/04\/Yan-Lianke-.-Hard-Like-Water-BookDragon.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"618\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"948\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hard Like Water by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas [in Booklist] - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/hard-like-water-by-yan-lianke-translated-by-carlos-rojas-in-booklist\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hard Like Water by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas [in Booklist] - BookDragon","og_description":"In China, notes Yan Lianke\u2019s Anglophone enabler-of-choice Carlos Rojas, there exists \u201ca literary subgenre known as \u2018revolution plus love,\u2019 which was popular &#8230; 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