Chinese Fiction, Politics & Social Issues - Fiction, Family & Friendship - Fiction, Love & Relationships - Fiction

Camel Xiangzi

Name: Camel Xiangzi
Author: She Lao
ISBN: 9780253202758

by She Lao

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Overview

Although its serial publication was interrupted by the War of Resistance against Japan in 1937, Camel Xiangzi was not destined to become another casualty of war. So powerful was Lao She's vivid characterization of a rickshaw boy that the work resurfaced in book form and was enthusiastically received. This new, accurate, and readable translation features an afterword by the author as well as a preface by Hu Jieqing, Lao She's widow. The novel concerns the honest and industrious Xiangzi, who is a victim of the cruel oppression common among the poor in old Beijing. Young, strong, and self-confident, Xiangzi wants nothing more than to save enough money to buy a rickshaw of his own, rather than continue to be exploited by the bullies from whom he must rent his primitive vehicle. Xiangzi begins to build a decent life for himself when his wife helps him buy a rickshaw. But his fate takes a tragic turn when she dies and he is forced to sell the rickshaw to pay off debts. A poignant depiction of a human soul disintegrating in the face of personal misery and social corruption, Camel Xiangzi, with its revolutionary overtones, is a classic of modern China.