The Rice Sprout Song: A Novel of Modern ChinaThe first of Eileen Chang's novels to be written in English, The Rice-Sprout Song portrays the horror and absurdity that the land-reform movement brings to a southern village in China during the early 1950s. Contrary to the hopes of the peasants in this story, the redistribution of land does not mean an end to hunger. Man-made and natural disasters bring about the threat of famine, while China's involvement in the Korean War further deepens the peasants' misery. Chang's chilling depiction of the peasants' desperate attempts to survive both the impending famine and government abuse makes for spellbinding reading. Her critique of communism rewrites the land-reform discourse at the same time it lays bare the volatile relations between politics and literature. |
Contents
Section 1 | 1 |
Section 2 | 6 |
Section 3 | 11 |
Section 4 | 26 |
Section 5 | 42 |
Section 6 | 57 |
Section 7 | 60 |
Section 8 | 83 |
Section 11 | 109 |
Section 12 | 116 |
Section 13 | 124 |
Section 14 | 141 |
Section 15 | 148 |
Section 16 | 162 |
Section 17 | 165 |
Section 18 | 171 |
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Common terms and phrases
Ai-yah arms asked bamboo basket Beckon Big Aunt Big Uncle Big Uncle's bowl bride cakes child Chinese Chou Village Chow clothes cold Communist Comrade Fei Comrade Wong courtyard dark daughter-in-law District Public Office door Eileen Chang eyes face farmers felt fire flat-pole front girl gruel hand head heard Ho Ping Hong Kong Hu Shi hunger husband kan pu knew Ku's Land Reform laughed live look Mao Dun married Moon Scent mother never night novel old couple old woman padded jacket peasants Pockmark political pot rice rice Rice-Sprout Song Root's seemed Shah Ming Shanghai shouted side Sister-in-Law Gold Root sitting smiling soldiers stay stood story T'an talk tell temple things thought told took town turned walked whispered wife Wong's writer Zhang Ailing