Product Description

This political satire by one of China's most distinguished authors has been banned in its native land for its depiction of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) during the Cultural Revolution. Set in 1967, at the peak of the Mao cult, when 'Serve the People' was one of the great man's most famous slogans, it tells the story of the bored wife of a military commander who artfully seduces a peasant soldier. When the lovers discover that the sacrilegious act of breaking a statue of Mao deliciously increases their desire, they compete to see who can destroy the most sacred icons of their Great Leader - smashing the commander's beloved Mao icons, ripping up the "Little Red Book" or defacing the Great Helmsman's epigrams. Defacing an image of Mao was punishable by death during the Cultural Revolution. Yan Lianke tramples on the most sacred taboos of the army, the revolution, sexuality and political etiquette. As a subversive critique of official corruption, leadership hypocrisy and the insanity of the Cultural Revolution, his book has a huge cult following in China.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #395418 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Independent on Sunday
A very funny, very sexy satire.

Big Issue, review
Witty and engaging read

Independent on Sunday
A very funny, very sexy satire'

Customer Reviews

provocative
A very interesting satire on totalitarian society; the use of sex as a staricial device is hallowed in tradition but worka well in this context. One can see well why it was banned by the Chinese authorities.

Comedy in the Cultural Revolution
This is a fine read, gently amusing and quietly satirical.

Lianke's novel chronicles the way in which a young, prize-winning soldier is inadvertantly drawn into an affair with the Deputy Commander's wife after repeatedly being told that to serve the Deputy Commander and his wife is to 'serve the people' - the highest Communist accolade. The manipulation and corruption of the Maoist ideological slogans and imagery continues in tandem with the affair, both tarnishing the young soldier's belief in his hitherto blemish-free record and simultaneously opening his eyes to love and a world beyond their Communist confines.

A sparingly drawn novel, this is both engaging and funny. It's a subtle but beautiful satire and refreshingly ungratuitous. Well-worth a look.

The Propaganda Department is not impressed.
Written around 2005 this brisk and enjoyable novel is set during the Cultural Revolution. It traces a doomed love match involving a general orderly, whose duties - in addition to including tending the vegetable patch and cooking daily meals - also entail satisfying the sexual demands of his most illustrious boss' wife. As he is regularly reminded, to serve the General and his wife in whatever way is to 'serve the people'.
He performs all manner of delectable things for her, and one aspect of this is a felt need to demonstrate his unmitigated love. She has identical feelings, and it is this which has most likely led to the scorn of the PRC authorities, as they read the author's portrayal of the lovebirds' willful desecration of everything Mao - from the Little Red Book to cherished quotes and onto the utter destruction of a plaster bust secreted away in clothing.
The book's satire on the period which it deals with springs from the dual lives of the two central protagonists. Apart from the explicit rampage both had earlier lives - the wife with the sexually impotent General for a husband, and the orderly dissatisfied with the soulless spouse he engaged in his home province to satisfy a dying relative's last wishes. Later - once the ill-fated couple's cover has been blown - it comes as a surprise for him to discover that a comrade is in a not dissimilar pickle. 'Serve the People' becomes no less a parrotted cue to disregard the sentiment and reflect upon oneself.