Jia Pingwa – författare

When originally published in 1993, Ruined City (Fei Du) was promptly banned by China's State Publishing Administration, ostensibly for its explicit sexual content. Since then, award-winning author Jia Pingwa's vivid portrayal of contemporary China's social and economic transformation has become a classic, viewed by critics and scholars of Chinese literature as one of the most important novels of the twentieth century. Howard Goldblatt's deft translation now gives English-speaking readers their first chance to enjoy this masterpiece of social satire by one of China's most provocative writers.While eroticism, exoticism, and esoteric minutiae - the ""pornography"" that earned the opprobrium of Chinese officials - pervade Ruined City, this tale of a famous contemporary writer's sexual and legal imbroglios is an incisive portrait of politics and culture in a rapidly changing China. In a narrative that ranges from political allegory to parody, Jia Pingwa tracks his antihero Zhuang Zhidie through progressively more involved and inevitably disappointing sexual liaisons. Set in a modern metropolis rife with power politics, corruption, and capitalist schemes, the novel evokes an unrequited romantic longing for China's premodern, rural past, even as unfolding events caution against the trap of nostalgia. Amid comedy and chaos, the author subtly injects his concerns about the place of intellectual seriousness, censorship, and artistic integrity in the changing conditions of Chinese society.Rich with detailed description and vivid imagery, Ruined City transports readers into a world abounding with the absurdities and harshness of modern life.

From one of China's foremost authors, Jia Pingwa's Happy Dreams is a powerful depiction of life in industrializing contemporary China, in all its humor and pathos, as seen through the eyes of Happy Liu, a charming and clever rural laborer who leaves his home for the gritty, harsh streets of Xi'an in search of better life.After a disastrous end to a relationship, Hawa "Happy" Liu embarks on a quest to find the recipient of his donated kidney and a life that lives up to his self-given moniker. Traveling from his rural home in Freshwind to the city of Xi'an, Happy brings only an eternally positive attitude, his devoted best friend Wufu, and a pair of high-heeled women's shoes he hopes to fill with the love of his life.In Xi'an, Happy and Wufu find jobs as trash pickers sorting through the city's filth, but Happy refuses to be deterred by inauspicious beginnings. In his eyes, dusty birds become phoenixes, the streets become rivers, and life is what you make of it. When he meets the beautiful Yichun, he imagines she is the one to fill the shoes and his Cinderella-esque dream. But when the harsh city conditions and the crush of societal inequalities take the life of his friend and shake Happy to his soul, he'll need more than just his unrelenting optimism to hold on to the belief that something better is possible.

1966, China is on the cusp of a decade of upheaval, and the furnaces of Old Kiln have never been this cold. The village’s once-famed ceramics production has almost ground to a halt. Only ancient grudges smoulder beneath its poverty-stricken streets, never forgotten by the two families that preside over the village. Between them stands the adopted Inkcap, whose mysterious origins leave him unloved and barely tolerated.When the faraway capital demands a purer party line, the directive trickles down to this hinterland and revolutionary factions form. Clashing visions for a new future unravel the tight-knit community along clan lines.

Morning brings new and old faces to Hai Ruo’s teashop. The premium leaves she sells to Xijing’s high society keep the doors open, however it’s her Sisterhood – a dozen glamorous confidants who visit daily to share tales of love, loss and professional success – that really keeps the shop running.From a returning Russian expat to a hotpot tycoon, they epitomise the new possibilities of this ancient metropolis. The group's rise in business and society is sometimes helped by Yi Guang, a noted writer with his own artistic demons. But with every deal struck and official bribed, a debt accumulates, jeopardising a hard-won but brittle autonomy.The gates of Hai’s establishment help keep the choking smog of the city at bay, and inside she provides a sanctuary for the friends to express their true selves. If only the tea leaves held all the answers. Instead, it’s up to the sisters to discover how far their bonds will really hold.

Morning brings new and old faces to Hai Ruo’s teashop. The premium leaves she sells to Xijing’s high society keep the doors open, however it’s her Sisterhood – a dozen glamorous confidants who visit daily to share tales of love, loss and professional success – that really keeps the shop running.From a returning Russian expat to a hotpot tycoon, they epitomise the new possibilities of this ancient metropolis. The group's rise in business and society is sometimes helped by Yi Guang, a noted writer with his own artistic demons. But with every deal struck and official bribed, a debt accumulates, jeopardising a hard-won but brittle autonomy.The gates of Hai’s establishment help keep the choking smog of the city at bay, and inside she provides a sanctuary for the friends to express their true selves. If only the tea leaves held all the answers. Instead, it’s up to the sisters to discover how far their bonds will really hold.

Despite her humble rural beginnings, Butterfly regards herself as a sophisticated young woman. So, when offered a lucrative job in the city, she jumps at the chance.But instead of being given work, she is trafficked and sold to Bright Black, a desperate man from a poor mountain village.Trapped in Bright’s cave home with her new “husband”, she plans her escape… not so easily done in this isolated and remote village where she is watched day and night.Will her tenacity and free spirit survive, or will she be broken?

In a cave high in the ageless mountains of China's desolate interior, an ancient funeral singer awaits the end. From his deathbed he gives voice to the generations of villagers to whom he devoted his life's work, and four all-too-human souls whose struggles defined an era. A soldier, a peasant, a revolutionary and a politician. When revolt and reform take hold of the wartorn plains, all play their debased roles in the mythic cycle of avarice, vengeance and suffering. As his four tragedies interweave, the cracked lips of the dying sage conjure a stark vision: a retelling of the forging of the People's Republic from turbulent birth to absurd reversal whispered from its uncharted margins.

"Xia Feng tyckte inte om att Xia Tianzhi spelade opera. Dels hördes det överallt i byn, dels skrällde det och levde om så att han inte kunde sova. Men Bai Xue försvarade sin svärfar och sa att musiken hjälpte henne att driva bort ledan ur hjärtat när hon nu bara låg till sängs hela dagarna och inte hade något att göra. Det otroliga var att flickebarnet slutade gråta varenda gång hon hörde operamusiken och istället låg blickstilla med de små ögonen uppspärrade. Familjen Xias katt, som tassade runt på takpannorna, hoppade lätt som ett litet moln ner på gårdsplanen och spetsade öronen. Rosornas kronblad slog ut i lager efter lager. Och om Laiyun inte var i Sjumilaklyftan satte hon sig på bakhasorna så fort högtalarna gick igång och ylade högt i takt med musiken." Den lilla fattiga byn Qingfengjie är navet i Jia Pingwas stora roman. Här bryts gammal bondekultur mot modern livsstil och den traditionella moralen står sig slätt när den kapitalistiska ekonomin gör sitt intåg. För de unga är det inte längre opera och odling som lockar utan popmusik och lönearbete. Operasångerskan Bai Xue gifter sig med Xia Feng, som vill att hon ska lägga sången på hyllan och flytta med honom in till staden. Medan deras äktenskap långsamt går i kras kämpar byns tjänstemän desperat för att hålla liv i Qingfengjie och reda ut byns trassliga affärer. De äldre stretar emot och vill att allt ska vara som förr. Och över dem alla vakar Yinsheng, den underlige pojken med de mystiska anfallen, som förgäves drömmer om en kvinna han aldrig kan få. Opera har belönats med Drömmar om röda gemak-priset (2006) och Mao Dun-priset (2008), och betraktas av många som Jia Pingwas främsta verk, en sorgesång över den kinesiska landsbygden.