Five Paradoxes of Modernity
Antoine Compagnon author Franklin Philip translator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Columbia University Press
Published:8th Sep '94
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
From the preeminent writer of Taiwanese nativist fiction and the leading translator of Chinese literature come these poignant accounts of everyday life in rural and small-town Taiwan. Huang is frequently cited as one of the most original and gifted storytellers in the Chinese language, and these selections reveal his genius. In "The Two Sign Painters," TV reporters ambush two young workers from the country taking a break atop a twenty-four-story building. "His Son's Big Doll" introduces the tortured soul inside a walking advertisement, and in "Xiaoqi's Cap" a dissatisfied pressure-cooker salesman is fascinated by a young schoolgirl.Huang's characters -- generally the uneducated and disadvantaged who must cope with assaults on their traditionalism, hostility from their urban brethren and, of course, the debilitating effects of poverty -- come to life in all their human uniqueness, free from idealization.
"The literary master whom Huang seems most to resemble is Anton Chekhov. Huang portrays his characters with the same kind of compassionate objectivity, gentle humor, and sharp poignancy. His style is pithy, direct and clear... the clash between traditional ways and urban exigencies, the desire to fit in, the need to save face and the difficulty of making a living without losing one's self-respect are problems these characters confront every day, problems that will strike a chord with readers everywhere." -- Merle Rubin, Los Angeles Times Book Review (Best Books of 2001) "The nine original stories... and Howard Goldblatt's sensitive translations of them are now poignant classics that do credit to David Der-wei Wang's new Modern Chinese Literature form Taiwan series... Huang's fertile imagination moves amid squatters, grotesques, misfits, oddballs -- people with lifestyles characteristic of a poor, developing country prematurely unsettled by urbanization, world politics, and globalization... The characters'guilt, despair, and defiant pride are universal, generally revealed in subtle but startling ways." -- World Literature Today
ISBN: 9780231075770
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
158 pages