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An unforgettable portrait of the tectonic shifts happening in rural China—told through the microcosm of one small town
After a decade away from her ancestral family village, during which she became a writer and literary scholar in Beijing, Liang Hong started visiting her rural hometown in landlocked Hebei province. What she found was an extended family torn apart by the seismic changes in Chinese society, and a village hollowed-out by emigration, neglect, and environmental despoliation. Combining family memoir, literary observation, and social commentary, Liang’s by turns moving and shocking account became a bestselling book in China and brought her fame.
Across China, many saw in Liang’s remarkable and vivid interviews with family members and childhood acquaintances a mirror of their own families, and her observations about the way the greatest rural-to-urban migration of modern times has twisted the country resonated deeply. China in One Village tells the story of contemporary China through one clear-eyed observer, one family, and one village.
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"An engaging read, with lively first-person narratives … it is in these stories that the universality of people's hopes, fears and frustrations really shines through."
- New Internationalist -
"A lucid, accessible account of rural Chinese life, its stories worth far more than the statistics usually invoked in accounts of the profound change that has swept China."
- Jonathan Chatwin, South China Morning Post -
"A true literary sensation ... [Liang] pulls no punches."
- Ian Johnson, New York Times -
"Stunningly insightful ... What makes Liang’s study so compelling is the way in which it offers a glimpse of a world in which personal problems ... exist on the same level as broader social and political problems"
- Mark Rappolt, ArtReview -
"Overburdened grandparents, children who don’t see their parents, workers straining to make a living in unwelcoming cities: Liang Hong's book, "China in One Village" (tr. Emily Goedde), gives a platform for these voices from the countryside."
- Mike Cormack, SupChina -
"The immediacy of China in One Village brings to life how China is changing in a way that more academic works cannot do."
- rs21 -
"Fair-minded and sanguine ... one of the clearest narrative accounts of China’s countryside available in English."
- Amy Hawkins, Times Literary Supplement
Author: Liang Hong
Publisher: Verso
ISBN: 9781839761775
Format: Hardback
Page count: 320 Pages
Subjects: China Studies