The story that he told is also Chinese, one based on his experience from 1971 to 1974 when he and three other teenage boys from professional urban families were sent for political "re-education" to a remote peasant village as part of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution. This is a slender but rich fable about two young friends sent to a rural village as part of a Chinese re-education program, their relationship with the pretty seamstress of the title, and how all their minds are set free by a cache of great Western novels that they manage to obtain. It's semi-autobiographical and the portrayal of the insanity of Maoist China is as devastating as the author's love of literature is moving. But the best aspect of the book is little remarked in the reviews--it is that the liberation that writers like Balzac, Flaubert, Romain Rolland and company bring to these three is a two-edged sword, for these are authors who celebrate an exaggerated and anti-social individualism and their influence drives the characters not just to a healthy and life-affirming recognition of the human spirit but to a set of selfish and hollow personal tragedies. The lesson, which folks understandably don't want to hear, is that the answer to the disorder of Chinese Communism does not lie in France. (Reviewed:) Grade: (B+) Tweet Websites:-EXCERPT: First Chapter of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress -PROFILE : Artistic Odyssey: Film to Fiction to Film (ALAN RIDING, 7/27/05, NY Times) -READING GROUP GUIDE: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress -AUDIO: Readers' Review: Dai Sijie's "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" (Diane Rehm Show, 4/16/03, NPR) -REVIEW: of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie, Translated by Ina Rilke (Brooke Allen, NY Times Book Review)) -REVIEW: of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Lisa Darnell, The Guardian) -REVIEW: of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Complete Review) -REVIEW: of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Ruth Padel, Daily Telegraph) -REVIEW: of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (David Wiegand, SF Chronicle) -REVIEW: of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Christine Loh, Asian Review of Books) -REVIEW: of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (SONIA GOMEZ, The Stranger) -REVIEW: of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Michael E. Daniel , News Weekly) -REVIEW: of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Clare Lochary, The Hoya) -REVIEW: of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress ( -REVIEW: of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress ( -REVIEW: of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress ( -REVIEW: of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress ( -REVIEW: of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress ( -REVIEW: of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress ( -REVIEW: of Mr. Muo's Travelling Couch by Dai Sijie (Complete Review) -REVIEW: of Mr. Muo's Travelling Couch (CHRISTOPHER ATAMIAN, NY Times Book Review) FILM: -FILMOGRAPHY: Dai Sijie (Imdb.com) -INFO: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Xiao cai feng) (Imdb.com) -REVIEW ARCHIVES: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Imdb.com) -REVIEW ARCHIVES: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (MetaCritic) -REVIEW: of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times) -REVIEW: of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (James Berardinelli, Reel Views) -REVIEW: of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (A.O. Scott, NY Times) Book-related and General Links: |
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