Red Guard Fantasies and Other Stories »

Shouhua Qi is Associate Professor of English at Western Connecticut State University. A specialist in translating the novels of Thomas Hardy, he came to the U.S. as a graduate student in 1989 and received his Ph.D. in English from Illinois State University. His writings have appeared in "Feminist Studies" and "AMBIT."

A visit to the "Twilight Zone" of China, where morality plays challenge tradition and modernity.

Publishers Weekly

Modern China is on full display in this mixed bag of 14 stories in which memories of the Cultural Revolution are interwoven with the (mostly shallow) highs of freewheeling capitalism. Qi touches on a wide array of Chinese cultural touchstones and moments in the country's tumultuous recent history, but loose narrative structure and thin characters diminish most stories' resonance. "Teacher Yu" charts the punishment and expulsion of a Nanjing language teacher for substituting the poetry of Tu Fu for the teachings from the Little Red Book (Qi's father suffered a similar fate), while "Love Me, Love My Dog," delights in the absurdity of wealthy housewife lapdog culture. Mayor Fagui Chen, the protagonist of "Buddha's Feet," exemplifies ambition, but an ironic turn abruptly ends his quick rise. "The Test orThe Little Rice Wine Pot," examines China's preference for boys and the resulting abandonment, adoption and abortion. Two economical stories, "How Was Your Dance Today?" and "The Swallow: Not Exactly an Interlude" enter a more lyrical realm. Readers looking for an intro to post Cultural Revolution Chinese fiction would do better to turn to Geling Yan or the late Wang Xiaobo. (Apr.)