A question on a point of detail, about the film 1942 vs. the novel 1942:

In the film, there is a curious scene with Chiang. As he finally comes to realise the horrific extent of the dying that has been going on, he withdraws alone to a bench in a church. His aides keep a distance, and the scene lingers on, in silence without commentary or other clues, for what seems like a long time. I have kept wondering what the intent of including that scene could have been — and now, after your message, I wonder whether it is in the novel and if any explanation is given there. (ps. to me, Mao does not seem to have been capable of such reflection-repentance –if that is what Chiang was doing– over his own actions,  so there is a difference, potentially. ).

Magnus Fiskesjö <nf42@cornell.edu>

In English translation, you can also find the following:

King, Richard, ed. Heroes of China’s Great Leap Forward: Two Stories. U Hawaii press, 2009.

With an introduction, it puts Li Zhun’s “A Brief Biography of Li Shuangshuang” (1960) and Zhang Yigong’s “The Story of the Criminal Li Tongzhong” (1980) side by side. The former also has a film version (1962).

–Chaohua Wang <sm.ca.wangchaohua@gmail.com>

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With regard to Claire Conceison’s requests for suggestions of how to translate the title 星期八, I propose “Sunderday.”

Cindy Carter <carter@paper-republic.org>

Yu Hua´s Huozhe (活着) also has a section devoted to the famine and the steel making craze.

Anne Wedell-Wedellsborg <annewedell@gmail.com>
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Not “novelistic” but in case of interest to the list, Yu Rongjun (Nick Yu), china’s most prolific playwright with more than 50 plays to his credit, wrote a play called 星期八 (best translation of this wonderful title is still under discussion, feel free to make suggestions!) in which the great famine figures prominently, which kept it from being staged in china two years ago. nick gave me the script at that time so that one of my duke students in my play translation class could translate a scene from it for her class project, and another of my former students is currently translating the full script. if anyone would like to read the chinese script, please let me know and i will get permission from nick and pass it on to you.

best, claire conceison <claire.conceison@duke.edu>

I remember reading Yang Xianhui’s 杨显惠 2007 book Dingxi gu’eryuan jishi 定西孤儿院纪事 (The Dingxi Orphanage Chronichles), a fictionalized memoir which also narrates the stories of a group of orphans growing up in Gansu in the years of the GLP.

Paolo Magagnin <paolo.magagnin@unive.it>

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I am currently reading Yan Geling’s “The Ninth Widow” (第九个寡女), about a rural woman who hides her landowner father-in-law through the campaigns of the 50’s and 60’s. Although it is not entirely about the famine, there are many pages devoted to it.

Judy Amory (jmamory@post.harvard.edu)

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In addition to the historical inaccuracy of the word “reformers” in Rojas’s translation that Jeremy Brown pointed out in his review, I would also like to question the word “Author” that Rojas has chosen instead of “Writer” for the character named Zuojia 作家. With the exception of the character the Child, all other characters in The Four Books are named after their previous professions — the Scholar, the Musician, etc.. “Author” is not a profession, but “Writer” is, and that is exactly the profession of the character Zuojia 作家 in his former life, before the reform-labor camp.

I would also like to bring list members’ attention to another collection of short stories by Yang Xianhui 楊顯惠, Dingxi gueryuan jishi 定西孤兒院紀事. This collection is about the Great Famine, and like Jiabiangou jishi 夾邊溝紀事, the stories are also based on Yang’s investigations and interviews of survivors.

Lingchei Letty Chen <llchen@wustl.edu>

An important work of fiction/reportage (a dozen novellas, though not a full-fledged novel) that discusses the famine is Yang Xianhui’s 杨显惠 “Chronicles of Jiabiangou” (夹边沟记事). While the focus is on an infamous reeducation through labor camp in Gansu reserved for “rightist,” the famine plays a big role in all the stories.

Sebastian Veg <sveg@cefc.com.hk>

Dear Colleagues

An early full-length novel on the Great Leap is Zhiliang’s [王] 智量’s Hungry Mountain Village 饥饿的山村. Wang Zhiliang was a Professor at East China Normal University, and his novel was first serialized in a newspaper in Malaysia. A partial translation can be found in Renditions 68, with other fiction and poetry from the Great Leap period and later retrospectives.

Richard King <rking@uvic.ca>

I am reading Yan Lianke’s The Four Books, which is a novelistic treatment of the Great Leap famine. I wonder if list members know of any other full-novel treatments of this event?

Thanks

Ian Johnson <iandjohnson@gmail.com>