1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910826807803321

Autore

Li Rui <1950->

Titolo

Trees without wind : a novel / / Li Rui ; translated by John Balcom

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York : , : Columbia University Press, , 2013

©2013

ISBN

0-231-53104-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (205 p.)

Collana

Weatherhead Books on Asia

Disciplina

895.1352

Soggetti

Abnormalities, Human

Electronic books

LITERARY CRITICISM / General

China History Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976 Fiction

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. Trees Without Wind: Anatomy of a Revolution -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- 6 -- 7 -- 8 -- 9 -- 10 -- 11 -- 12 -- 13 -- 14 -- 15 -- 16 -- 17 -- 18 -- 19 -- 20 -- 21 -- 22 -- 23 -- 24 -- 25 -- 26 -- 27 -- 28 -- 29 -- 30 -- 31 -- 32 -- 33 -- 34 -- 35 -- 36 -- 37 -- 38 -- 39 -- 40 -- 41 -- 42 -- 43 -- 44 -- 45 -- 46 -- 47 -- 48 -- 49 -- 50 -- 51 -- 52 -- 53 -- 54 -- 55 -- 56 -- 57 -- 58 -- 59 -- 60 -- 61 -- 62 -- 63 -- Backmatter

Sommario/riassunto

Unfolding in the tense years of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), Trees Without Wind takes place in a remote Shanxi village in which a rare affliction has left the residents physically stunted. Director Liu, an older revolutionary and local commune head, becomes embroiled in a power struggle with Zhang Weiguo, a young ideologue who believes he is the model of a true revolutionary. Complicating matters is a woman named Nuanyu, who, like Zhang Weiguo and Director Liu, is an outsider untouched by the village's disease. "Wedded" to all of the male villagers, Nuanyu lives a polyandrous lifestyle based on necessity and at odds with the puritanical idealism of the Cultural Revolution. The deformed villagers, representing the manipulated masses of China, become pawns in the Party representatives' factional infighting.



Director Liu and Zhang Weiguo's explosive tug-of-war is part of a larger battle among politics, self-interest, and passion gripping a world undone by ideological extremism. A collectively told narrative powered by distinctive subjectivities, Trees Without Wind is a milestone in the fictional treatment of a horrific event.