Ruined City: A Novel (Chinese Literature Today Vol. 5)

While eroticism, exoticism, & esoteric minutiae—the “pornography” that earned the opprobrium of Chinese officials—pervade Ruined City, this tale of a famous contemporary writer’s sexual & legal imbroglios is an incisive portrait of politics & culture in a rapidly changing China. In a narrative that ranges from political allegory to parody, Jia Pingwa tracks his antihero Zhuang Zhidie through progressively more involved & inevitably disappointing sexual liaisons. Set in a modern metropolis rife with power politics, corruption, & capitalist schemes, the novel evokes an unrequited romantic longing for China’s premodern, rural past, even as unfolding events caution against the trap of nostalgia. Amid comedy & chaos, Jia subtly injects his concerns about the place of intellectual seriousness, censorship, & artistic integrity in the changing conditions of Chinese society. 

Rich with detailed description & vivid imagery, the novel transports readers into a world abounding with the absurdities & harshness of modern life. 

Jia Pingwa: Chinese novelist/short story writer. Novels: Shang State, White Night, I Am a Farmer, & Shaanxi Opera, which won the Mao Dun Literature Prize. 

Howard Goldblatt: award-winning translator of Chinese literature