Wang in Love and Bondage: Three Novellas by Wang Xiaobo

By Wang Xiaobo

Book Overview

Acclaimed as one of the most important writers of twentieth-century China, the late Wang Xiaobo (1952-1997) is known for his frank, often antic treatment of sex and his gift for reveling in human absurdity and provoking laughter from horror. Comprised of three novellas, "The Golden Age," "East Palace, West Palace," and "2015," this book is the first English translation of his work.

"East Palace, West Palace," one of the first contemporary Chinese fictional works dealing with male homosexuality, is an S/M-oriented love story between a masochistic gay writer and a handsome policeman unaware of his sadistic tendencies. In "The Golden Age," for which Wang Xiaobo is perhaps best known, the protagonist, Wang Er (literally, Wang number two) is a city student sent to the countryside for rustification during the Cultural Revolution. There he meets a lovely young doctor whom he encourages to live up to her undeserved reputation as "damaged goods." In "2015," another Wang Er, after being put into a labor camp for practicing painting without a license, becomes the love object of a sadistic policewoman.

Although the sexual and social roles of Wang Xiaobo's characters intertwine, sexuality functions not as protest but as an absurd metaphor for state power and the voluntary, even enthusiastic, collaboration of those subject to it. Full of deadpan humor and oddball sex, Wang Xiaobo's novellas allow us to see, through a subtly shifting kaleidoscope, scenes from the elaborate dance the individual must do with the state in twentieth-century China.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0791470652
• ISBN13: 9780791470657
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Length: 155 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.2" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Excellent: Clever, Entertaining, Sexy

I'm not sure why I purchased this book, as I had certainly never heard of Wang Xiabao before. Perhaps I was book surfing on this or another site and it caught my curiosity. At any rate, I don't enjoy reviews which over analyze or intelectualize that which is being reviewed,so I'll make this simple: For me, a great story or novel is one which I read slowly, savoring every word because I don't want it to end,something I want to read more than once, even to the point of knowing certain sections from memory because it is so good. This book meets that criteria all the way; I hope that more of his writing will be translated into english.

a great novelist discovered

A poet tells you about himself and a novelist brings knowledge of the world. In Wang's writings we see the absurdity in China under the totalitarian rule from a compeletly different angle - yet how enlightening it is! - that power by its masochist nature has found its sadist victims. Reading through these stories marked by Wang's now famous witty and satire tone, you laugh with heavy sighs yet at same time, strangely, don't feel depressed. Other than the value of love itself Wang has tried to explore in stories like Golden Age, an important reason for this is that he has shown you a way to understand absurdity in life, by his super intelligence and the power of his calm and acute observation. As Kundera once noted: "All we can do in the face of that ineluctable defeat called life is to try to understand it. That is the raison d'être of the art of the novel." So when we read about Chen Qingyang's laments and her sudden epiphany of "so-called truth" - "The truth is that you can't wake up. That was the moment she finnaly figured out what the world was made of; and the next moment she made up her mind: she stepped forward to accept the torment. She felt unusually happy." Don't we also feel unusually sad and happy at same time? Sad at seeing "that ineluctable defeat" part of life, happy at the final understanding of the absurdity made of her living. That's the enjoyment of reading a good novel. Hats off to the great translation done by Zhang and Sommers. Wang deserves such a first-class English version for his wonderful work.

Wonderful recreation of Wang's masterpieces

Congratulations to Hongling Zhang and Jason Sommer for the wonderful recreation of Wang's masterpieces. Highly recommended.