Very entertaining and heartwarming. Would read again

A few years back I elected to weigh my vast ignorance of Chinese literature. (funny how that hasn't changed or improved since) and went to University to remedy this. Serve The People! was the first book I read on that expedition and far from the best. I thought Ju Dou was an adaptation of The Postman Always Rings Twice: this was yet another channeled through the little red book.

Quirky story about a love affair between a soldier who is a personal cook for a high ranking official and the latter's wife. Lots of commentary on the strange bureaucracy of the People's Army and life in general in China during the Cultural Revolution. Some steamy scenes. In the end a lowly ranked person manages to destroy an entire unit through a personal involvement.

Definitely makes you both less and more hopeful about Chinese culture's resistance and acquiescence to authoritarianism. Life and love trying to spring out of the ashes of an all-consuming state that lacks the irony to see the hierarchical backbone of every decision made in these characters lives.

En forstyrrende kærlighedshistorie, der samtidig er en elegant, subversiv kritik af Mso-dyrkelsen.

159th book of 2023. #5 in my challenge with Alan: read a book that has been banned [this, of course, was banned by the Chinese government].

Lianke published this in 2005 and it was banned. It's easy to see why. Just over 200 pages of sex between a solider and a Commander's wife. Old school military affair. The catch is, the Commander's wife is turned on by the destruction of Chairman Mao memorabilia. A bust of his head is ground into powder as she lies naked on the bed. Her way of communicating to the solider, for when she's ready for him, is to take the sign that reads "Serve the People!" down from the wall and leave it somewhere. As well as being a soldier, he's the Commander's orderly. He'd find it on the table, in a flowerbed, and he'd bolt up the stairs to get laid.

I generally prefer my satires a bit more loopy, but this was fun. It nearly got 4-stars because I found the ending surprisingly poignant considering the rest is a farce. On GR this book doesn't seem well liked, but I'm unsure why.

Serve the People! walked so Hard Like Water could run

宣传口号的宏大被消解掉了。指导员知道士兵的真实想法是什么，农村的想去城市，城市的想提干部，小干部想再在升一级，哪有人是为人民服务呢？为首长服务才是实质，服务好了才有可能向上爬。作者靠着排比堆叠起来的比喻连接情节，很多也很精彩，但似乎有些太多了。