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Peony in Love
Lisa See - 2007
In seventeenth-century China, three women become emotionally involved with The Peony Pavilion, a famed opera rumored to cause lovesickness and even death, including Peony, the cloistered daughter of a wealthy scholar, who succumbs to its spell only to return after her death as a "hungry ghost" to haunt her former fiancé, who has married another.
The Dark Road
Ma Jian - 2013
They have a daughter, but desperate for a son to carry on his illustrious family line, Kongzi gets Meili pregnant again without waiting for official permission. When family planning officers storm the village to arrest violators of the population control policy, mother, father and daughter escape to the Yangtze River and begin a fugitive life.For years they drift south through the poisoned waterways and ruined landscapes of China, picking up work as they go along, scavenging for necessities and flying from police detection. As Meili's body continues to be invaded by her husband and assaulted by the state, she fights to regain control of her fate and that of her unborn child.
Life and Death are Wearing Me Out
Mo Yan - 2006
He goes to Hell, where Lord Yama, king of the underworld, has Ximen Nao tortured endlessly, trying to make him admit his guilt, to no avail. Finally, in disgust, Lord Yama allows Ximen Nao to return to earth, to his own farm, where he is reborn not as a human but first as a donkey, then an ox, pig, dog, monkey, and finally the big-headed boy Lan Qiansui. Through the earthy and hugely entertaining perspectives of these animals, Ximen Nao narrates fifty years of modern Chinese history, ending on the eve of the new millennium. Here is an absolutely spellbinding tale that reveals the author's love of the land, beset by so many ills, traditional and modern.
Wolf Totem
Jiang Rong - 2004
There has been much international excitement too-to date, rights have been sold in thirteen countries. Wolf Totem is set in 1960s China-the time of the Great Leap Forward, on the eve of the Cultural Revolution. Searching for spirituality, Beijing intellectual Chen Zhen travels to the pristine grasslands of Inner Mongolia to live among the nomadic Mongols-a proud, brave, and ancient race of people who coexist in perfect harmony with their unspeakably beautiful but cruel natural surroundings. Their philosophy of maintaining a balance with nature is the ground stone of their religion, a kind of cult of the wolf. The fierce wolves that haunt the steppes of the unforgiving grassland searching for food are locked with the nomads in a profoundly spiritual battle for survival-a life-and-death dance that has gone on between them for thousands of years. The Mongols believe that the wolf is a great and worthy foe that they are divinely instructed to contend with, but also to worship and to learn from. Chen's own encounters with the otherworldly wolves awake a latent primitive instinct in him, and his fascination with them blossoms into obsession, then reverence. After many years, the peace is shattered with the arrival of Chen's kinfolk, Han Chinese, sent from the cities to bring modernity to the grasslands. They immediately launch a campaign to exterminate the wolves, sending the balance that has been maintained with religious dedication for thousands of years into a spiral leading to extinction-first the wolves, then the Mongol culture, finally the land. As a result of the eradication of the wolves, rats become a plague and wild sheep graze until the meadows turn to dust. Mongolian dust storms glide over Beijing, sometimes blocking out the moon. Part period epic, part fable for modern days, Wolf Totem is a stinging social commentary on the dangers of China's overaccelerated economic growth as well as a fascinating immersion into the heart of Chinese culture.
Trial Marriage Husband: Need to Work Hard
Passion Honey - 2017
Out of frustration, she grabbed the man standing in front of the Civil Affairs Office, "President Mo, your bride has not arrived and my groom has run away...May I suggest we get married?" Before marriage, she said, "Even if we were to share the same bed, nothing would happen between us!" After marriage, he said, "If we don't try, how would we know?"
Peony
Pearl S. Buck - 1948
The novel follows Peony, a Chinese bondmaid of the prominent Jewish family of Ezra ben Israel's, and shows through her eyes how the Jewish community was regarded in Kaifeng at a time when most of the Jews had come to think of themselves as Chinese.
The Demonic King Chases His Wife: The Rebellious Good-for-nothing Miss
苏小暖
He, the Empire’s imperial highness, Prince Jin, was an emotionless overbearing demonic tyrant with unrivaled talent. Everyone knew that she was a idiotic good-for-nothing and bullied her as they pleased. But only he, the overbearing tyrant with the discerning eye, just wouldn’t let go even if his life depended on it. For the time being, let’s see how the clash of stubborn versus stubborn plays out in this good show of the chaser and the chased.
师尊难为 It’s Not Easy Being a Master
今夕故年
This disciple fell into the devil’s path and returned to make mincemeat out of him.Shen Zhixian just happened to transmigrate into the last moment of the master’s captivity, and then he was reborn again.After rebirth, he devoted himself to fostering and supporting his disciple, only to discover later that his disciple was also reborn.Even worse, the disciple still retained the memory of his life before rebirth.Shen Zhixian: …Disturbed.Afterward, he realized one truth: Being a master is a high-risk occupation. Not trivial at all!
11处特工皇妃 [Division 11's Princess Agent]
潇湘冬儿 - 2009
She could be said to be the pinnacle of military intelligence building.***Chu Qiao was once agent 005 for the the military unit 11. After being framed and thrown into prison, she successfully escaped but then sacrificed her life to protect the special agent unit from being bombed. When she woke up again, Chu Qiao had traveled to the Xia Dynasty as an 8-year-old slave girl. Due to receiving help from Yan Xun during their escape, their fate was bound together, as Chu Qiao would then spend years helping him rebel and reconquer his land.However, as they walked further and further down the path to their dream, they grew further apart. One reason was because of the way they dealt with things, the other was because of a rather meddlesome Zhuge Yue, who never stopped loving Chu Qiao, despite having their loyalties lie on opposite ends.The old regime will crumble and wither away, letting the new Xia Dynasty be reborn from the ashes.
Beijing Comrades
Beijing Tongzhi - 1998
Despite divergent lives, the two men spend their nights together, establishing a deep connection. When loyalties are tested, Handong is left questioning his secrets, his choices, and his very identity.Beijing Comrades is the story of a torrid love affair set against the sociopolitical unrest of late-eighties China. Due to its depiction of gay sexuality and its critique of the totalitarian government, it was originally published anonymously on an underground gay website within mainland China. This riveting and heartbreaking novel, circulated throughout China in 1998, quickly developed a cult following, and remains a central work of queer literature from the People's Republic of China. This is the first English-language translation of Beijing Comrades.Bei Tong is the anonymous author of Beijing Comrades. The author's real-world identity has been a subject of ongoing debate since the novel was first published.
Fortress Besieged
Qian Zhongshu - 1947
On the French liner home, he meets two Chinese beauties, Miss Su and Miss Pao. Qian writes, "With Miss Pao it wasn't a matter of heart or soul. She hadn't any change of heart, since she didn't have a heart." In a sort of painful comedy, Fang obtains a teaching post at a newly established university where the effete pseudo-intellectuals he encounters in academia become the butt of Qian's merciless satire. Soon Fang is trapped into a marriage of Nabokovian proportions of distress and absurdity. Recalling Fielding's Tom Jones in its farcical litany of misadventures and Flaubert's "style indirect libre," Fortress Besieged is its own unique feast of delights.
小蘑菇
一十四洲 - 2019
Did your research turn out well? Can I have my son back after the research?”The colonel looked cold. “Your son?”“I gave birth to it QAQ.”The colonel stated, “I raised it.”“Sir, really. It is mine QAQ.”“Give birth to another one to let me see.”An Zhe: cryingTL Disclaimer:1. Not as fluffy as the summary makes it sound. Not mpreg.2. Apocalyptic wasteland science fiction (no zombies)3. Happy Ending
The Dreamer in the Spring Boudoir
白鹭成双 - 2014
She had become the novel’s most vicious villainess.The novel rewinds to the beginning. The villainess that had been ordered to commit suicide reappears onto the stage and begins to follow the plot as she walk towards the novel’s ending once again. In a courtyard deep inside a marquis’s residence. A female lead that’s like the Holy Mother. Countless cannon fodder. The imperial family’s favor…
War Prisoner [俘虏]
Lihua Yanyu
Faced with the downfall of his country and interest from opposing country’s king, how will he react?
论救错反派的下场 Mistakenly Saving the Villain
凤羽涅 [Feng Yu Nie] - 2020
Professor System has issued a mission: to rescue the gentle, kind and tragic protagonist shou of the novel “The Exceptional Furnace”.Song ‘Scholar-Tyrant’ Qingshi: “Don’t worry, Professor! I can definitely ensure the patient’s recovery!”In the Immortal Realm:Song Qingshi praised from the bottom of his heart: “My patient is the kindest and most beautiful little angel in the world.”Yue Wuhuan quietly washed the blood from his hands and smiled softly: “En.”Song Qingshi swore from the bottom of his heart: “As a doctor, I will never covet nor take advantage of my beautiful patient!”Yue Wuhuan took full and complete advantage of the doctor and smiled softly: “En.”Song Qingshi affirmed from the bottom of his heart: “Under my loving care, the patient will never be blackened!”Yue Wuhuan secretly hid his monstrously evil thoughts and smiled softly: “En.”At that inextinguishable summit, upon thousand and thousands of soul lamps, he sat on the god’s throne of white bone, guarding that piece of stone.“You are the only one in this world who treats me tenderly.”“And so, you are the only one I treat tenderly.”Scholar-tyrant Song was absolutely delighted: “Professor! Can I get full marks?”Professor System exploded: “You fool! You saved the wrong person!”