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The attic : memoir of a Chinese landlord's son / Guanlong Cao ; translated by Guanlong Cao and Nancy Moskin.

By: Material type: TextTextLanguage: English Original language: Chinese Publication details: Berkeley : University of California Press, �1996.Description: 1 online resource (vi, 245 pages)Content type:
  • text
Media type:
  • computer
Carrier type:
  • online resource
ISBN:
  • 9780520917446
  • 0520917448
  • 0585070261
  • 9780585070261
  • 0520204050
  • 9780520204058
  • 9780520204065
  • 0520204069
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Additional physical formats: Print version:: Attic.DDC classification:
  • 951.05/092 20
LOC classification:
  • PL2912.A5335 A77 1996eb
Online resources:
Contents:
Memory of the belly -- The Bodhisattva's toes -- Bath -- The Penglai market -- The temple of the letters -- Anecdotes about the roof -- Going to the Great World -- Taxi hopping -- Sizzling grease -- Pigs' heads -- Sheep fat soap -- Rotten fruit -- Father was old -- Crystal radio -- The culture of killing -- The milk incident -- Relocation -- Automotive school -- Mr. Lu -- The pursuit of oil -- Chopsticks -- Sweet potatoes -- Dentist herb -- Bean dregs paste -- Wet dream -- Shovel-shaped fences -- Bao changed -- The sadness of the Phoenix fish -- Travel pass and wheat flour -- Cricoid cartilage -- Rubber plantation -- My injury -- I am hunted -- No armband -- I slapped my sister -- Farewell.
Summary: In this exquisite memoir, novelist Guanlong Cao sketches the tales of growing up in Shanghai during the tumultuous Cultural Revolution. Forced to the bottom of the Chinese society as "class enemies" because Cao's father was a petty landlord, his family eked out a meager existence in a cramped attic in a tiny corner of Shanghai. Through the eyes of a child growing into a young man, we observe the tenderness, the tragedy, and even the humor of daily life: the endless quest for enough food, children's games and fantasies, sexual stirrings, exile to the countryside, imprisonment, sickness, old age, and death. Political upheavals flicker across the background, occasionally intruding into the lives of this ordinary - and yet utterly extraordinary - family. Reminiscent of the concise style of classical Chinese memoirs, Cao's lean, elegant prose heightens the emotional intensity of his story. Perceptive and humorous, his voice is deeply original. It is a voice that demands to be heard - for the historical moment it captures as well as for the personal revelations it distills.
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Translation from Chinese.

"First paperback printing 1998"--Page iv.

Print version record.

Memory of the belly -- The Bodhisattva's toes -- Bath -- The Penglai market -- The temple of the letters -- Anecdotes about the roof -- Going to the Great World -- Taxi hopping -- Sizzling grease -- Pigs' heads -- Sheep fat soap -- Rotten fruit -- Father was old -- Crystal radio -- The culture of killing -- The milk incident -- Relocation -- Automotive school -- Mr. Lu -- The pursuit of oil -- Chopsticks -- Sweet potatoes -- Dentist herb -- Bean dregs paste -- Wet dream -- Shovel-shaped fences -- Bao changed -- The sadness of the Phoenix fish -- Travel pass and wheat flour -- Cricoid cartilage -- Rubber plantation -- My injury -- I am hunted -- No armband -- I slapped my sister -- Farewell.

In this exquisite memoir, novelist Guanlong Cao sketches the tales of growing up in Shanghai during the tumultuous Cultural Revolution. Forced to the bottom of the Chinese society as "class enemies" because Cao's father was a petty landlord, his family eked out a meager existence in a cramped attic in a tiny corner of Shanghai. Through the eyes of a child growing into a young man, we observe the tenderness, the tragedy, and even the humor of daily life: the endless quest for enough food, children's games and fantasies, sexual stirrings, exile to the countryside, imprisonment, sickness, old age, and death. Political upheavals flicker across the background, occasionally intruding into the lives of this ordinary - and yet utterly extraordinary - family. Reminiscent of the concise style of classical Chinese memoirs, Cao's lean, elegant prose heightens the emotional intensity of his story. Perceptive and humorous, his voice is deeply original. It is a voice that demands to be heard - for the historical moment it captures as well as for the personal revelations it distills.

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