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Beijing Sprawl
Muyu, a seventeen-year-old from a small village, came to Beijing for his piece of the money, love, a good life. But in the city, daily life for him and his friends—purveyors of fake IDs and counterfeit papers—is a precarious balance of struggle and guile. Surveying the neighborhood from the rooftop of the apartment they all share, the young men play cards, drink beer, and discuss their aspirations, hoping for the best but expecting little more than the comfort of each other’s company. In these connected stories translated from Chinese by Eric Abrahamsen and Jeremy Tiang, Xu’s characters observe as others like them—workers, students, drifters, and the just plain unlucky—get by the best ways they know by jogging excessively, herding pigeons, building cars from scraps, and holding their friends close through the miasma of so-called progress.
211 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 13, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
September 13, 2023
Beautifully violent, brilliantly executed. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to romanticise violence here — what I mean is that ‘violence’ is written so calmly(?) — and yet so raw and intentional without exaggerating anything or understating anything. It was just so brilliantly done; the realism is sublime, almost frightening, yet so ordinary — it’s just the violence of ‘life’. The ordinariness is frightening in this sense because it doesn’t tell us anything particularly ‘new’, it’s more like it’s calling us/readers out for ignoring things that we are so ‘programmed’/habitualised to overlook. Anyway RTC later.
But I also want to quickly add that I am a massive fan of Jeremy Tiang’s work. The first time I read his translation of Yan Ge’s ‘Strange Beasts of China’, I was mad about it (and didn’t love it well) because it felt ‘weird’ to me somehow, and threw a ‘wordy’ tantrum. I know I was so quick to act/feel that way because I’m a multilingual reader (who didn’t reach much (Chinese) ‘fiction’ at that point). But then I went on to read a few books (fiction) in ‘Chinese’ text. And I had to laugh at how silly and cocky I was. I’m still trying to read more books in Chinese, but I always wish there was already an English translation available. I’m reading one at the moment, 夜晚的潜水艇 (literal translation being something like 'The Night's Submarine', 'The Submarine in/of the Night'(?) or a little less literal, 'The Submarine at Night'(?)) which is something of a ‘surrealist’ novel? I’ll elaborate later in my full review (for relevance). Honestly it’s just extra/super ‘trippy’ to read an already ‘trippy’ novel in a language I’m not familiar enough with (or at least in my opinion).
But I also want to quickly add that I am a massive fan of Jeremy Tiang’s work. The first time I read his translation of Yan Ge’s ‘Strange Beasts of China’, I was mad about it (and didn’t love it well) because it felt ‘weird’ to me somehow, and threw a ‘wordy’ tantrum. I know I was so quick to act/feel that way because I’m a multilingual reader (who didn’t reach much (Chinese) ‘fiction’ at that point). But then I went on to read a few books (fiction) in ‘Chinese’ text. And I had to laugh at how silly and cocky I was. I’m still trying to read more books in Chinese, but I always wish there was already an English translation available. I’m reading one at the moment, 夜晚的潜水艇 (literal translation being something like 'The Night's Submarine', 'The Submarine in/of the Night'(?) or a little less literal, 'The Submarine at Night'(?)) which is something of a ‘surrealist’ novel? I’ll elaborate later in my full review (for relevance). Honestly it’s just extra/super ‘trippy’ to read an already ‘trippy’ novel in a language I’m not familiar enough with (or at least in my opinion).
August 31, 2023
Beijing Sprawl comprises nine stories connected by three main protagonists, young men in their late teens, high school dropouts who have left their small villages for the fortunes and promises of life in Beijing. Without a college degree or skilled training, however, their prospects are low of finding well-paying, meaningful work, as are their odds of finding a girlfriend or wife. “Making it” in Beijing is often an endurance test that many young adults abandon after years of trying, ending up back in their home villages. The narrator, Muyu, is a 17-year-old who has come to Beijing to work for his uncle, Thirty Thou Hong, pasting up ads for his uncle’s fake-ID business.
Muyu ends up meeting three other guys in a position similar to his—Xingjian, Miluo, and Baolai—and they end up renting a small room with two bunkbeds in a dilapidated, unkempt building. When they’re not working, the boys eat donkey burgers (!), drink alcohol, and play cards on the rooftop of the slum they’re living in.
A few words for American readers who may be unfamiliar with China’s laws: First, inner migration—movement from one part of the country to the other for reasons of employment—is restricted so that a person moving from a village to, say, Beijing, must be sponsored. That is, an employer or relative must vouch for the migrant’s presence. Being sponsored is not the same as having official residence—the person’s official residence is still his hometown. This means that although the migrant pays city taxes, he has no access to tax-supported benefits, which includes everything from the ability to check out books from libraries, to schooling for children, to receiving health care. For the non-resident, all those benefits are additional out-of-pocket expenses. (Which, of course, the immigrants are too poor to afford.) Non-residents without sponsors are subject to immediate arrest and expulsion at any time—which may amount to being dumped off somewhere in the countryside. (Common aspirations include fantasizing marriage to an official resident of the city.)
Second, American readers may be surprised to find out that death by murder or accident results in little financial gain for grieving families, with settlements amounting to less than a year’s wages. (I’ve been told that, should the victim survive with lifelong medical conditions afterward, the perpetrator is required to pay the victim’s medical expenses for the duration of the victim’s natural life. Just killing a person outright is often less expensive than coping with the endless financial drip of the victim’s needs.)
The stories in Beijing Sprawl illustrate these facts in addition to slices of life among the down-and-out, ranging from the absurd to the tragic, with absurdities slowly turning into tragedies as the book progresses. Regarding the former, in “Wheels Turn,” one of the friends gets a job at an auto repair shop, where he accumulates junked car parts and eventually builds a functioning Frankenstein of a car from mismatched parts. The car brings the shop a lot of attention and business, but it eventually brings bad luck to a person who borrows it.
Midway through the book, Baolai falls in love with a woman he’s only ever just seen in the window of a diner, too shy to approach her. Baolai ends up the first of the friends to return to his village after his attempt fails to rescue the woman from the clutches of three men who drag her from the diner onto the street. The thugs give Baolai a beating that leaves him a drooling vegetable. From there on, a subplot of each story revolves around finding a replacement for him in the apartment the boys share. The would-be replacements include another village boy who tends to his uncle’s pigeons, another who claims to be looking for his “other self” (not a twin but another part of himself his parents had always told him lived in Beijing), and a busker whose attempts to rescue a trafficked 10-year-old girl come to a bad end.
The stories add up to a picture of contemporary China and the people who live in a place with more people than meaningful work, where staying fed and housed by honest means is a daily struggle, and government institutions insist that poverty is an individual choice. Jeremy Tiang and Eric Abrahamsen’s rendering of these stories into idiomatic English imbue them with an immediacy that highlights their relevance and humanity and transcends their specific political-geographical origin.
For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...
Muyu ends up meeting three other guys in a position similar to his—Xingjian, Miluo, and Baolai—and they end up renting a small room with two bunkbeds in a dilapidated, unkempt building. When they’re not working, the boys eat donkey burgers (!), drink alcohol, and play cards on the rooftop of the slum they’re living in.
A few words for American readers who may be unfamiliar with China’s laws: First, inner migration—movement from one part of the country to the other for reasons of employment—is restricted so that a person moving from a village to, say, Beijing, must be sponsored. That is, an employer or relative must vouch for the migrant’s presence. Being sponsored is not the same as having official residence—the person’s official residence is still his hometown. This means that although the migrant pays city taxes, he has no access to tax-supported benefits, which includes everything from the ability to check out books from libraries, to schooling for children, to receiving health care. For the non-resident, all those benefits are additional out-of-pocket expenses. (Which, of course, the immigrants are too poor to afford.) Non-residents without sponsors are subject to immediate arrest and expulsion at any time—which may amount to being dumped off somewhere in the countryside. (Common aspirations include fantasizing marriage to an official resident of the city.)
Second, American readers may be surprised to find out that death by murder or accident results in little financial gain for grieving families, with settlements amounting to less than a year’s wages. (I’ve been told that, should the victim survive with lifelong medical conditions afterward, the perpetrator is required to pay the victim’s medical expenses for the duration of the victim’s natural life. Just killing a person outright is often less expensive than coping with the endless financial drip of the victim’s needs.)
The stories in Beijing Sprawl illustrate these facts in addition to slices of life among the down-and-out, ranging from the absurd to the tragic, with absurdities slowly turning into tragedies as the book progresses. Regarding the former, in “Wheels Turn,” one of the friends gets a job at an auto repair shop, where he accumulates junked car parts and eventually builds a functioning Frankenstein of a car from mismatched parts. The car brings the shop a lot of attention and business, but it eventually brings bad luck to a person who borrows it.
Midway through the book, Baolai falls in love with a woman he’s only ever just seen in the window of a diner, too shy to approach her. Baolai ends up the first of the friends to return to his village after his attempt fails to rescue the woman from the clutches of three men who drag her from the diner onto the street. The thugs give Baolai a beating that leaves him a drooling vegetable. From there on, a subplot of each story revolves around finding a replacement for him in the apartment the boys share. The would-be replacements include another village boy who tends to his uncle’s pigeons, another who claims to be looking for his “other self” (not a twin but another part of himself his parents had always told him lived in Beijing), and a busker whose attempts to rescue a trafficked 10-year-old girl come to a bad end.
The stories add up to a picture of contemporary China and the people who live in a place with more people than meaningful work, where staying fed and housed by honest means is a daily struggle, and government institutions insist that poverty is an individual choice. Jeremy Tiang and Eric Abrahamsen’s rendering of these stories into idiomatic English imbue them with an immediacy that highlights their relevance and humanity and transcends their specific political-geographical origin.
For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...
July 24, 2023
so good. excellent translation too.
July 21, 2023
*3.5 stars, read for my first ever book club which was really nice and chill!! Not a book I would normally reach for but worth the read. A bit repetitive but intentionally so. Wheels turns.
September 25, 2025
After reading short stories in the collection “Beijing Sprawl” (北京西郊故事集) by Xu Zechen I wanted to stay mentally in Beijing and I reached for his novel “Running through Beijing” (跑步穿过中关村).
The characters, just like the author, come from Jiangsu province, and try their luck in Beijing, the city of (broken) dreams. “Running through Beijing” (in the original title there is the name of Chinese ‘Silicon Valley’ Zhongguancun - the tech hub district of Beijing - as this is where the characters hang out) begins with Dunhuang, the narrator and the main protagonist, leaving prison. Yellow dust covers everything and from the first pages Xu evokes the atmosphere of Beijing really well. Dunhuang is penniless and needs to find a job, a place to stay and someone to connect with. He has a lot in common with Muyu, the narrator of the interconnected stories in “Beijing Sprawl”. Dunhuang ends up selling pirated DVDs with his new girlfriend, whereas teenage Muyu and his friends work at night, pasting posters to advertise fake documents, from university diplomas to IDs. They all spend time hustling and always aspiring for more in the city in which competition is ruthless.
Without education, without connections a young Chinese cannot expect much more than a day-to-day existence. And yet these young people dream big while being satisfied with small joys: watching Beijing buzz from the rooftop of their hutong, drinking beer with friends, falling in love with a pretty waitress. Life, while being hard and demanding, can also be exhilarating.
Xu, with tremendous empathy and tenderness towards his characters, skilfully depicts what it means to toil in Beijing without prospects for a better future. The goal of his characters is not to go from rags to riches but to get by, to not be defeated and be forced to go back to Jiangsu with nothing.
I was totally immersed in these books and saw them as slices of life. If I had to say what these stories are about, I would quote the lyrics of the song “Beijing, Beijing” by Feng Wang which accompanies this post: “People here comfort and embrace each other in times of struggle, search for and chase after the last gasps of their broken dreams.”
The characters, just like the author, come from Jiangsu province, and try their luck in Beijing, the city of (broken) dreams. “Running through Beijing” (in the original title there is the name of Chinese ‘Silicon Valley’ Zhongguancun - the tech hub district of Beijing - as this is where the characters hang out) begins with Dunhuang, the narrator and the main protagonist, leaving prison. Yellow dust covers everything and from the first pages Xu evokes the atmosphere of Beijing really well. Dunhuang is penniless and needs to find a job, a place to stay and someone to connect with. He has a lot in common with Muyu, the narrator of the interconnected stories in “Beijing Sprawl”. Dunhuang ends up selling pirated DVDs with his new girlfriend, whereas teenage Muyu and his friends work at night, pasting posters to advertise fake documents, from university diplomas to IDs. They all spend time hustling and always aspiring for more in the city in which competition is ruthless.
Without education, without connections a young Chinese cannot expect much more than a day-to-day existence. And yet these young people dream big while being satisfied with small joys: watching Beijing buzz from the rooftop of their hutong, drinking beer with friends, falling in love with a pretty waitress. Life, while being hard and demanding, can also be exhilarating.
Xu, with tremendous empathy and tenderness towards his characters, skilfully depicts what it means to toil in Beijing without prospects for a better future. The goal of his characters is not to go from rags to riches but to get by, to not be defeated and be forced to go back to Jiangsu with nothing.
I was totally immersed in these books and saw them as slices of life. If I had to say what these stories are about, I would quote the lyrics of the song “Beijing, Beijing” by Feng Wang which accompanies this post: “People here comfort and embrace each other in times of struggle, search for and chase after the last gasps of their broken dreams.”
February 25, 2025
A really poignant collection of stories about the daily grind of trying to survive in Beijing. Set sometime in the recent past (remember pagers!?), Zechen weaves a difficult, brutally realistic story around four young men attempting to keep their head above water in the hyper-capitalistic and competitive mega-city.
Two standout stories, Wheel's Turn and Prince of Morocco illustrate the great hope, ingenuity, and lust for life working class and underclass individuals retain despite the (seemingly) tirelessness of their existence. I grew up working class and saw this daily in my own life: I didn't think I was poor until I "moved on up" and saw how the wealthier "other half" lived. I have been searching and searching for an authentic voice of contemporary working class in literary fiction, and Zechen delivers. He writes symbol-rich tales of what life is like when dictated almost completely by the pressures of money in a way that I can say, yes, this is what it's like! I can't say that for any other contemporary writer at the moment.
Anyway, this is great for fans of literary fiction looking for a realistic but literary, gritty but hopeful, and pressing but subtle-enough critique of capitalism. Also, the translation is fantastic. I'm pretty close to going through Jeremy Tiang's back catalogue one of these days to get a grip on contemporary Chinese literature, because I am absolutely loving it.
Two standout stories, Wheel's Turn and Prince of Morocco illustrate the great hope, ingenuity, and lust for life working class and underclass individuals retain despite the (seemingly) tirelessness of their existence. I grew up working class and saw this daily in my own life: I didn't think I was poor until I "moved on up" and saw how the wealthier "other half" lived. I have been searching and searching for an authentic voice of contemporary working class in literary fiction, and Zechen delivers. He writes symbol-rich tales of what life is like when dictated almost completely by the pressures of money in a way that I can say, yes, this is what it's like! I can't say that for any other contemporary writer at the moment.
Anyway, this is great for fans of literary fiction looking for a realistic but literary, gritty but hopeful, and pressing but subtle-enough critique of capitalism. Also, the translation is fantastic. I'm pretty close to going through Jeremy Tiang's back catalogue one of these days to get a grip on contemporary Chinese literature, because I am absolutely loving it.
May 20, 2024
Very repetitive, but at the same time, I couldn’t keep any of the characters or details straight. Just the vague sense that I’d read them a few pages earlier
September 5, 2023
This book delves quite deeply into a theme of human ambition and an innate desire to participate in meaningful work. The fundamental driving force for nearly every character is their aspiration to become something, make it big, and get laid. They equate their worth in life to success. And yet time and time again nothing happens, they move neither up nor down, they are simply stagnant. And even after countless let downs and disappointments their enthusiasm does not wane, they continue running, and wheels continue to turn. If you look closely you might notice that the characters feel the most fulfilled with their lives, not when they are encountering rare instances wealth and success, but rather when they are participating with their community.
April 2, 2024
reading about coming of age in bejing reminded me so much of my own childhood. the moments of trying to grasp adulthood, talking about love and drinking beer on quiet rooftops over a busy singapore street. it is so special to get to have these moments with cities. i love the grittiness of city living that is expressed here, all the dirty secrets amid sparkling skyscrapers, and still living in your own disconnected world
December 8, 2025
Wow! I really admire these short stories. Our 17 year old narrator Muyu has moved to Beijing in search of riches and winds up living in an apartment with 2-3 other guys. Most of the boys in their friend group are from the same place, the Zhejiang province in eastern China, and have moved to Beijing for varied but all compelling reasons (love, work, new identity) and are working for in the shadier parts of the city. At night, they paste ads for fake ID companies or herd pigeons. It’s such a vibrant portrait of a full cast of characters with rich interiors and wants.
This book also has a lot of mundane violence, how everyday accidents happen, fights break out, and the government and police only make things worse. Definitely trigger warnings for violence and animal abuse, but it’s nothing gratuitous just a reflection of life.
I love that each story can stand alone, but together work to create a really rich world of contemporary China.
This book also has a lot of mundane violence, how everyday accidents happen, fights break out, and the government and police only make things worse. Definitely trigger warnings for violence and animal abuse, but it’s nothing gratuitous just a reflection of life.
I love that each story can stand alone, but together work to create a really rich world of contemporary China.
February 3, 2025
A series of intertwined stories set in the migrant working class suburbs of western Beijing in the early 21st century, telling of the aspirations of young men and women from the countryside coming in to try to make it — with the constant threat of having to go home to the village if they fail to do so. Their hopes and dreams — and what causes them to pursue them and give them up — forms the through line across the various stories.
The poverty and precarity and need to form community amid the vast urban space is what connects the narrative across what amount to less a novel than a set of episodic short stories with a handful of shared characters. As such it functions must as the memories of one’s youth: a general remembrance of the vibe of a particular time, based on the built environment and sociabilities one inhabited, plus a series of set piece stories when some particularly emotionally memorable or psychologically emblematic event took place.
The poverty and precarity and need to form community amid the vast urban space is what connects the narrative across what amount to less a novel than a set of episodic short stories with a handful of shared characters. As such it functions must as the memories of one’s youth: a general remembrance of the vibe of a particular time, based on the built environment and sociabilities one inhabited, plus a series of set piece stories when some particularly emotionally memorable or psychologically emblematic event took place.
October 8, 2024
A rather “guy novel” (???) lol- lots of discussion of women’s bodies and getting hard. The stories were each intriguing in a mundane way, which was interesting. Also everyone was sweating all the time?? Certainly helped make the atmosphere oppressive, but it also was like that already? So now we had a set up atmosphere and everyone is moist.
July 22, 2024
“‘If he wanted to go, you couldn’t have stopped him; if he wanted to stay, he wouldn’t have left. It’s the course of nature.’”
a bit too brief for its fragmented style to pay off, but a solid, tight read nonetheless
a bit too brief for its fragmented style to pay off, but a solid, tight read nonetheless
April 25, 2025
I got nine stories, they're all sad
February 1, 2024
really good. Definitely a bit dark but some really funny moments as well
January 1, 2024
a bit sorrowful, a bit funny — making the stories each their own as captivating vignettes. i liked that it follows the same (three) main characters around in old beijing and their days in the neighborhood; new scenarios but same familiar people
December 16, 2025
Wonderful. Beijing Sprawl is one of Xu Zechen's few works translated into English. All short stories in the collection are set in the western suburbs of Beijing. In the immensity of its growth since the 1990s, Beijing left behind a large underclass of migrant workers and the urban poor.
This is really a period piece of Beijing of the late 1990s and early 2000s. The migrants that occupied its western suburbs, the roughness of their siheyuan (四合院) homes, and the electronics grey markets don't necessarily exist in modern-day Beijing. They were swept away in the lead-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics and in the years since.
These migrant workers moved to Beijing in the promise of a better life, better than what Eric Abrahamsen describes in an interview in Electric Lit :
The reality of the promises are essentially false. They're fake and are unattainable (by design? by whom? Xu doesn't point fingers but there is some subtext). There is no nobility in what these migrants are doing. They're selling counterfeit goods, pasting ads for obviously illegal businesses, or doing tough work that pays little.
It is indeed fitting that the 2nd Chinese title of the book can be translated as: Look, This is Beijing. This is Beijing.
3.5/5
This is really a period piece of Beijing of the late 1990s and early 2000s. The migrants that occupied its western suburbs, the roughness of their siheyuan (四合院) homes, and the electronics grey markets don't necessarily exist in modern-day Beijing. They were swept away in the lead-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics and in the years since.
These migrant workers moved to Beijing in the promise of a better life, better than what Eric Abrahamsen describes in an interview in Electric Lit :
[T]here’s a whole segment of China’s youth who just don’t have any good options. You can’t stay, you can’t go. If you go you’re not gonna have a job, but you can’t go back because that’s shameful. They’re economically and socially screwed.
The reality of the promises are essentially false. They're fake and are unattainable (by design? by whom? Xu doesn't point fingers but there is some subtext). There is no nobility in what these migrants are doing. They're selling counterfeit goods, pasting ads for obviously illegal businesses, or doing tough work that pays little.
It is indeed fitting that the 2nd Chinese title of the book can be translated as: Look, This is Beijing. This is Beijing.
3.5/5
June 7, 2023
really liked these! will be keeping an eye out for more zechen xu translations in the future
June 12, 2025
Vienoti stāsti par Ķīnas lauku reģionu migrantstrādniekiem Pekinā. Būtībā tāda grāmatu, kurās nekā nenotiek, maskulīnā versija. Par ikdienas vienmuļību, strādājot reizēm legālus, reizēm nelegālus darbus cerībā izsisties, nepiepildītiem sapņiem, biedriskumu un Pekinu kā vienu no stāstu tēliem. Tomēr par spīti vienmuļībai un zaudējumiem grāmata pārsteidzošā kārtā nebija tik drūma vai depresīva, kā no stāstu sižetiem būtu loģiski sagaidāms. Pamatā tas, visticamāk, ir tāpēc, ka autors galveno varoni un vienojošo stāstnieku bija izvēlējies attēlot kā kopumā labestīgu un bez īpaša dramatisma. Līdz ar to arī visu pārējo tēlu stāsti, izstāstīti caur viņa prizmu, šķita mazāk traģiski.
Vienlaikus šāda līdzjūtīga, bet ne pārspīlēta attieksme pret vairāku jauno vīriešu nāvēm raisīja pārdomas, vai tā ir tikai autora izvēle vai tomēr kopēja daudzmiljonu tautas attieksme pret indivīda dzīvības vērtību. T.i. katrs no šiem stāstiem adekvāti parādīja ģimenes un tuvo cilvēku skumjas par aizgājēju, kā arī šādas nāves netaisnīgumu. Tomēr izpalika tāda fundamentāla traģēdijas izjūta, drīzāk sliecoties uz to, ka dzīve kopumā neapstājas. Līdzīgas izjūtas bija arī par citām stāstos atainotajām tēmām. Un arī tas, visticamāk, ir ļoti atbilstoši daudzmiljonu iedzīvotāju Pekinai un miljardu Ķīnai, kur viss plūst un mainās, bet vienu cilvēku vietā nāk citi.
Vēl interesants aspekts bija tēlu laika pavadīšana. Atskaitot dažas piezīmes par peidžeriem un mobilajiem telefoniem, kas norādīja un 90tajiem gadiem, tikpat labi tie būtu varējuši būt stāsti par vēl daudz senākām dekādēm. Savukārt, ja autors būtu izvēlējies rakstīt par pēdējiem 20 gadiem, visticamāk kāršu spēlēšanu uz jumta būtu nomainījuši viedtālruņi vai interneta kafejnīcas, kas, iespējams, ietekmētu arī biedriskumu.
Vienlaikus šāda līdzjūtīga, bet ne pārspīlēta attieksme pret vairāku jauno vīriešu nāvēm raisīja pārdomas, vai tā ir tikai autora izvēle vai tomēr kopēja daudzmiljonu tautas attieksme pret indivīda dzīvības vērtību. T.i. katrs no šiem stāstiem adekvāti parādīja ģimenes un tuvo cilvēku skumjas par aizgājēju, kā arī šādas nāves netaisnīgumu. Tomēr izpalika tāda fundamentāla traģēdijas izjūta, drīzāk sliecoties uz to, ka dzīve kopumā neapstājas. Līdzīgas izjūtas bija arī par citām stāstos atainotajām tēmām. Un arī tas, visticamāk, ir ļoti atbilstoši daudzmiljonu iedzīvotāju Pekinai un miljardu Ķīnai, kur viss plūst un mainās, bet vienu cilvēku vietā nāk citi.
Vēl interesants aspekts bija tēlu laika pavadīšana. Atskaitot dažas piezīmes par peidžeriem un mobilajiem telefoniem, kas norādīja un 90tajiem gadiem, tikpat labi tie būtu varējuši būt stāsti par vēl daudz senākām dekādēm. Savukārt, ja autors būtu izvēlējies rakstīt par pēdējiem 20 gadiem, visticamāk kāršu spēlēšanu uz jumta būtu nomainījuši viedtālruņi vai interneta kafejnīcas, kas, iespējams, ietekmētu arī biedriskumu.
January 20, 2024
exactly what I picture growing up in Beijing as a child would be; very raw, moving, and relatable to everyday events
January 29, 2025
Xu Zechen’s Beijing Sprawl offers a compelling, gritty glimpse into the lives of young rural migrants navigating Beijing. Through nine interconnected short stories, we encounter a world rarely seen in mainstream depictions of China: the precarious existence of those on the fringes of the rapidly developing capital. The narrative centers on Muyu, a seventeen-year-old high school dropout who arrives in Beijing with vague aspirations and finds work posting advertisements for his uncle’s illicit fake-ID business. He soon connects with fellow migrants from his village, sharing cramped living quarters and the shared experience of trying to “make it” in a city that often seems indifferent to their struggles.
Beijing Sprawl stands out for its unflinching portrayal of the monotony and hardship that define these characters’ lives. They work menial, often precarious jobs, constantly facing the threat of exploitation and legal trouble. Their days consist of repetitive tasks, meager meals, and fleeting moments of connection on their dilapidated building’s rooftop. This repetition is mirrored in the narrative structure, with recurring images and themes creating a sense of déjà vu and highlighting the cyclical nature of their existence. The characters are constantly moving—jogging through the city, shifting between temporary jobs, searching for elusive opportunities—yet they often seem trapped in a cycle of limited mobility and unfulfilled dreams.
The novel doesn't shy away from depicting the harsh realities these young people face. While explicit depictions of drugs and extreme violence are mostly absent, the narrative subtly portrays the pervasive presence of crime, prostitution, official corruption, and the ever-present threat of arbitrary government action. The violence that does occur is often presented in a matter-of-fact manner, paradoxically amplifying its impact. This understated portrayal forces the reader to confront the often-overlooked realities of urban life and the casual disregard for individual lives within a vast and rapidly changing society.
Jeremy Tiang and Eric Abrahamsen’s translation is commendable, capturing the nuances of Chinese language and culture in vivid, idiomatic English. They effectively convey the cultural concept of “face” and the use of euphemisms and Chengyu, adding depth and authenticity.
Beijing Sprawl shares some of the same weaknesses identified in reviews of "Running Through Beijing". While both works effectively depict the harsh realities faced by their characters, Beijing Sprawl suffers from an abrupt ending, unresolved subplots, and underdeveloped character arcs. As with "Running Through Beijing", the setting, while rich in details of daily life, lacks a strong sense of place. The absence of typical urban elements like heavy traffic and modern technology (the use of pagers suggests an earlier time) is also a recurring point.
Nevertheless, Beijing Sprawl offers a valuable and poignant glimpse into a rarely seen side of contemporary China, humanizing those on the margins. It’s a story that resonates with universal themes of poverty, ambition, resilience, and the search for connection. It’s a compelling read for those interested in contemporary Chinese literature, urban life, and the human condition, providing an important counter-narrative to more sanitized or politically driven portrayals of Chinese society, offering a glimpse into the lives of those often overlooked.
Beijing Sprawl stands out for its unflinching portrayal of the monotony and hardship that define these characters’ lives. They work menial, often precarious jobs, constantly facing the threat of exploitation and legal trouble. Their days consist of repetitive tasks, meager meals, and fleeting moments of connection on their dilapidated building’s rooftop. This repetition is mirrored in the narrative structure, with recurring images and themes creating a sense of déjà vu and highlighting the cyclical nature of their existence. The characters are constantly moving—jogging through the city, shifting between temporary jobs, searching for elusive opportunities—yet they often seem trapped in a cycle of limited mobility and unfulfilled dreams.
The novel doesn't shy away from depicting the harsh realities these young people face. While explicit depictions of drugs and extreme violence are mostly absent, the narrative subtly portrays the pervasive presence of crime, prostitution, official corruption, and the ever-present threat of arbitrary government action. The violence that does occur is often presented in a matter-of-fact manner, paradoxically amplifying its impact. This understated portrayal forces the reader to confront the often-overlooked realities of urban life and the casual disregard for individual lives within a vast and rapidly changing society.
Jeremy Tiang and Eric Abrahamsen’s translation is commendable, capturing the nuances of Chinese language and culture in vivid, idiomatic English. They effectively convey the cultural concept of “face” and the use of euphemisms and Chengyu, adding depth and authenticity.
Beijing Sprawl shares some of the same weaknesses identified in reviews of "Running Through Beijing". While both works effectively depict the harsh realities faced by their characters, Beijing Sprawl suffers from an abrupt ending, unresolved subplots, and underdeveloped character arcs. As with "Running Through Beijing", the setting, while rich in details of daily life, lacks a strong sense of place. The absence of typical urban elements like heavy traffic and modern technology (the use of pagers suggests an earlier time) is also a recurring point.
Nevertheless, Beijing Sprawl offers a valuable and poignant glimpse into a rarely seen side of contemporary China, humanizing those on the margins. It’s a story that resonates with universal themes of poverty, ambition, resilience, and the search for connection. It’s a compelling read for those interested in contemporary Chinese literature, urban life, and the human condition, providing an important counter-narrative to more sanitized or politically driven portrayals of Chinese society, offering a glimpse into the lives of those often overlooked.
December 19, 2023
A collection of 9 interlinked stories set in the suburbs of Beijing. Narrated by a single voice, a 17 years old boy from a small village in the deep province, the stories follow an almost continuous story of immigration to the big city and making your way into a city that is bigger than anyone can imagine. I am almost willing to call it a novel - I had read novels that were more loosely linked than these stories are.
Muyu, our narrator (whose name we do not get until almost the end), had dropped out of school due to what appears to be a mental illness and the only thing that makes his head not feel weak is running - and you can do a lot of running in a big city. He and his roommates and housemates post advertisements for false papers - needed in a country which is regulated. The stories are full of death and struggle but also of a lot of small things that hit hard - the parents of a sick child who consider paying the fine to have a second child... until they do not need to, the father leaving his family back home and still trying to control the family's life, the young men who come to the city and get beaten, both emotionally and physically, by the indifference of almost everyone they meet, the family losing a husband and a father who need to survive on almost nothing after that while the man who murdered their loved one can continue his own life, the 10 years old that is forced to beg, the pigeons who may be food for some people but are the life of others.
The stories are gritty and in some places hard to read - there is cruelty and gore but there is also friendship and humanity peaking from under the grittiness. And while there is some hope in some of the stories, the overall tone is depressing - the big city eats you alive even if you manage to get there (because internal immigration in China is not as easy as just deciding to move after all).
Muyu, our narrator (whose name we do not get until almost the end), had dropped out of school due to what appears to be a mental illness and the only thing that makes his head not feel weak is running - and you can do a lot of running in a big city. He and his roommates and housemates post advertisements for false papers - needed in a country which is regulated. The stories are full of death and struggle but also of a lot of small things that hit hard - the parents of a sick child who consider paying the fine to have a second child... until they do not need to, the father leaving his family back home and still trying to control the family's life, the young men who come to the city and get beaten, both emotionally and physically, by the indifference of almost everyone they meet, the family losing a husband and a father who need to survive on almost nothing after that while the man who murdered their loved one can continue his own life, the 10 years old that is forced to beg, the pigeons who may be food for some people but are the life of others.
The stories are gritty and in some places hard to read - there is cruelty and gore but there is also friendship and humanity peaking from under the grittiness. And while there is some hope in some of the stories, the overall tone is depressing - the big city eats you alive even if you manage to get there (because internal immigration in China is not as easy as just deciding to move after all).
September 6, 2024
3.5 stars - overall, a slow yet captivating depiction of urban life in Beijing (individual story synopses below)
six-eared macaque: a diligent electronics store employee haunted by a recurring dream is faced with
the difficult choice of returning to his village to settle down and making a name for himself in the big city.
coming of age : a young man celebrates his birthday on a rooftop with his friends and recounts the story of a special night he spent with a local burger joint waitress.
unseen cities: the narrator’s former tutor and friend is brutally murdered while making a long distance call at a phone booth, and his family reels in the wake of his death.
wheels turn: troubled by a dark incident from his past, an auto shop worker finds a new purpose in building his own car out of spare parts.
on the rooftop: the narrator’s roommate jogs the city searching for the mysterious “Sitting Upright Girl” only to face an unfortunate confrontation in his pursuit of love.
if a snowstorm seals the door: a young man from southern China makes a living as a pigeon wrangler in the city hoping to stay long enough to see a real snow storm.
brother (my favorite!): the narrator meets another transplant and potential roommate searching for his other self.
prince of morroco: a subway busker with big dreams helps a young trafficked girl find her family, only to be met with an unfortunate ending to their search.
the dog’s been barking all day: a young boy patches the sky with a hammer and nails, while the narrator’s
roommates mess with the neighbor’s dog and face the consequences of their trickery.
six-eared macaque: a diligent electronics store employee haunted by a recurring dream is faced with
the difficult choice of returning to his village to settle down and making a name for himself in the big city.
coming of age : a young man celebrates his birthday on a rooftop with his friends and recounts the story of a special night he spent with a local burger joint waitress.
unseen cities: the narrator’s former tutor and friend is brutally murdered while making a long distance call at a phone booth, and his family reels in the wake of his death.
wheels turn: troubled by a dark incident from his past, an auto shop worker finds a new purpose in building his own car out of spare parts.
on the rooftop: the narrator’s roommate jogs the city searching for the mysterious “Sitting Upright Girl” only to face an unfortunate confrontation in his pursuit of love.
if a snowstorm seals the door: a young man from southern China makes a living as a pigeon wrangler in the city hoping to stay long enough to see a real snow storm.
brother (my favorite!): the narrator meets another transplant and potential roommate searching for his other self.
prince of morroco: a subway busker with big dreams helps a young trafficked girl find her family, only to be met with an unfortunate ending to their search.
the dog’s been barking all day: a young boy patches the sky with a hammer and nails, while the narrator’s
roommates mess with the neighbor’s dog and face the consequences of their trickery.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 8, 2025
Like the title, shows a sprawl, echoing, impressions of Beijing before the turn of the century; a group of young men who moved from their river villages, they paste ads in moonlight, they drink beer and eat donkey burgers, sing and play cards on the expansive rooftops, they share apartments when the rent gets too high, they look for the odd job that probably skirts the law. Everyone is honest enough, and it’s the freak events and collisions that could only happen in the concrete infrastructure of China’s rapid urbanization that send people down a dark path. It’s bleak, but we have each other, brothers.
Fav shorts were:
Six-Ear Macaque, Unseen Cities, Wheels Turn, If a Snowstorm Seals the Door, Prince of Morocco
Also, a collection of idioms/images that popped out to me throughout the book and conveyed the treasure of translation, both in opening one up to other cultural stories and also the fallible act of conversion:
- He had to choose, or he would be falling between two stools.
- He should take a few bites of life while young, then push the bowl aside and walk away.
- Wheels turn, so just forget about it.
- Everyone in the whole country knew that opportunity here was like birdshit—it would splatter on your head while you weren’t looking and make you rich.
- If a Snowstorm Seals the Door…
- Keep your pants on.
- A boat rises with the tide…
- Patching up the heavens was something only Chuan would think of trying. He stood on our roof—hammer in his left hand, nail in his right—banging at the sky. … “look how clever our son is: He knows a needle and thread would never do it. You need a hammer and nails to patch up the heavens.”
Fav shorts were:
Six-Ear Macaque, Unseen Cities, Wheels Turn, If a Snowstorm Seals the Door, Prince of Morocco
Also, a collection of idioms/images that popped out to me throughout the book and conveyed the treasure of translation, both in opening one up to other cultural stories and also the fallible act of conversion:
- He had to choose, or he would be falling between two stools.
- He should take a few bites of life while young, then push the bowl aside and walk away.
- Wheels turn, so just forget about it.
- Everyone in the whole country knew that opportunity here was like birdshit—it would splatter on your head while you weren’t looking and make you rich.
- If a Snowstorm Seals the Door…
- Keep your pants on.
- A boat rises with the tide…
- Patching up the heavens was something only Chuan would think of trying. He stood on our roof—hammer in his left hand, nail in his right—banging at the sky. … “look how clever our son is: He knows a needle and thread would never do it. You need a hammer and nails to patch up the heavens.”
July 20, 2024
I did not enjoy reading this book. It is made up of a series of chapters, each disconnected from each other, except for characters that are common. However, overall, the narrative seemed fragmented, and the stories were rather silly. I found myself feeling excluded from the lives of the people in the story, rather included and indeed dragged into their lives. I read most of the book flying from Albuquerque to Boston and I just used the act of reading to pass the time of the flight. I was tempted to give up on the book but I had nothing better to do during the flight, and then I was 75% of the way through the book and it seemed foolish not to finish. It was not just the silly, fragmented storylines that I did not enjoy, but also the characters, which were shallow and superficial. I was not drawn in to connect with these people as fellow human beings. Furthermore, I have only just finished reading the book but I would be hard pushed to tell anyone what the book was about as it left me uninterested in what I was reading.
So, all in all, I found this book a waste of time. This is a great shame as it was my first reading of a contemporary Chinese writer and Xu Zechen seems to receive very good reviews for his writing. I will not however give up on Chinese writers.
So, all in all, I found this book a waste of time. This is a great shame as it was my first reading of a contemporary Chinese writer and Xu Zechen seems to receive very good reviews for his writing. I will not however give up on Chinese writers.
July 10, 2023
An engaging and fascinating book that looks at the lives of outsiders trying to eek out a living on the outskirts of Beijing. The book is made up of a series of loosely connected short stories told from the perspective of a 17 year old internal migrant named Muyu. Originally from a small town, Muyu spends much of his days on his apartment roof with his roommates playing cards and his nights roaming Beijing putting up advertisements for his uncle's fake ID business. The stories Muyu tells are little snapshots into the lives of the people he comes into contact with during his time in the city. The stories have a melancholic feel to them and often end in (sometimes violent) tragedy. Nevertheless, there is still a hope that persists in the characters in these stories who strive to survive and make meaning of their lives in a rapidly changing and growing city. I really loved the stories in this book and look forward to checking out Zechen Xu's other work.
October 16, 2024
Sorry to be a hater but this book was just kind of boring and didn’t move the needle for me. I didn’t feel a strong connection to the main character or any of his friends, I’m not even sure I could describe their personalities individually besides misanthropic and weird.
The stories felt kind of random (not in a good way) and usually just ended in some kind of jumbled up, violent way that didn’t wrap things up emotionally for me. Also, there were like 0 women in any of these stories which is odd in a book seemingly meant to showcase all the bizarre personalities in a city as big and notorious as Beijing. And also call me biased but I love big cities including Beijing so seeing it portrayed like it’s fucking Gotham City made me disinterested.
In short: Beijing rules sorry haters ✋🙄
The stories felt kind of random (not in a good way) and usually just ended in some kind of jumbled up, violent way that didn’t wrap things up emotionally for me. Also, there were like 0 women in any of these stories which is odd in a book seemingly meant to showcase all the bizarre personalities in a city as big and notorious as Beijing. And also call me biased but I love big cities including Beijing so seeing it portrayed like it’s fucking Gotham City made me disinterested.
In short: Beijing rules sorry haters ✋🙄
June 10, 2024
The book captures the constant hum of violence permeating through impoverished communities in hyper urban environments, in this case Beijing. It forces the reader to confront them as quotidian occurrences as and because the protagonists do. It’s a hard and yet somehow it’s also a possible position to take. Hard bc some fucked up shit happens in almost every chapter. Possible bc somehow I along with many others finished the book. Hard and possible parallels the attitude of the protagonists trying to make a way in Beijing and having to make a choice to continue or DNF. I read a lot of books set in Beijing bc I grew up there. This one felt particularly raw.
September 19, 2024
This short story collection portrays a city that’s full of creeps, crooks, and kids trying to survive. It’s dark and dreary, full of smog that chokes our protagonist as he goes through his morning runs. In each tale, there’s often a lesson about the world, usually that the world is worse than you could have imagined. That coming from the sticks to the big city and trying to make it takes a lot more than just good will. I think I got over this message after about the fourth story, but I appreciated the diverse cast of characters who populate this collection. I also appreciated the authors inventiveness with the different situations his characters would find themselves in.
January 26, 2024
A rotina por vezes violenta, triste, divertida e até sonhadora dos que vivem beirando a margem de uma sociedade que se transforma o tempo todo e que deixa alguns dos seus pra trás, como nosso bota-abaixo do início do século XX, com Pereira Passos decidido a modernizar e limpar a cidade. Independe dessa rotina e dessa vida em Beijing descrita no livro não ser mais tão contemporânea, o que fica é que independente e ser lá, em Nova Iorque, ou São Paulo, o sonho da cidade grande não acaba bem para todos. Ele não é para todos.
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