Peacock Cries

by Hong Ying, Mark Smith (Translation)

Hong Ying surpasses her previous novel, The Art of Love , with a novel of heightened political and sexual -tension set around the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. The largest construction project in the history of China, the dam opens in June 2004. Its controversial -reservoir will cut the famous Gorge to one third of its height and submerge the whole area, the cradle of Chinese civilization for three millennia. When Beijing scientist Liu goes to visit her husband, the director of the dam project, she discovers he is being unfaithful and flees to her hometown. Taking refuge with her Auntie Chen, Liu is told by Chen how her mother gave birth to her in the midst of political turmoil and how both mother and daughter nearly died for lack of help. Chen’s own son, Yueming, was born at the same time as Liu and is now a painter and key figure in a local cult bent on sabotaging the dam’s construction. Finding themselves drawn together, Liu and Yueming realize they are a reincarnation of the prostitute Red Lotus and a Buddhist priest, whose affair led to their vilification and whose naked crucifixion is described in graphic sexual detail. With the souls of Red Lotus and the priest cementing the couple’s attachment, Liu’s decision to join Yueming in protesting against the dam means she must ultimately face imprisonment. Peacock Cries boldly tackles the subjects of rein-carnation and spiritual quest in the face of economic development. Hong Ying was born in Chingqing in 1962 into a sailor’s family. She was the sixth child in a family of eight and endured great poverty and hunger as a child during the Great Famine and the Cultural Revolution.

Genres: China

334 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Hong Ying was born in Chongqing in 1962, towards the end of the Great Leap Forward. She began to write at eighteen, leaving home shortly afterwards to spend the next ten years moving around China, exploring her voice as a writer via poems and short stories. After brief periods of study at the Lu Xun Academy in Beijing and Shanghai’s Fudan University, Hong Ying moved to London in 1991 where she as writer. She returned to Beijing in 2000.
Best known in English for the novels K: the Art of Love, Summer of Betrayal, Peacock Cries, and her autobiography Daughter of the River, Hong Ying has been published in twenty- nineteen languages and has appeared on the bestseller lists of numerous countries, she won the Prize of Rome for K: the Art of Love in 2005 and many of her books have been or are now in the process of being turned into television series and films.
Hong Ying has long been interested in the stories of homosexuals living in China, a theme explored here and in her short story collection, A Lipstick Called Red Pepper: Fiction About Gay and Lesbian Love in China 1993-1998. In her work, she likes to focus on human stories, hardship and history. Her responsibility as a writer, she believes, is in part to explore the lives of marginalised groups struggling for visibility – and for compassion – in contemporary China.

Chinese Profile: 虹影

Reviews

[Teodora · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has everything. Beautiful writing, amazing description of some typical chinese imageries, contrast between rural China and fast developing China and of course the powerful woman named Liu whose character is very well developed. The novel gives us answers to many questions such as what is the role of woman in society and what is the cost of rapid urbanisation of China. We constantly shift back and forward from modern China to period of Chinese Revolution while the whole plot revolves around contraversial Dam Project directed by Liu's husband. This book is an amazing way to find out more about chinese history and culture through Hong Ying's breathtaking writing.

[Floris Meertens]

Dit boek kan best goed worden geadapteerd tot een boeddhistische Netflix-romcom!

Een succesvolle vrouw uit de grote stad heeft een afstandelijke relatie met haar (rijke, zaken)man, en er lijkt iets mis in de relatie. Ze probeert hem te ontmoeten en reist naar de Drie Kloven, een pittoreske plek met natuurschoon dat dreigt te verdwijnen door een grootschalig damproject. Ze missen elkaar net, en ze blijft daar maar wat langere tijd, ook om een oude vriendin van haar moeder te spreken. Er is veel contrast met haar chique lifestyle en het platteland met de arme boerenbevolking. Langzaam (of nou ja, alles speelt zich af in drie dagen) raakt ze verliefd op de omgeving (en een eerlijke leraar/schilder) maar dan! Politiek gekonkel, en wie doet eraan mee?? Haar man! En wie verzet zich? Haar nieuwe vlam! En welke rol speelt het verleden? Is iemand ooit echt dood, of bestaat reïncarnatie echt?

Maar even serieus: ondanks wat clichés best een goed boek; de boeddhistische invalshoek verraste me, de corruptiebeschrijvingen waren wat vaag maar dat vond ik juist wat hebben, dat het niet een heel extreem kwaad was.

[Irene · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

[Scaffale Cinese · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hong Ying racconta una storia in cui intreccia sapientemente elementi autobiografici e storici, drammi individuali e collettivi. Cosa ha significato la costruzione della Diga delle Tre Gole per gli abitanti della remota contea di Liang? Che prezzo sono stati costretti a pagare? Hong Ying risponde a questi interrogativi costruendo dei personaggi che danno voce agli ultimi, a coloro che non hanno potuto far altro che adeguarsi alle decisioni giunte dall’alto. Non è concesso loro esprimere le proprie perplessità, decidere di restare a vivere nei luoghi nativi, difendere le proprie origini. La protagonista, come la scrittrice, entra dentro la loro sofferenza, comprende le loro inquietudini, dà loro voce.
Il risultato è un romanzo che mescola sapientemente introspezione, sentimento e denuncia, animato da personaggi dal forte impatto emotivo, che rendono la storia credibile, portando il lettore a riflettere su aspetti, più o meno noti, della realtà cinese.

[Jean Nicholson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been in my bookcase for a few years. I always thught I had read it but discovered I hadn't when i started to read it. It covers the problems facing the people in one village who are going to have to resettle and the chaos that the cadres make. It is also a story of a political marriage and covers so many years of upheaval in China. i have read many books set in china ocer the past 60 yearsand now its Sci-Fi writer is a favourite. if you are interested in China at the time of the start of the three Gorges read this book. It makes you think.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This probably deserves 3.5*s, it is a very interesting novel of learning about oneself and those around you, a sort of second awakening. It is slow to get started and the end is kind of poor, but the central part of the novel is excellent. The protagonist is a very accomplished, but in many ways an unfulfilled woman, who knows nothing of her true background or her parents and slowly learns the truths and sees herself possibly following in those not very nice truths in her own life. As always the story is well told and the novel is well written...

[caitlyn - kai 🍓🤍 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book intrigued me because of the significant background of the Cultural Revolution and also the connection with the author's past. This book was fairly interesting but it did confuse me with the level of economics involved. It also took me awhile to get into it.

[David]

Letteratura cinese

[Angela Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bello, bellissimo, intenso fino alle ultime 50 pagine poi una fine senza senso, un appiattimento dei personaggi, delle parole senza una trama…boh

[Breña · Rating 3 out of 5]

Das Buch war für mich keines, das ich wirklich mit Genuss gelesen habe, ich habe es dennoch gerne gelesen. Die Protagonistin Liu Cui bleibt uns als europäschen Lesern fremd, ich glaube aber, dass liegt daran, dass uns der Kulturkreis selbst so fremd ist. In Asien zeigt man seine Gefühle nicht, Liu unterdrückt ja z.B. ihre Wutausbrüche, obwohl sie sich selbst als moderne Frau versteht, der diese Gefühlsäusserung in den gegebenen Umständen sogar zustünde. Gleichzeitig sind die Themen, die Hong Ying verarbeitet, sehr komplex. Auf der einen Seite die politischen Machtspielchen, Korruption und Klassengrenzen, die Liu hautnah miterlebt, auf der anderen Seite ihre Erkenntnisse über die Familiengeschichte, die eng mit politischen Ereignissen verknüpft ist. Fast nebenbei erlangt man Einblicke in den chinesischen Alltag und stellt fest, dass die um jeden Preis als westlich-modern gelten wollende Gesellschaft immernoch tief von traditionellem Denken geprägt ist. Das ganze Buch hindurch bewegt man sich zwischen den Extremen: früher - heute, arm - reich, moralisch - unmoralisch, männliche - weibliche Geschlechterrolle, Wissenschaft - Aberglaube... Darunter leidet die Erzählung leider etwas, und besonders nachdem ich das Nachwort gelesen hatte, verstärkte sich mein Gefühl, dass Hong Ying sich hier etwas zu viel vorgenommen hat.

[Ada Bonnefoi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Liu Cui is a busy scientist who works at a prestigious Beijing laboratory. Her husband, a director, at a large dam project in the south and they see each other rarely. One day she receives a gift from him that makes her suspicious: a perfume flacon. Does he have an affair? To find out, Liu Cui travels to their old home on the Yangtze river and the Three Gorges Dam, hailed as the ninth wonder of the world. She discovers something much more cruel than adultery. She sees expulsion and corruption on behalf of the government, on behalf of her husband. A short visit becomes a trip back into the past of her family. What had her father to do with a prostitutes death?

Unfortunately the book does not always succeed and it is hard work actually to keep all the details in hand to follow a thread. There is alot about the Three Gorges Dam, corruption and enviromental degradation, and lots of inhuman behavior in the name of government.

A novel with an agenda probably, still a sensual story.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

only one other person reviewed this book. it deserves better. She deserves better. I could talk about what the book is about but that is not what I do. I just comment on how the author affected me, changed me, interrupted me, inspired me..that kind of stuff. OKay at this point I don't have much to say. I am kind of perplexed, not the brightest of lads so I don't really know what this book is about actually. Like I just got hit in the head with a baseball and I am having a concussion. I love this author and possibly this book is one of her in-between efforts, not her best stuff...ya know what I mean? [god I hate that cliche]

its one of those books a commentary from a deep place that is very personal and hard to understand. but I like the intent. I too think...yes...am I part of past life in this life? and next life? what will I be?

[Lara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know what it was about this book, but for an author who had so much experience with the English language I felt that this book was just poorly written. The sentence structure was choppy and there was no flow in the prose at all. I wasn't really interested in the storyline or the writing style to continue.

[Antonella Moretti · Rating 2 out of 5]

L'ho letto anni fa e me lo ricordo blando e sconclusionato.