Old Kiln

by Jia Pingwa

1966, China is on the cusp of a decade of upheaval, and the furnaces of Old Kiln have never been this cold. The village's once-famed ceramics production has almost ground to a halt. Only ancient grudges smoulder beneath its poverty-stricken streets, never forgotten by the two families that preside over the village. Between them stands the adopted Inkcap, whose mysterious origins leave him unloved and barely tolerated.

When the faraway capital demands a purer party line, the directive trickles down to this hinterland and revolutionary factions form. Clashing visions for a new future unravel the tight-knit community along clan lines.

Genres: China, Fiction

952 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jia_Pingwa

Reviews

[Graeme · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tighter editorial hand might have reduced some of the occasionally excruciating - not to say scatological - detail of Shaanxi village life in the 1960s. But any failings are more than made up for by the sympathetic and convincing depiction of how the cultural revolution played out at village level. To say this is not a common theme of contemporary Chinese fiction would be putting it mildly (I rather suspect a lesser known writer than Jia would have had great difficulty getting this published). Well worth a read, for those with a certain degree of patience.

[Tony Wang · Rating 4 out of 5]

很有特点的一部小说，我也不知道算不算好。不过读进去还是很吸引人的。故事很缓慢，很零散，把古炉的风貌和变革中的动荡一点点表现出来了。把古炉人的愚昧、小聪明、质朴、自私和善恶都展现得很丰满。写得如此之长，我觉得会把很多读者在中途刷掉。