Rice

by Su Tong

Set in famine-stricken 1930s China, Rice chronicles the complete debasement of a city family after it takes in a young man named Five Dragons, a starving wanderer from the provinces whose desire for power and sex is insatiable. In this mesmerizing novel, Su Tong, China's most provocative young writer, explores the connections between hunger, sexuality, and brutality. Rice is used as food and currency, as an aphrodisiac and an implement of sexual torture, as a weapon for murder and a symbol of everything good. Lush and sensual, combining a strange comedy with a dark undercurrent of violence, and written in hypnotically beautiful prose, Rice is a novel of startling richness and furious creative energy.

Genres: China, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Asian Literature, Chinese Literature, Asia, Literature

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Su Tong (simplified Chinese: 苏童; traditional Chinese: 蘇童; pinyin: Sū Tóng; born January 23, 1963) is the pen name of Chinese writer Tong Zhonggui (童忠贵 Tóng Zhōngguì). He was born in Suzhou and lives in Nanjing.

He entered the Department of Chinese at Beijing Normal University in 1980, and started to publish novels in 1983. He is now vice president of the Jiangsu Writers Association. Known for his controversial writing style, Su is one of the most acclaimed novelists in China.

(from Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_Tong

Reviews

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 3 out of 5]

When it is asked ‘Is there anyone here who doesn't disgust me?’ the character could have been speaking for me about the novel itself. Su Tong’s Rice is a hellish portrait of humanity at its worst, rife with brutality and betrayal all beset by a rice shortage that furthers the direness of circumstances and opportunism. The novel follows Five Dragons, a rural rice farmer who flees to the city and finds his way into the family of a rice merchant only to abuse his powers and sire a family of the most foul people imaginable. A whole family affair of abuse and...well, affairs. You know, like families do, right? No? Okay so this is not a novel for the faint of heart, though the prose (brilliantly rendered into English by Howard Goldblatt) is so effortlessly gorgeous and creates an unsettling dissonance contrasted with the horrific actions it eloquently describes. It is a book that clings to you like filth and leaves you feeling soiled by it’s words, but is also impressively constructed. Like an inverse of the life-giving symbolism of rice, Rice the novel is an unflinching and fatalistic look at depravity when power is valued above human life and the generational trauma and horrors that spawn from such brutality.

‘Want to know how I managed to become what I am today? By nurturing that hatred. It’s the prize of human capital. You can forget your mother and father, but you must never relinquish your hatred.’

Rice feels in many ways like a disturbed version of The Good Earth and Marquis de Sade hellbent on a quest to uncover the spirit of degradation. While it is itself a critique on patriarchy, it is still so drenched in horrifying misogyny and sexual violence against women (not to mention an endless barrage of slurs against them) that a criticism of the novel as ‘torture porn’ would be valid. Women are relegated to being sexual objects or property—Five Dragon’s marriage to Cloud Weaver and then Cloud Silk being his rungs up the ladder to success—and when their only opportunity to have power is to use their sexuality, they are shamed for it. Five Dragons uses rice to disfigure women, children murder their siblings, everyone stabs each other in the back and there is such an absence of joy that the only positives seem to be enjoying when someone gets what they deserve even if you also dislike the one who delivers the comeuppance.

Five Dragons (more like Five Assholes in a Trench Coat, amirite?!) cares only for rice. He wishes to sleep on it, have sex on it, eat it, hoard it. Su Tong writes that ‘rice enveloping feminine flesh or feminine flesh wrapped around rice always drove him into a state of uncontrollable sexual desire.’ His life is bent towards rice and thereby the novel centers on rice as well. Much like how the landscape is more or less a character in a Western, here rice is practically the focal character and seems to be the primary motivation for most actions. Which is interesting, considering rice is a symbol of life and fortune yet here it becomes one of violence, death and devastation. This is well depicted in the multiple deaths occurring within rice. But rice also represents the desperation to acquire it and the lengths they will go to survive. Even at the expense of other’s lives.

‘This is the city: chaotic and filled with weird things that draw people like flies, to lay their maggoty eggs and move on. Everyone damns the city, but sooner or later they come anyhow.’

This desperation for rice brings us into the city, where we see rice function to unveil the cutthroat business world within the city with all underhanded deals, theft and general corruption surrounding the rice business. The city is full of single-skilled merchants that absolutely hate one another, separation into factions and crime families instead of collaborating or valuing community good. In the world of Rice a man will steal his own father’s gold teeth if it can get them a leg up, and possession of valuable goods overrides wanting to have any love within a family. And the brutality follows the family for generations, so much so that ‘There isn’t a decent human being in the family’ and Five Dragon’s son ‘was convinced that a core of darkness lay at the center of his family, darkness that thrived in an atmosphere of anger and insult.’ Great people to spend 200pgs with!

‘Who lives and dies in times like this is in the hands of fate, and there’s nothing anybody can do about it.’

If this wasn’t enough dreariness, the book also tends towards fatalism. Su Tong employs trains as a symbol quite effectively in the novel, the train as a vessel that is stuck on a track and can only move onward with several characters expressing that they feel like their path through life is much like a train racing forward. Late in the novel we see Cloud Silk’s impressions of people:

‘She believed that all people are condemned to live in isolation, beyond the help of others, that they must hide their cash boxes in the rafters or in a wall somewhere or beneath floorboards, that they spend part of their time walking in the light of day, and part hidden in darkness, where no one can see them.’

This sense of isolation permeates the novel, this idea that people are alone and at the mercy of others, hiding from the brutalities that await. This worldview seems only heightened by the world around them as famines drive families into early graves and people to do horrific acts to survive and, as the novel comes towards a close, Japan is on the way towards invasion. The image of the city as a coffin is likely the most powerful in the novel and we feel ourselves being lowered into the darkness along with it.

‘Throngs of them are murdered, or carried away by disease, or killed by depression and apoplexy, impaled on Japanese bayonets, or dispatched by Japanese bullets. For them the city is a gigantic coffin.’

This is a gorgeously written book and well crafted, though I did not find myself enjoying it despite that fact. I read it with my book club and everyone seemed to share that same sentiment. That said, there is a lot to ponder and admire in the crafting of the novel but I was eager to wash these characters away. There is no tragic hero here, or even a tale of redemption, just a brutal ride into depravity and suffering piled onto suffering. While I tend to enjoy books that leave me feeling unsettled and uncomfortable, this didn't leave me feeling the disgust came with much of a life lesson to ponder and the constant use of sexual violence against women and children wasn't my favorite. Though perhaps this was also because I read this entirely sitting on a beach while camping, so take this all with a grain of salt. Or of rice! This is quite the tale of dysfunctional families and a harrowing look at the dark side of humanity for those willing to take the plunge.

3/5

‘For them the city is a gigantic coffin. . . . An arm, shapeless yet limber and powerful, grows out of the coffin, which contains gold, silver, cash and other valuables, reaching into the streets and alleys to drag wanderers into the cold depths’

[Praj · Rating 4 out of 5]

The vacant page mutely gazing at me retells the current state of my mind. The sporadic cursor alternating the iridescent flashes of the gold teeth neatly aligned within Five Dragons’ proud mouth appears to be the solitary outlet alleviating the burden of my disorderly inferences about life, thriving within and around the Great Swan Rice Emporium. Startlingly, a habit I had once nurtured from my father found an uncanny presence among the pages of this manuscript, amid the raw rice kernels Five Dragons simultaneously popped in his mouth. The subtle aroma of freshly harvested rice maturing in several gunny bags, the blissful fragrant steam swirling from a humble bowl of boiled rice and the complacent hunger swaying to the tunes of mouthfuls of food stumble upon a significant bridge amalgamating personal nuances with those procured through fictitious consciousness yielding the magnitude of a modest food grain and its devastating persuasion. Su Tong’s artful phraseology dissolves along the sunlit streets of the Brick Mason Avenue casting forlorn memories of the quaint Maple-Poplar Village submerged in the nauseating innards of one entity, one defining personage, who compels to ponder on the humanistic possibilities and probabilities of redemption and retribution in the acrimony of deformed reality.

“Travellers from home are like stray dogs; they sleep when they’re tired, wherever they are and their expressions- lethargic and groggy at times ferocious at others are more doglike than human...... This is the city: chaotic and filled with weird things that draw people like flies, to lay their maggoty eggs and move on. Everyone damns the city, but sooner or later they come anyhow...”

An overpowering introspection of the 1930s China ; a land plagued with war, floods, famine and rebellion, plunged deeper into the darkest extremities of survival and life influenced by the delicate perception of an agricultural country and vulnerability of its populace. The rural territories ravaged by calamities, liable for hordes of homeless migrants swarming in the city , brings along an orphan from the Maple-Poplar Village on a strange journey where the long road ahead tempts with an endless supply of rice but is clueless of the destination where life and death meet. Five Dragons’ impression of the city evaluates the universal irony of two contradictory worlds triumphant in their own intrinsic virtuosity. The exodus depicts imaginative haven the rural folks concoct eventually surrendering to their temptations of fostered dreams of fame and wealth. Su Tong paints the harsh reality of the impervious glamorous city dwellings prioritizing the success rate of survival above all humanity , exemplifying an ugly truth of a ‘dog-eats-dog’ world brimming with black marketers, warlords, egocentrism, exploitation, murders, mutilations, torment and vengeance. The probability of a jade bracelet having a place in the family registry surpassed the accessibility of an ounce of love. The term “a great coffin” synonymous to the city elevates the significance of ‘rice’ through the degree of relationships between the country bumpkins and the city slickers, spiralling downwards onto a dais of corruption and consciousness.

Want to know how I managed to become what I am today? By nurturing that hatred. It’s the prize of human capital. You can forget your mother and father, but you must never relinquish your hatred.”

Are people condemned to live in isolation? Is a man born with the simmering emotion of hatred? Or, is it then ,the seeds of hatred are sown in the muddy waters of human manipulation, nurtured through season of egotism, infidelity, lowliness to the culmination of a vicious harvest of vengeance? Su Tong’s overwhelming portrayal of the sinister human nature entwines the cynicism of contemptuous standard of living and the sanguinity of a dream yet to be pursued, the rhythmic clatter of the railroad haunting the passage to time dilapidating flanked by delusion and veracity. Alongside the dream of improving his life, Five Dragons nurtured the bitter seeds of hatred, its shadows falling on the Feng family, its core of darkness thriving among seething anger and humiliation. The word 'pity' comes to my mind when the inherent images of the fated Feng family simultaneously click in the corner of my eye. The ugly side of the human nature corrode the benign innards through ceaseless suffocation and starvation to attain a sense of belonging and empathy. It is here that one stops reading the scripted prose and wonder whether life is simply a joke; clowning its way through the living. The yearly rice harvest being at the mercy of the whims and fancy of the nature; the imminent harvest callously being washed away by the sudden torrential rainfall. The puny shoots of peace withered into an impartial pairing of fortune and misfortune and the disgrace of feeling less than a human solidifying its monster approximating indestructible steel pounded through the furnace fires nurturing the sensation of hatred as an eternal tool in Wu Long’s troubled heart.

“Rice enveloping feminine flesh or feminine flesh wrapped around rice always drove him into a state of uncontrollable sexual desire.”

Su Tong’s vivid portrayal of a culture deeply rooted in its agricultural land symbolizes the annual survival of rice grains to the value of life and the heritage of a prevailing race. The cultivation of rice interprets the social, economical and political panorama of a country and the complexities of its populace. ‘Rice’ signifies the defining standard, the deciding scale upon which the stages of life and nature are carefully calculated; a method particularly central to the existence of Five dragons. The over implications of the act of illicit sex connote one of the imperative module in deciphering the state of sexual desire and the subsequent paradoxical measure to the “purity” of rice grains. The ruthless delineation of the abusive cycle of sex and violence in a misogynistic patriarchy traces its origins in the twisted psychological sentimentalities and habitual sadomasochism. Rice and sex are the two self-destructive forms of power and control seducing Five Dragons’ deepest sexual urges and sadistic fetishes. The expression of rice being more dependable and pragmatic than a woman congeals an irrational notion within Five Dragons of rice being much more “cleaner” than the woman being fucked or the act of sex. The tussle between the controlling calm over the presence of the “rice” and the chauvinistic power over the feminine flesh or to be precise the domination over a vagina, indicates a repulsive human personage crammed between the predatory yearnings and corrupted reality ; the mislaid human spirit clutching on to the wispy threads of love for a third lifeless entity. The widespread misogynistic attitude of strictly adhered in the sexual discrepancies and the obnoxious treatment meted out to the woman of the Feng family. The abusive state finding a justification in Cloud Weave’s heartening proclamation:-“The world is really strange. Men can play around all they want, but women aren't supposed to return the favour.......Well, this is one woman who’s going to play by her own rules...” Su Tong’s female protagonists steadily become a sensitive pictogram of patriarchal victimizations, powerless and pedestrian, their sexuality the solitary source of their emancipation however insignificant the exercise of free will may have been.

Rice, the life-sustaining crop, the first solid food fed to a child, the first auspicious offering made to honour the dead, the sovereign symbol of prosperity and fertility; disintegrates in the deficient social order appropriating an antonym to life. Rice defining all becomes its own contradiction.

“To him nothing was important than life itself, unless it was improving the quality of life.”

What makes us human? What makes us subhuman? Are these two terminologies correlated with the disquieting response favouring the tipping dimensions of absurdity? The poignant reminder, a single tear shed in search for familiar faces in the crowd demarcating the parallel worlds of “false” and “real”. The desire to live for the accomplishment of a dream and the desperation to survive out of the fear of death; what can be labelled as a “bona fide” life? The existence that thrive in covetousness and wealth yet beckoning the fall of humankind or the life dishonoured in the dregs of poverty and subhuman conduct inching to a similar deteriorating of humankind? And then what should be termed as a “false” life? The new set of gold teeth becomes the speech of a voiceless man, the trust for a humane recognition. The pomposity of materialistic power metamorphosed the “false” into “real” and vice-versa. The actual calcified teeth, an altruistic gift from the parents disposed for being speechless, the mortification disseminating into the haughtiness of a golden lust.

The conflict between man and society unearthing the evil human nature festers in an endless contempt harboured by the various penned characters of this book. In the brutal struggle to improve the quality of life, each surviving person evokes an animalistic side, fiercely battling to seek an ounce of happiness and unchallenging acceptance. Does then, the prejudicial communal outlook renders oneself to be hateful? Or merely in a distorted reality the fight for survival is marred with merciless policy?

“It was, after all, rice, and rice alone, that had a calming, cooling effect on him; all his life it had comforted him.”

The simple rice grain strenuously toiling in a steaming pot, rinsing all the impurities to produce one perfect bowl of steamed rice, is an animated testament of the blood, tears and sweat shed by the farmers to produce one glorious harvest, that develop into a life-source for millions of hungry stomachs. In the vicious battle of survival, the world of rice provides the ultimate comfort to Five Dragons, his true sense of belonging, redefining the perversion of enduring extremities. A boxful of finest white rice becomes his sole salvation linking the calamitous nature to the complexities of man. Besides a handful of white grains, there may be no redemption, may be a delayed retribution and certainly no love, yet there is a chance of fortitude through every mound of rice glistening from the gunny bags, rice, a symbol of survival. And, each day at supper it finds a well-merited place on my dining table.

[Fede · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a delight to read. Sensual, brutal, disturbing, Su Tong's depiction of life in famine-stricken South China is a masterfully rendered picture of abuse, greed, amorality and sordidness.
"Rice" combines a linear narrative with the powerful depiction of a society in full decay, perilously transitioning from tradition to modernity. It tells the rise and fall of a young peasant come to the city to escape starvation who, eventually, brings about the destruction of an already dysfunctional family of rice merchants by worming his way into it, acting like a catalyst for the hatred and violence all the members carry within themselves like a contagious disease.

Unlike most Realist literature, Su Tong's work is far from being an indictment of contemporary society: the China he writes about has long ceased to exist, wiped out by war, revolution, famines and, starting from the years his academic and literary career began, the effects of an economic expansion bound to drastically change a lifestyle made no longer viable by its inherent anachronism. Hence the moral neutrality of this novel.
The result is a remarkable achievement despite, or rather because of, the unpleasantness of the subject. Su Tong's prose is possibly the forerunner of a much desirable Asian in-yer-face lit, devoid as it is of restraint in portraying people at their worst. Not only this family saga is so replete with filth it makes one gag more often than not, but the author sees to it that none of the characters is ever capable of improvement, none of them could ever be suspected of having one redeeming quality, that no sorrow leads to catharsis. Whether it is inflicted or endured, evil serves no purpose other than the satisfaction of some appetite: for cruelty, sex, money, power. Even a rational motive like revenge is but a pretext for these wretched creatures to turn against each other and, eventually, against themselves.

Needless to say, "Rice" comes with plenty of trigger warnings: this mercifully short novel is crammed with sadism, incest, rape, child/animal/domestic abuse, misogyny, drugs and alcohol, along with graphic descriptions of bodily functions and the effects of venereal disease.
For all these reasons, reviewers on here and elsewhere tend to compare Su Tong to Zola at his bleakest. That's correct, except that the former takes nastiness to another level. His characters' violent streak runs deeper and eventually degenerates into psychopathy. Moreover, their language is much coarser. In fact Hubert Selby, Jr and Irvine Welsh came to mind, which I found surprising in a Chinese author I had never heard about but whose writing style caught my attention from the start (although being unable to judge on its accuracy, I found the English translation to be fluent and engaging).

So - if you're only going to read one Chinese book this year, keep this one in mind.

[Astrid · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought I had read one of the gruesome tales of Chinese history in fiction. Apparently after reading this book, dammit, it's another dark history of China, in one harsh plain and honestly way of telling.

It was set in the beginning of the 20th century and end when the Japanese "raid" most of the city in China. The story started from the flood that ruin the Mapple Poplar Village, of Five Dragons native village. He went to the city and start the journey of violence full of thirst on power and sex. There a family who own a rice store " The Rice Emporium" took after him, and eventually made him part of the family. He was married to Cloud Weave, which already swelling and pregnant from either the two important man she had slept with. One is the city most violent gangster and one is the boss. Cloud Weave left him after she got birth and become the fourth concubine of the mob master. Five Dragons continue his life in the Rice Emporium, surviving and end up marrying Cloud Silk, the younger sister of his "ex-wife".

The continuation of the family history was full of violence after another. Most of the characters are either plain brutal, cruel, and full of bitchiness. And rice always had something to do with them. On everything. From an obsession, food, trade, until part of some sex craze.

Ah, yes, after reading this book you'll never see and taste rice as the same thing ever again.

I wonder how Su Tong can make everything so real, plain and ordinary but in the same time logically sick and crazy. Such a wonderful brutal tale.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books. It isnt pretty or romantic, and there is absolutely nothing redeeming about any of the characters - which is what makes it so fantastic. You follow the lead characters story all the way through because you expect redemption. You know he starts in tragedy, so you follow him as he becomes vile and you wait the entire book for that moment where he rewards you for paying attention. But he never does. It makes me think about how we are sometimes willing to forgive people anything if they can make us pity them enough; yet we vilify strangers so easily without asking any questions.

[AriBa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Five Dragons leaves his rural hometown after a catastrophic flood and takes his chances of fortune and a better life in the city.

With that out of the way I thought this book was bad. It started off normally, then people began talking but there were no quotation marks. This was slightly distracting and I eventually got used to this but by then it had developed into something really graphic. I have no problem with unapologetic and brutally honest stories, but this moody atmosphere laboured on and on and it got really tedious. New characters would be introduced and they would spew hate back and forth at each other, always trying to get the last word. Then they would disappear or get killed off. There must have been some kind of depressant in that city's rice as nobody really cared about anyone. And Five Dragons' demeanour seemed to switch from lowly country boy to complete bastard almost out of nowhere. And by the end when he plays his "I'm a victim of my own misfortune and I'm scared of death but I still hate everyone" card I just didn't care anymore. I was just happy to have finally finished reading it.

This book was translated from the original Chinese book, so I don't know, maybe there was something that was lost in translation... like quotation marks. Recommended if you like reading about life with people who hate everything and everyone.

[Freddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully grotesque. I love how rice is used as a surprisingly dark motif. The story is ugly in a stylish way.

[Len · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have ever watched or listened to a kitchen sink drama and thought working class life is tough, it is nothing compared to urban life in 1930s China. The world of Brick Mason Avenue and the Great Swan Rice Emporium, their residents and visitors had become violent and unforgiving after years of poor harvests had made rice a valuable product, encouraging greed and the avarice of local crime lords.

Enter Five Dragons, a young man desperate to escape the poverty his rural home town of Maple-Poplar Village had been plunged into when floods wiped away the paddy fields and the food supply. Five Dragons had few scruples and even fewer morals. He was ambitious and determined not to remain poor, whatever the cost and whoever he hurt, and in the cruelty and corruption stakes he was up against some stiff opposition. The emporium owner, Proprietor Feng, was stingy, even miserly; his older daughter Cloud Weave was a lady of easy virtue, as it may once have been put, and quite happy if people knew it; the younger daughter Cloud Silk was normal and dutiful and therefore at a considerable disadvantage. To add to the family's troubles, Cloud Weave's latest lover was the district crime boss, Sixth Master, a man who ran a gang known as the Wharf Rats to control the flow of rice in and out of the port with an iron grip.

As the story develops and Five Dragons marries into the Feng family, everyone, young and old, proves to be violent and untrustworthy - except for Cloud Silk. The list of deaths and abuses steadily mounts: executions, stabbings, beatings, explosions. Over the years even the children become involved. Five Dragon's son Rice Boy, aged ten, murders his little sister Little Bowl by burying her alive in a mound of rice. His punishment is to be bound by his father, suspended from the ceiling, and have one of his legs smashed by repeated blows with a club. There is some justice. Sixth Master runs to Shanghai to avoid the Japanese invaders and is murdered by the big city gangsters as a warning to any other small town criminals entering their territory, and Five Dragons suffers all the agony and disfigurement of the venereal diseases he well deserves.

In the whole of the book I cannot recall a single moment of happiness or innocent satisfaction. Even though I understand these were desperate times in China, and I appreciate the depiction of events is almost certainly accurate, it is a difficult read. Not because of the violence, the social depravity or the overall brutality in a society forced to rarely forgive and never forget an injury. No, reality on this scale forbids happy endings. Even a smile has a sharp edge of derision or vengeance achieved. I can't truthfully say I enjoyed the book but I was impressed by its style and strength of purpose.

[Mirvan. Ereon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is all about rice. I cannot imagine that rice can be such a powerful thing. It can give life as the obvious is showed, it can be an item of dispute and it can also be a cause of death. Murder, sex, violence, weird situations and disgusted workings of madness abound this wonderful work of art. It is filled with so many interesting things and heart-stopping beauty that are usually discussed in length in huge Russian novels but here, they are inexplicably concise and well-written the way the Chinese love to do it.

His books changed me. It made me love violence and erotic gore so much that I wanted to be a writer like him. Su Tong is the best Chinese writer for me!

Will want to reread this again because it still haunts me even today.

[Nati Vozian · Rating 5 out of 5]

O lectura captivanta si halucinanta. O călătorie in lumea umbrelor umane - dușmăniei, decadentei, invidiei, urii, răzbunării si vanității, lăcomiei . O lume in care nu exista conceptul de iertare, pace si dragoste. O metaformofoza a minții, a sufletului eroului principal.
Su Tang a reușit cu o precizie aproape inginereasca, sa creioneze un personaj de o complexitate emoțională nemaipomenita, într-un decor simplu. Acesta a găsit Combinația perfecta intre nuanțele cele mai închise ale paletei emoționale , suspans si realitate, thriller si istorie, naivitate si mister, zbucium si obsesie, mila si dispreț, solidaritate si nedreptate.

[Joanne, drinker of tea, reader of books, servant to cats · Rating 3 out of 5]

A horrible book about horrible people. But strangely compelling.

Not one person in the book has a single redeeming quality. They are selfish, rude, violent, and totally foul to each other.

Yet, there is beauty in the writing.

Beautiful prose is used to tell an ugly story. One that will leave you with a compulsion for soap and hot water when you have finished reading the last page.

[Laura Vermeeren · Rating 3 out of 5]

A hard and long-winded story of decay full of pus, sadism, violence and wounds. Well written, well translated too, but still I was happy when it was over. Had a shower.

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rice is a piercing, up-front, brutal story chronicling the multi-generational fall of a family. It paints a symbolic and depraved picture of generational trauma, pain, violence, and revenge-- illustrating that anger is disease and rice is power


style: 4.5 stars
language: 4.5 stars
characters: 3.5 stars
atmosphere: 4.5 stars
plot: 4 stars
themes: 4.5 stars
enjoyment: 4 stars
overall: 4 stars

[Attila Gáspár · Rating 5 out of 5]

Egy történet, amelyet úgy lehet imádni, hogy közben minden egyes szereplőjét szívből és megérdemelten gyűlölöd.

[Autumn Kearney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first page-turner that I hated every character in the book. I couldn't put it down, though.

[Tina Tamman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yet another book I could not finish. I have always been fascinated with China and obviously thought when I bought the book that it would help me understand something of the country. About half-way done, I just had to abandon it because the people are so horrible to each other in the novel.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not an easy book to read, as it is the life story of one of literature's most thoroughgoing villains, a man known as Five Dragons. Su Tong's Rice takes place in the 1930s in an unnamed Chinese port city, where a former peasant worms his way into the Great Swan Rice Emporium. He manages to marry, in sequence, the two daughters of Proprietor Feng. He allies himself with a violent gang known as the Wharf Rats. As he rises in power, he commits various acts of infamy that lead to the overthrow of Crime Boss Sixth Master. In the end, his greatest enemy is himself, as he catches a particularly virulent type of venereal disease just as the Japanese invade his city.

[Juliet · Rating 1 out of 5]

Set in a time of famine, this story had the potential to provide a thoughtful look into early 20th century China after the Japanese raid. Instead, the incoherent thought stream and little actual description of the world outside the main character's mind created a story that read more like the inner consciousness of a deranged psychopath. Every single character was cruel and despicable and lacked any redeeming quality. I was properly horrified but not in a good way. The beginning was promising, as the moody atmosphere provided a good backdrop. Since this book is translated from its original Chinese, one can only hope that (most of) the novel was lost in translation.

[Daphne · Rating 1 out of 5]

In this translated version of Rice, everyone is catty, callous, cruel and calculative. They lie, scheme and argue through life, without any seeming redeeming qualities. Why does so and so do this or that? No rhyme or reason it would seem, except maybe that the world they inhabit runs by these rules. Certainly puts the saying 'dog eat dog world' to shame. In fact, so arbitrarily do the people in Rice behave, that I am at times convinced that Su Tong (or his translator) are absurdists at work.

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly powerful book that will make you feel uncomfortable and disturbed. Brimming with anger against the rich, the story of a family's rise and fall will leave a big impression on you. I highly recommend it - its gripping stuff and well written.

[Bogdan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Story - marvelous. Characters - couldn't be better. Writing - Crisp, concise, straight to the point. How could you rate it lower than this?

The only downside of this novel is the slightly rough language and crude scenes. But if you have the stomach to get over these, it is a marvelous novel!

[Theresa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Creepy and disturbing.

Imagine if Pearl S. Buck's "The Good Earth" was mixed together with the Marquis De Sade's "Crimes of Passion". Kinda made my skin crawl a little.

[WiceWine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Synopsis:

Rice follows the fictional tale Five Dragons who is a poor twenty year old from a rural village of rice farming. Five Dragons decides to move to the city despite his hatred of it in search of wealth and fortunes. In the city Five Dragons begs a rice seller to work for him in return for rice and a place to sleep; although the shopkeeper did not have to accept this request he did with a somewhat kind heart. However, Five Dragons is not filled with gratitude but instead with resentment, complaints, and demands. Rice tells the twisted tale of a man who commits violence and evil to obtain his greatest desire: Rice.

review:
Tong simply tells the story, he does not put forth an idea (e.g. murderers should be criminalised and sentenced to death) nor does he try to persuade the reader to conform to a certain idea, value and/or theme. As stated, Tong merely narrates the story and this is why I believe the mere narration of a violent story is more dangerous than a violent story that attempts to persuade or dissuade readers of certain ideas.

Whatever is contained within Rice is what is normal to the characters within Rice. For example, violence, murder, torture, rape, and domestic abuse is the norm for these individuals, they were born into families and a society that accepts and normalises these issues. Characters within Rice believe that these issues are not issues but are instead the norm and what is acceptable.

The women in Rice were born into families and a society and culture that is extremely sexist and misogynistic; this results in the female characters of this story to then develop internalised misogyny and internalised sexism. Instead of empathising and supporting other female victims they become blamers and perpetrators. What none of the characters within Rice succeeded to do was break generational traumas. No one made the decision to leave the toxicity and to find healthy and live a lawful life. Everyone decided to continue staying in the mud and rolling in it; generation after generation the curse of trauma continues since no one decides to uproot and change.

Silk Weave recited her mother’s saying which was “Whenever an evil creature is born, the heavens weep, and when that creature dies the sky clears.” In reference to this saying, Silk Weave was thinking about her husband the evil Five Dragons, but what she fails to realise is that she and the children she birthed also are evil creatures. What she fails to realise is that the heavens will not cease weeping nor will the sky clear because the creatures within her lineage will continue being and becoming evil due to the generational trauma no one is willing to severe.

Every character was born into a family that normalised violence and evil.
Every character was born into a culture that normalised violence and evil.
Every character was born into a society that normalised violence and evil.

Therefore violence and evil was the norm, meaning that every character was part of that herd and had a herd mentality which they were unable to break free from. Because violence and evil is a norm within the environments of Rice, a reader can fall victim to herd mentality unconsciously. Whilst reading you can unknowingly become immune to social issues since there is no longer a severity or weight to them. This is why I think it is so important whilst reading to discern, to have your own thoughts and to make weighted judgements. Furthermore not just whilst reading, but also in real life; in social situations and in social settings and friend groups. What is right and what is wrong? What is moral and what is immoral? You are your own individual, do not fall victim to toxic and dangerous herd mentality.

[helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a shame to say that the first Chinese book that isn't a translation I've read in a long time was not much of a read. I went as far as the fifth chapter, hoping there would be some redeeming quality in Wu Long's sneering, selfish character (as I see it), which might be a cliché thing to expect from a story's protagonist, but found none. I couldn't bring myself to like him for one minute, and not even because he had no good in him, but because even his rottenness seemed a bit bland and vague. He has no motivation, not even an evil one, and the only reason he has arrived where he is is to escape his flooded hometown; the highlight of the day for him is flirting with the rice shop's elder daughter and having sordid fantasies about her at night. Which is all fine by me, including the constantly demeaning comments about women Su's characters spew (because let's face it - there still are people in the world and in China, especially in the countryside, who treat women like mere objects and sluts), but Su's writing style just put a damper on the already meh mix of elements. Perhaps it is not so apparent in the English version, but the way Su describes people, scenarios and dialogues feels like he's taking from a book of stock phrases, feels way too straightforward and flavourless for someone who has studied literature at a prestigious university (I forget which).
So maybe there was a deeper message behind all the blandness of language and lack of charisma in the characters, perhaps Su Tong was trying to discuss matters of morality in modern society etc. etc., but sadly I didn't have the patience to entertain all the flaws I saw in this book and accompany Wu Long until his journey's end.

[Ann Myhre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boka handler menneskene i en risbutikk i en kinesisk by på begynnelsen av 1900-tallet. Dit kommer Wulong, en ung mann som har mista foreldrene sine i den stor sulten da han var liten gutt, og nå jaget fra landsbyen sin på grunn av flom. Var ikke familien i risbutikken stakkarslige og ondskapsfulle før han kom, blei de det i hvert fall i løpet av de 20-30 årene Wulong bodde hos dem, gifta seg først med den eldste datteren, så den yngste, før han sjøl fikk tre barn der eldste sønnen drepte lillesøstera (i ris ... ), og blei skada så hardt av faren at han mista kraften i det ene beinet.
Det er også interessant at folk i boka treffer på japanerne som har invadert byen deres. Og ja, japanerne er beskrevet så gærne som de visst nok var.

Hele boka foregår mer eller mindre i risbutikken, og alle menneskene i boka er usympatiske. Jeg har faktisk aldri lest en bok før der alle er råtne, ødelagte, skada, kranglete, skrikende, kjeftende, torturerende. Alle, kvinner og menn, barn og gamle, alle. Det fins ikke en dråpe håp i denne boka.
Alle som har lest Three Body Problem veit at Ye Wenjie forteller de utenomjordiske at de bare kan komme og ødelegge jorda, og jeg tenker at hun har lest denne romanen og veit hva Mennesket er i stand til mot andre mennesker.

Boka er skrevet i et effektivt, fargeløst språk, enten så regner det og alt er vått, eller så skinner sola og det er hetende varmt.

Dette er ikke en bok for folk som tenderer mot håpløshet og depresjon, dette er en bok for sånne som meg, en gammel dame som har lært seg å le av det absurde her på jorda.

Jeg lånte boka på svensk på biblioteket i Kristinehamn, Sverige.

[Madalina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un roman psihosocial presarat cu scene naturaliste care dezvaluie drama unei familii din Shanghaiul inceputului de secol XX. Pe fondul unor framantari interne si al foametei, iar mai tarziu al ocupatiei japoneze, orezul este aproape personaj in carte. Desi menit sa asigure traiul de zi cu zi, declanseaza izbucniri si intrigi nebanuite in familia Feng. Baiat de la tara sosit in Shanghai numai cu hainele de pe el, Cinci-Dragoni ia contact cu lumea cruda si egoista a orasului, iar orezul va fi obsesia lui pe parcursul intregii vieti. Stilul narativ este interesant, dialogul nu este marcat prin linie de dialog, iar in unele cazuri nici prin aliniat, ceea ce face ca dialogurile sa para mai mult auzite decat citite, curgînd mult mai natural in acest fel. Personajele sunt oameni simpli, iar limbajul lor e pe masura. Unele sunt stapanite de instincte primare, iar toleranța aproape ca nu exista in relatiile dintre ele. De fapt, destinul insusi nu e tolerant cu niciun personaj de aici. Daca violenta oamenilor si cruzimea sorții acestora nu te oripileaza sau esti dispus sa suporti o poveste crunta de viata de dragul unei scriituri originale si captivante, "Lumea de orez" este o alegere potrivita.

[Floris Meertens]

Bruut.

Ik heb zelden zo'n zwartgallig boek gelezen. Sympathie voor de personages kwam er niet echt bij kijken. Dit kom aan de ene kant omdat ze allemaal verknipt waren (en continue iemand anders zoeken om de schuld te geven van het tragische lot van de familie), en aan de andere kant omdat er zoveel naars gebeurt dat je als defensiemechanisme maar een onverschillige houding aanneemt.

Niet dat het vreselijk was om te lezen. Met name de stukken over de dubbelzinnigheid van de stad vond ik interessant. In het dorp is er honger en armoede, maar lijkt het leven nog eerlijk. De stad is aantrekkelijk, maar corrumpeert alles.

"De stad is een enorme opgesierde begraafplaats. Die gedachte kwam vaak ‘s nachts bij Wulong op. Steden zijn ontstaan voor de doden. Er duiken zoveel mensen op in de drukke chaotische straten, alleen maar om weer te verdwijnen, net als waterdruppels voor de zon. Ze sterven, al die mensen, door moord, door ziekte, van verdriet, of door een kogel of een bajonet van een Japanse soldaat. De stad is voor hen een grenzeloos grote, geopende doodskist, waaruit zwarte fabrieksrook opstijgt, samen met poeders en parfums en andere intieme lichaamsgeuren van vrouwen, en die gevuld is met kostbaarheden van goud en zilver, dure kleding en fijne spijzen."

[iansomething · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel has glimpses of brilliance but halfway through, I was through with it. Every character was so toxic and the arguing was so rife I’d be more eager ending a chapter than starting a new one. So I stopped, at page 142z

Here are some notes and quotes from the book -

“This is the city: chaotic and filled with weird things that draw people like files, to lay their maggoty eggs and move on.”

Exodus

As he struggled to sit up, he tired to recall what had happened the night before. But his mind was a blank. The taste of alcohol and greasy meat clung to the inside of his mouth. It was like a bad dream.

Five Dragons, mesmerised, followed them down filthy streets, crowds of people, past fruit stands, rickshaws, and an array of shops.

A private utopia taking shape in his head.

Five Dragons looked into the sky above the rice shop. It was the same steel gray he had gotten used to seeing, the morning sun hidden behind clouds that were turning dark red around the edges, like scabs dying in the wind.

That’s a girl for you, turning ugly at the slightest provocation, from lovely flower to dog shit in the blink of an eye.

Six Master’s gaze rose, slowly tracing the curves of her body until it came to rest on her face.

A faraway look in her eyes.

[P.A. Pursley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story of Five Dragons. It is his search for fame and fortune. But in his quest to find a better life than the one he was doomed to in the little town he grew up in, he finds only hard times and trails. Some at the hands of his new family and some at the hands of those who resented him. It is his struggle to find himself in the very thing he ends up losing himself to...Rice.

Beautifully written and tragically told, this book gives us a view of WWII China and the struggles of its citizens.

If you enjoy historical fiction, stories about Eastern culture, and stories about everyday people, this book is for you.

[Bimana Novantara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tidak ada karakter baik di cerita ini. Semua orang menampakkan sifat licik, kejam, pendengki, dan tempramental. Yang laki-laki mengumpat, menyiksa, mengumbar birahi, menghamburkan uang. Yang perempuan suka selingkuh, menyeleweng, bergosip, mengutuk nasib. Kehidupan keluarga pun tak ada yang wajar. Hubungan suami istri selalu tegang dan bertengkar, anak-anaknya bermental bobrok dan senang memberontak. Mereka semua digerakkan semata-mata oleh nafsu, dendam, amarah dan kebencian. Cerita ini bukan lain adalah rentetan dekadensi yang merupakan konsekuensi dari busuknya kehidupan kota dan betapa ambisi pribadi memiliki daya rusak yang begitu hebat dan membawa manusia pada kebangkrutan moral.