Turbulence

by Jia Pingwa, Howard Goldblatt (Translator)

In this dazzling, earthy novel -- winner of the prestigious Pegasus Prize for Literature -- Jia Pingwa presents an unforgettable chronicle of rural China, a world at once utterly alien and uncannily familiar. Called "impressive and revealing" (Kirkus Reviews), Turbulence follows the lives of two peasants, Golden Dog and Water Girl, through the post-Mao years and sets their star-crossed love for each other against the political upheavals of China itself. Pitted against the bureaucracy that hamstrings modern China, Golden Dog is an idealistic reporter not afraid to lash out at the abuses and corruption of the rival Tian and Gong clans. As he winds through a fascinating cast of revolutionary cadres, bureaucrats, fortune-tellers, blacksmiths, farmers, and artisans, Golden Dog, however, suffers a series of setbacks. Despite his love for the saintly Water Girl, the two seem destined to be kept apart by the vicissitudes of politics and culture -- she twice widowed and he pressured into an engagement with the seductive Yingying and, racked by guilt, turning at times to the lovely Shi Hua for solace. Part epic story, part love story, part political parable, Turbulence places the reader in a world where the I Ching exists alongside The Thoughts of Chairman Mao. Yet the sheer humanity of the novel transcends both cultural and political differences and makes it stunningly resonant to our own culture. "A rare, richly detailed, and insightful account of life in a Chinese village ... With earthy language and bawdy humor." -- Ann Scott Tyson, The Christian Science Monitor

Genres: Fiction, China, Chinese Literature, Collections

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

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

Reviews

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lengthy, but absorbing. The writing is simple but successful and the characters are memorable. When I finished it, I felt something akin to an emptiness inside upon the realization that I would no longer be reading it.

[Stan Murai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Turbulence (浮躁 ) is the first novel by Jia Pingwa (贾平凹) to be translated into English. Several of his books have been translated into Japanese and French; some of his works have already been adapted into films. He is one of China's most successful and popular writers, but relatively unknown to English speaking readers.

The main character Gold Dog is a peasant who becomes a journalist and experiences successes and misadventures while relentlessly attempting to expose the corruption rampant in the bureaucracy of the post-Mao era, now undergoing economic reforms that are supposed to benefit the people of China. This young reporter's is trying to base a career on the ideas of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Zhu De, whose legacy needs to be preserved in actions that serve the interests of the people. This is a richly detailed work that develops its narrative against a backdrop of the beauty and natural disasters, floods and drought that are part of poeple's lives in the region of south Shaanxi province 陕西省). It is also a story of a romance with the woman Water Girl, whom Gold Dog loves and two other women who intrude on that relationship.

I found this story particularly fascinating because of my own personal family ties with this region in China. The actual local speech and customs are accurately depicted in this book. Much of the culture including superstitions, family, clan relationships, belief systems, food can all be experienced by readers. The translator Howard Goldblatt has made this novel available and accessible as a highly readable and interesting work.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

看得出是30多岁的作品： 一腔热血看世间一片迷茫。读这篇不是那种能出世冷眼旁观的视角，而是深陷浮躁的泥沼，拔不出踏入尘世的双腿，又偏借和尚之言欲于自性中万法皆见。不愿承认，一切并没能看破。不过是看见了，闭眼了，躲开了，悬浮在浮躁的真空里。

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was an interesting view into poor communist China in the 80's. There's a lot of complicated small town politics and superstition, which can be difficult to follow since all the characters hail from 3 or 4 different clans. Thus, they all have more or less the same name. This book does present an interesting perspective of a newspaper reporter having extreme power - even moreso than the small town leaders. It brings up the importance of remembering that not all the news you read is genuine, that some facts can be changed with bribery. I imagine some of it was lost in translation, but it was still enjoyable.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one is proving a bit difficult to get through. Translated from Chinese, there's a cultural context I know I'm missing when it comes to humor and history. It's a love story in rural China in the 80s, definitely an interesting time period for Communism, so worth the read for that reason.

[Nicky B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth pressing through the parts I didn't have the context to understand. Once done, the book drew a picture of China's economic reform and relationships between rural and urban China. Wonderful dialog.

[Daniel Burton-Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lively account of a would-be reformer in small town China in the 1980s. Kudos to Professor Goldblatt for making it available in English.

[HM2000]

222

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good and long novel of particular lives.

[Alexis]

Turbulence: A Novel (Pegasus Prize for Literature) by Jia Pingwa (2003)