All the praise is deserved. ( )

Abrupt and Fantastical Stories

While I've read numerous Chinese writers in the past, I have never read a collection of short stories. Mo Yan's "Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh" collects a handful of his stories from the '80s and '90s. They are interesting enough but they are very quick, very abrupt, and have very little context.

The longest story is "Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh." It is an enjoyable parable about a exemplary machinist who starts a bordello of sorts after his factory is closed. Other stories include "Iron Child," about an abandoned child who meets a spirit. The two of them roam the countryside eating iron during the Great Leap Forward. In "Soaring," a bride grows wings and flies away the day of her wedding. The comparisons to Kafka are valid because several of these stories include such fantastical situations. However, to understand the stories the reader should understand the historical contexts in which they were written.

Unfortunately, the stories all end very quickly, often dispensing with the descriptions and resolutions that other contemporary Chinese writers use. Nevertheless, these stories are all quick reads and enjoyable in their own right. ( )

This is a collection of short stories (some longer) by the amazing Mo Yan. After first reading Red Sorghum, which is one of the most riveting, visceral, most affecting novels I have ever read, his other work seems quite different. For one thing, as in The Republic of Wine (see my review), he is very funny. At the same time, his writing reflects the realities of Chinese life for the past fifty or sixty years. Some of these stories might seem a bit incomplete or be less than appreciated by readers who don't have some understanding of modern Chinese history, the rise of the Communist Party, and all that implies. My rating of 3 1/2 stars isn't meant as negative, however; I just have to place this book in context with his others. I enjoyed every story, whether it was one of the more realistic ones or one of the two he says are basically fables. I also enjoyed his introduction, which seems to be a mixture of autobiographic fact and fancy. Some may be annoyed with his self-estimation of his writing ability, but the originality in this and his other works backs up his boast. Whether you fall in love with a particular story here or not, you must agree that it is original and good reading. Most of the stories are really about dealing with change, and that is something we can all identify with. ( )

This collection of short stories by Mo Yan contains a wide variety of of themes and serves as a great introduction to Mo Yan for those not already familiar with him. There are eight stories total but in this review I’ll focus on my favorite three: “Shifu, You’ll Do Anything For a Laugh,” “Soaring,” and “Abandoned Child.”

“Shifu, You’ll Do Anything For a Laugh” is about Ding shifu, who’s been working for the same factory for years and is mere days away from his retirement when the company decides to let go of most of their workers. The title “shifu,” is given to people who are a master of their trade, or just as a way to show respect to someone who has been working for a long time. With no hope of getting his due pension, Ding shifu has to find a new way to support his family and falls into despair. He gets a business idea when he spends an afternoon watching young couples in the park sneak off into the woods to get close. He builds a shack which he charges these young couples to use and makes a killing at it, at least until a couple comes along months later who enter the shack and then become deathly quiet. Convinced the couple has committed double suicide, Ding shifu runs around town trying to figure out what he should do. When he finally brings a police officer to the scene, they find no one in the shack. In this realistically bleak and yet humorous story the reader is left wondering what forces of nature had stepped in and brought an end to Ding shifu’s less than honorable business. Were they ghosts? Did the couple play a joke on Ding shifu for making money off of young love?

In “Soaring,” a newly wedded bride gets a look at her new groom and takes off flying– literally. The entire town gives chase, trying to coax her down as she gets further and further away from her new home. Even her own family gets involved and begs her to accept her marriage or she’ll ruin the marriage for her mute brother which was so hard to set up and is contingent upon the poor girl’s marriage. Nothing affects the flying bridge, who eventually ends up sitting in a tree with the entire crowd watching her. Finally she is shot down and killed with a bow and arrow, and the groom laments the loss of his beautiful bride. Again humor mixes with a stark portrayal of truth about how powerless bridges are in their arranged marriages.

The last story of the collection is “Abandoned Child,” which describes the terrible effects the one child policy has specifically on those who live in the rural parts of China who still cling to the belief that male children are more valuable than female. The main character finds a baby girl abandoned in a sunflower field and brings her home. His family is devastated and angry because he already has one child, a girl, and all of their hopes were for him to produce a second, male, child. He goes to the local government which suggests he go around and ask widows/widowers if they would take in the child, but he finds that these families also only want boys. Meanwhile the government official mentions that if the rescuer keeps the child, he’ll have to pay the fine for having more than one child. The story ends with the fate of the little girl unclear and the main character disgusted by the people of his hometown. This story is devoid of the humor of the previous two but the narrator of the story has a disillusioned, desperate tone that will stay with you long after you finish reading. ( )

Written by one of the most recent recipients of the Nobel Prize for Literature, this collection is an entertaining mix of phantom and reality, socio-political concern and the day-to-day business of life. The stories and characters are all enchantingly believable, even when and where they leave reality behind in favor of something more speculative, often achieving in the process a frightening version of magical realism. There's no doubt in my mind that the stories here will haunt me for some time, and draw me back to re-read and pass on the journeys to other readers.

On a side note, I haven't the faintest idea why the work is regularly labeled as a novel online--it is a collection of short stories, not interconnected by anything but the occasional theme. Regardless, this is absolutely recommended. ( )