It begins on a modest scale. When cargo trains are passing the village of Sprängrifte in China’s Henanprovins they must climb a steep hill and slows therefore the speed. Some enterprising villagers waiting until the engine begins to labour, up on the wagons and the shovels down the coal which they then make themselves a tidy profit. In communist China, is theft of state property punishable by the maximum penalty. But since the central government decided that every village should invest in a certain amount of private enterprise, it will still be so koltjuvarna rewarded. The state’s directive must be followed even if it only benefits them as the shoes themselves on state property.
Koltjuvarna in the village of Sprängrifte thus becomes the first in the village who can afford to replace their thatched roofs against the real bricks and acquire televisions and other desirable found only in the big cities.
A new era has begun.
themselves ”Explosionskrönika” to be a hävdakrönika that the author Yan Lianke written on behalf of Sprängriftes current urban governance. The purpose is to document how a bondhåla by a single family sensible in the government is growing into one of China’s largest and wealthiest cities. The columnist notes, however, already in the introduction that everything described is certainly true, but that he has put together the material for your own head. That depiction hardly will fall to the clients to the taste making soon the reader also.
Yan Lianke is China’s most internationally famous writers of the day, the multi-award-winning for its satirical depictions of contemporary China. The question is whether he’s ever been more mercilessly critical of the moral decay in his homeland than he is here.
Lianke is derived itself from a village in the outskirts of the city of Luoyang in Henan, one of the many towns which, during the of Deng Xiaping prohibition socialist market economy is undergoing a transformation similar to that described in the book. The uninhibited growth has had devastating effects, not least on the environment in a province which is one of China’s richest, is also historically and culturally.
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in the story of the four brothers Kong that when the opportunity to enrich themselves to appear not hesitate to take it. Andrebrodern Kong Mingliang allow themselves to first be selected (that is to say: he buys) the item that the village elders. He moves then from the sockenchef to the sheriff until he towards the end of his career stand as mayor in a big city which at the same time is its own province.
His only rival for power is Zhu Ying, the daughter of the Kong family arvsfiende. The two are described not only as rivals, but as opposites and complements in an almost mythological duel. If he is the sun she is the moon. If he is the unbridled power she is the elaborate crown molding. If he does not shy away from using military force to achieve their goals based she a vocational school for the prostitutes who send thousands of ”hemhjälpar” to Beijing to seduce the country’s highest leaders, so that everything is finally going her way.
the Power may be perfect, so perfect that it can cause reality itself to change shape. But there is something more powerful still: the dreams and beliefs that people make about themselves.
It is rotten right through. No amount of lie or deception is too insignificant to take to in order to acquire even more tangible benefits. When Sprängrifte grown large enough to receive the american companies will transform the city prompt to a vietnamese jungle, complete with attack helicopters and napalmdoft, all americans should be able to feel at home.
are most often of the battle: an absurd comedy that borders on the hysterical. Yet there is a touching tenderness in the middle of everything. That when another of the brothers Kong practice flottkrig to fight back against China’s enemies, that is to say: the united states, Japan, south Korea and rest of the world.
the only Problem is that there is no sea in Henan. Therefore, if Mingyaos fleet find themselves in implementing the flottövningarna on a gräsplatå outside of the city. Which does not prevent him from launching all that is possible to launch: with pansarkryssare in the formation, and submarines as they glide over the grass.
the Power may be perfect, so perfect that it can cause reality itself to change shape. But there is something more powerful still: the dreams and beliefs that people make about themselves. To emphasize this idea, let Yan Lianke, just as in the folk tale, nature play in human transactions. When the two rivals Kong Mingliang, and Zhu Ying quarrelling, lose all of the birds feathers. When the two are reunited towards the end of the book invites skymningshimlarna over each other in solnedgångsskimmer, cities and cheeks stained red and the trees bud and turn out in bloom though it is the middle of winter.
in this patch of melancholy in the midst of all the grotesque satire Yan Liankes character finds its clearest form. It is at once harrowing and beautiful.
