Old house old lady

Author: Wu Geng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: Due to the creator's decades of experience in literary creation, Old Houses and Old Women adopts an essayistic style, with thematic narratives that collectively form a long scroll, yet individually read like short stories. The writing does not deliberately pursue a structured layout but rather flows spontaneously, like clouds drifting and water flowing, creating a natural and effortless rhythm. It presents readers with a series of historical and folk scenes from eastern Chongqing and northern Guizhou, filled with rich local charm, as well as vivid portraits of characters. Old Houses and Old Women draws from novel material and features a unique language, blending historical value, knowledge, readability, and aesthetic appeal. It offers insights into dialects, folk songs, trade terminology, and underworld slang, while also revealing historical events, mysteries, and lost artifact cases in the region. The book provides, social, religious, historical, and personal details, making it invaluable for cultural research today.
The characters and events in Old Houses and Old Women are all real names and true stories, with artistic embellishments but no fictionalization. The work primarily narrates the social dynamics along the border of Guizhou and Chongqing from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republican era, using the old house as a backdrop to portray the typical female figures—such as the old house owner, the fourth mistress, and the youngest mistress—who survive for the sake of the world and its people. It also uncovers the social roots of the rise and fall of the old house family across generations. Set in Nanchuan, Chongqing, and Daizhen, Guizhou, the story unfolds with tales of shamans, doctors, scholars, porters, beggars, teachers, business owners, gangsters, drifters, soldiers, officials, lords, ladies, gentlemen, local strongmen, and all walks of life.