Sandalwood Punishment

Author: Mo Yan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: Tianxiang Xing (Sandalwood Death) is a long novel that Mo Yan painstakingly completed over five years. In this masterful work of fiction, Mo Yan sets the historical backdrop of German construction of the Jiaozhou Railway in Shandong in 1900, Yuan Shikai's suppression of the Shandong Boxer Movement, the siege of Beijing by the Eight-Nation Alliance, and Empress Dowager Cixi's hasty escape. With a graceful and expressive pen, profound passion, and insightful thinking, Mo Yan vividly narrates a moving movement, a shocking torture, and a thrilling love story that unfolds in the "Gaoqi Northeast Township." The plot of the novel unfolds through the entanglements of love and hate, life and death between the female protagonist Meiniang and her biological father, adoptive father, and father-in-law. This novel is a reaction against magical realism and Western modernist fiction, as well as a bold challenge to the popular historical novels of the time. The entire work possesses the vividness and widespread appeal of folk literature, passed down and recited by the people. Mo Yan employs an openly skillful "Phoenix Head—Pig Stomach—Leopard Tail" structural model to tell a complex story that sometimes startles readers and at other times moves them deeply with tenderness. This is a truly national novel, a work that truly originates from the people and is dedicated to the masses. The renowned contemporary Chinese writer Mo Yan, with his unique creative techniques, has earned a distinguished reputation in Chinese literature. To date, he has published nearly ten long novels and over a hundred short stories and novellas. His novels, with their rich colors, novel sensations, and abundant and unique imagery, have created an artistic world in Gaoqing County's Northeast Township, reminiscent of Macondo in Gabriel García Márquez's works, to the point where some critics have remarked that Mo Yan is China's own Gabriel García Márquez. Memories of rural life serve as the and background for many of Mo Yan's literary works.