Dragon Ticket (Wang Yuewen's latest blockbuster novel)

Author: Wang Yuehua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: Wang Yuewen New Heavyweight Novel. Wang Yuewen, a freelance writer, gained fame in the literary world for publishing National Painting, Mei Ci Stories, and Between Dawn and Dusk. His long-form masterpiece The Dragon Ticket went through fierce competition among several publishing houses before finally landing at Yangtze Literature and Art Press. Unlike Wang Yuewen's previous works, which often focused on the officialdom, this novel centers on the business world. The Dragon Ticket portrays the rise and fall of Shanxi Yixin Bank during the late Qing Dynasty after the Second Opium War, shaping images of ancient merchants such as officials, Confucian merchants, and imperial merchants. It expresses the creator's rejection of the path of official-business collusion, advocating that integrity-based commerce is the true way of business.
The story takes place before Empress Dowager Cixi came to power, where imperial merchants, Confucian merchants, and unscrupulous merchants engage in fierce competition over interests and power. The main plot follows Qiqizhun, the second son of a late Qing bank, as he transitions from a dissolute youth to a mature and successful figure in the financial world after experiencing the ups and downs of his family's decline. Along the way, the novel also interweaves his tumultuous love stories with four women at different stages of his life.
Inspired by the model of Shanxi merchants, the novel comprehensively depicts how modern Chinese finance struggled to take root and take shape during that turbulent era, highlighting the profound truth of integrity-based commerce. It offers valuable insights for the contemporary Chinese business world. The novel vividly portrays the complexities of the business world—its twists and turns, the ruthlessness of commercial warfare, the cunning of merchants, the intricate and subtle entanglements between officials and merchants, as well as the beauty and kindness of human nature and the sweetness and helplessness of love.
Written with exceptional literary flair and grandeur, the novel is highly readable. Its realistic and profound portrayal of character psychology makes it a rare gem.