Four-Color Lake

Author: Shu Fang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: This book can be said to be a humanized history of Dongting Lake. Through the joys and sorrows of several generations of three fisherman families, the stories in the book reflect the political storms and historical changes of modern China. While narrating the dramatic stories of Dongting Lake, the author reflects on history, especially on the history before and after the Cultural Revolution.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Four-Color Lake can also be said to be a humanized history of Dongting Lake. Through the joys and sorrows of several generations of three fisherman families, it reflects the political storms and historical changes of modern China. When recounting the dramatic stories unfolding on Dongting Lake, the author includes an understanding of the fates of the characters, as well as reflections on history. The author focuses his reflections on the period before and after the Cultural Revolution, which may be related to his personal experiences. The author was a youth worker in Changsha during the Cultural Revolution, a time when he was in his prime. He came to the Dongting Lake area to work and settle down, enduring hardships, witnessing the world, and suffering tribulations. As a result, he has a deeply ingrained experience of this period of history. During that specific historical era, the extreme-left ideology of class struggle caused the corrosion and deterioration of human nature, and the author expresses profound sorrow over this. This sorrow nurtured the central theme of Four-Color Lake. Through the stories of Dongting Lake, the author clarifies the profound historical lessons for us, while calling for the forging of good and kind human nature and a peaceful, harmonious interpersonal environment. This is the humanistic ideal distilled from the clear waters of Dongting Lake. In the carefully crafted character of Grandma Bai, we can feel the power and radiance of this ideal.