By Night — Critical Edition: Critical Edition

Author: Jia Pingwa
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-11-01
Features: This is a work that is very close to reality, depicting the life in the West Capital in the 1990s. The characters in the book come from various social strata, including high-ranking administrative leaders of the city, other successful or frustrated administrative officials; long-time urban residents who rise and fall in the business world based on real estate conditions; migrant workers and vegetable vendors who have come to the city from the countryside to make their way in the world; archaeologists, police officers, actors, paper-cutting artists, fashion models; nouveau riche, old-timers, descendants of aristocrats, and so on. White Night primarily uses realistic brushwork, but also incorporates elements of the magical, such as the reborn who are resurrected only to die again; the peculiar premonitions of the elderly paper-cutting woman; a ghostly key that causes someone to suffer an incurable night-walking disorder; and the feminization and silkworm-like transformation of a frustrated official after a stroke. Especially the mysterious and enigmatic ghost opera that blurs the lines between humans and gods, casts a thick, pervasive sense of mystery over the real life, and also gives rise to metaphysical reflections on the yin and yang of the universe.