Heroic Era (Winner of the 6th Mao Dun Literature Prize)

Author: Liu Jianwei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-08-01
Features: The 500,000-word novel takes the important provincial capital of western China, Xiping City, as the main stage for its characters, passionately depicting the life stories of the Chinese Communist Party members who led the people in their heroic struggles to achieve industrial and commercial modernization, implement the strategy of the Western Development, and further deepen the reform since the 15th National Congress of the CCP in 1997 until the arrival of the new century. The book portrays the different life experiences and paths of Shi Tianxiong and Lu Chengwei, the adopted son and biological son of the senior Party leader and veteran revolutionary Lu Zhen Tian. They grew up in a red family and, after the ten-year catastrophe, Lu Chengwei returned from the United States after completing his studies, becoming a trendsetter in the field of financial investment; while Shi Tianxiong, a hero in the Vietnam War, embarked on a career in politics and became the Deputy Director of the Department of Electronics Industry of the state. At the time when China's reform and opening-up was moving towards a market economy, Shi Tianxiong felt the urgency of building a socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics and resolutely left his post to start his own business, becoming the general manager of a private enterprise. As a result, the two brothers became rivals in the economic arena.