County City

Author: Hainan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-12-01
Features: Hainan is a highly active and distinctive best-selling female author in recent years. Since her debut in fiction writing in the 1980s, she has gained widespread acclaim and influence with works like No News from the Human World. In the new century, she has published several highly beloved novels, including Patterns, Private Life, Slave of Love, and Mistress. This first-person narrative novel, through the eyes of a teenage girl, allows us to genuinely witness the story that unfolds in a small county on the border of Yunnan Province and the various beautiful yet alluring experiences of its diverse characters. The story begins with a pair of orange bell-bottom pants, taking us back to the 1980s. We are inevitably drawn into following the girl who wears the orange bell-bottom pants as she repeatedly participates in the mysterious, ever-changing, yet beautiful and tragic love stories of her older brother and sister. It seems as if we experience alongside the protagonist the long and arduous journey of helping her younger brother fight against drugs, witnessing his ups and downs with the woman he loves. At the same time, hidden within the protagonist's shadow, we immerse ourselves in the romantic yet not entirely wonderful cohabiting life of the beautiful heroine with truck drivers, coffee merchants, and others. While witnessing the secret affair between her father and a female doctor, we also discover the beautiful flaws in her parents' marriage. The rhythm of the times always resonates in the worldly life of this small county on the southern border, filled with exotic charm. Beneath this seemingly realistic work lies the secret history of the era and individuals during the reform and opening-up period. As we share in the story of this young and beautiful girl's struggle against oppression and growth in confidence, we also witness firsthand the profound changes brought about by the Party's reform and opening-up policies in the thoughts and lives of the people.