Liang Xiaosheng's Short Story Collection: Dancers on the Arc (Wood Volume)

Author: Liang Xiaosheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-01
Features: It is well-known how Liang Xiaosheng is as a writer. With works such as This Is a Magical Land, Blizzard Tonight, Snow City, and Tree Rings, he became the founder of "sent-down youth literature." Father, Mother, Younger Brother, Mid-Autumn Again, Black Button, and White Hair Card made him a representative writer of "family affection novels." Meanwhile, works like Elected, Right to Silence, Archive, Speaking Up, and Death of a Scholar are profound middle-length pieces that confront reality, proving his unwavering commitment to literary realism. In 1984, he was hailed as the "Year of Liang Xiaosheng." A newspaper publicly ranked him among the "Top Ten Writers Who Touch China," calling him a "commoner writer" and praising him as "China's Balzac." In terms of quantity, he is undoubtedly one of the most prolific writers of contemporary Chinese middle-length fiction. And in the breadth of themes and diversity of styles, he is truly remarkable. In his middle-length novels, from intellectuals to college students, workers, farmers, armed police, and criminals, to women of all kinds from different eras, he paints a literary "River Scene at Qingming Festival" of Chinese society in his works. In one of his creative talks, he described himself as a "writer standing on an arc," using "arc" to metaphorically represent the humanistic quality and stance of literature. This book, titled Dancers on the Arc, serves as the collective title for a set of his middle-length novels, all of which he himself has written. Liang Xiaosheng personally selected more than 30 representative middle-length works from different periods, naming the set Dancers on the Arc, which is published in five volumes: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. Currently, the Metal and Wood volumes of this set have been released. The Metal volume includes his early masterpieces such as Blizzard Tonight, Father, and Mother. The Wood volume primarily features his works centered on urban commoners.