All are moths

Author: Wang Xiaorou
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-10-01
Features: I find joy in my ordinary life because my family is happy and my parents are healthy—this is my greatest satisfaction. My mother says, one must have ideals but not be too greedy, so I live a quiet, unassuming life, making small disturbances in my own little world, never causing any major trouble. I use full pinyin to compose various sentences, recording the urban life I see, because I am a small-town person, and I am so fond of the atmosphere from the streets—it is the true backdrop of life. I particularly dislike those who pretend to be big shots, always talking about fashionable lives and holding tissues to their noses everywhere, complaining about the dirt. But even if you wear an expensive leather hollowed-out inner garment, when you urgently need to urinate, you still have to go to public restrooms. You can't treat yourself like an antique, because most people's gazes are as shallow and materialistic as mine—we can't distinguish between the expensive and the cheap. We change clothes, change seasons, change cities, and change partners, but the days remain the same. No matter how much you try to act sophisticated, you still have to follow the life of the urbanites. After living life like a joke, we discover more troubles. With time, we transform from pupae to maggots, then from maggots to butterflies, embracing a better new life.
Wang Xiaorou, a female writer from Tianjin who gained fame with her "joke" style in the book Living Life as a Joke, takes her passion and skill to the extreme in this latest collection of jokes All Are Moths, published by the People's Literature Publishing House. The book features over 70 jokes such as "Your Whole Family Is White-Collar," "Who Is the Grandson," "Sticking Money to the Sole of Your Shoe," "Pretending to Be a Rich Woman," "When Beauties Become Writers," and "Going Home to Feed Pigs." These jokes expose the flaws of fashion and talk about the trivialities of daily life. These short essays, each lasting only a few minutes, are like gossip—every sentence is energetic, every joke is satisfying, fully showcasing Wang Xiaorou's "peasant-style humor."
This book collects over 70 short pieces by Wang Xiaorou, whose writing combines humor and a sense of fashion. Behind the humor, these short jokes convey the author's life insights. These writings, much like Wang Xiaorou's name, are actually separate from my true self—we belong to different realms. She is always finding fault, full of wit, while I am gentle, quiet, and even afraid of socializing. However, when faced with the many moments of inspiration in life, we are united—we are a rose that quietly blooms with fragrance, each of us opening in our own time and place.