One-generation craftsman

Author: Zhang Jingxiang, Sainia, Liu Liangcheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-03-01
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Zhang Jingxiang is the Director of the Government Office in Shawan County, Xinjiang. In his spare time, he spends his days writing prose. Together with two other Shawan prose writers, Liu Liangcheng and Xiao Yun, he formed "Three People's Village." The difference between Zhang Jingxiang's prose and Liu Liangcheng's lies in this: Liu Liangcheng writes about the abstract, while Zhang Jingxiang writes about the concrete; Liu Liangcheng writes with poetry, Zhang Jingxiang writes about hardship; Liu Liangcheng's work is highly artistic, Zhang Jingxiang's is emotionally rich; Liu Liangcheng's work is complex, while Zhang Jingxiang's is simple—and in its simplicity, it becomes more interesting, vivid, and touching than complexity. Zhang Jingxiang's prose extensively depicts folk artists, carpenters, leatherworkers, butchers, and storytellers who survive at the bottom of Chinese society.