Corn

Author: Bi Feiyu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-03-01
Features: The 180,000-word Corn, which includes the middle-length trilogy Corn, Yu Xiu, and Yu Yang by the young writer Bi Feiyu. The entire work, with meticulous brushwork, showcases a boundless spirit. The hidden and revealed psychology of characters, their dynamic and static behaviors, the direct and indirect nature of their speech, the thick and thin of their lines, and the coarse and fine contours—all are written with just the right touch. Bi Feiyu’s text lacks the repulsive pseudo-aristocratic air; his narrative voice is always simple, natural, sorrowful yet not hurtful, resentful yet not angry. Bi Feiyu examines human nature and history, questioning the times and politics with a gentle yet sharp gaze. This determines his dual attitude of criticism and compassion intertwined.
The trilogy Corn tells the fate of rural women intertwined with the rise and fall of power, revealing how power corrupts human nature in a barren era. Corn’s father, Wang Lianfang, as the village head of Wangzhuang Village, brought misfortune to the area. His absurdity, his mother’s mediocrity and incompetence, and the uneven quality of his sisters, quickly made Corn, as the eldest daughter, the head of the household. Corn, sharp and cunning, is calm, calculating, and always scheming—like a master chess player, every move hiding traps and hidden strategies. Her intelligence and competence are no less than that of Wang Xifeng in the Dream of the Red Chamber.
After Wang Lianfang’s downfall due to his numerous misdeeds, his two daughters (Yu Xiu and Yu Ye) were gang-raped by villagers while watching a movie, leading to a sharp decline in Corn’s family life. For Corn, this extreme life experience of falling from prosperity to poverty is perhaps even more profound than Lu Xun’s depiction of a family descending from comfort into destitution. Though living in the countryside and with limited education, Corn is, in spirit, an intellectual, an elite of the rural community. Compared to her sisters’ apathy, she is highly sensitive, able to know the world’s changes from a falling leaf. Thus, in the face of sudden upheaval, she fears and trembles; she can only act decisively, burying the last trace of hope in her heart and quickly choosing to align with power to atone for the shame brought by her wayward father.
Corn had originally been in love with Peng Guoliang, a promising pilot, but her father’s downfall and her sister’s violation led Peng to abruptly call off the engagement. Corn, after reflecting deeply, resolutely marries Guo Jiaxing, the of the People’s Commune Revolutionary Committee who had lost his wife in middle age, sacrificing herself to the altar of power...