Chinese Annual Middle-Length Novel (2005)

Author: "Novel Selection"
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: A woman who was trafficked, stripped of her right to speak and freedom in an extremely brutal manner for ten years, lived in constant fear every day (Ge Shuiping's Shouting in the Mountains). He Hanqing, who had endured almost every form of suffering and torment and had become emotionally and physically numb, decided to go out looking for death (Fang Fang's Seeking Death). An old news report about a husband's death and a missing wife sets off "I" on a journey of root-seeking through the misty years (Ye Guangqin's Bandit Legend). "I," filled with grief over the loss of my husband, goes to a small town to collect materials, moving from my own misfortune to the misfortunes of men and women living at the bottom of society (Chi Zijian's All the Nights in the World). Portraying criminals and revealing the evil in human nature, while also igniting sparks of conscience (Han Shaogong's Report to the Government). The loyalty and death of a dog contrast with the cruelty and indifference of humans in the dazzling modern city (Chen Yingsong's Peaceful Dog).
The 18 works of 8 outstanding writers selected for this book—Liu Qingbang, Ge Shuiping, Yang Shaoheng, He Cunzhong, Zhang Ling, Sa Na, Sun Chunping, and Xu Yigua—cover a wide range of themes, feature compelling stories, vivid characters, and diverse narrative techniques. They all demonstrate exceptional quality and rich, brilliant artistic brilliance in vividly and profoundly reflecting the joys and sorrows of life and the complexities of human nature, as well as expressing deep humanistic concern.
Selected and edited by authoritative figures in China's fiction world, the 2005 annual short stories are carefully chosen from nearly 1,000 words of more than 500 short stories published in over 100 literary journals across the country that year. They aim to review the achievements of short story creation in that year and objectively select outstanding annual short stories that are representative and influential in terms of ideological depth and artistic quality.
The editorial style of Novel Selection has always been characterized by depth, grandeur, and a focus on realism. With growing social inequality, widening wealth gaps, and the resulting attention to marginalized groups becoming a frequent topic in mass media, calls for the conscience of writers have not ceased. To put it another way, compared to those sentimental or alluring words, or the self-absorbed and boastful colloquialism of white-collar and bourgeois readers, works that depict the real lives of ordinary people have a much broader readership.
—Critic Zhang Zhizhong, Questioning Death and Experiencing Life (October 2005 issue of Novel Selection)
Shouting in the Mountains is a shocking and realistic work that displays a highly mature artistic style: poetic language, clever structure, vivid details, and restrained narration, leaving a deep and beautiful impression on the reader.
—Critic Li Jianjun, Novel Ethics and Chinese Experience (April 2005 issue of Novel Selection)
One day, I went to the vegetable market to buy groceries and heard two women complaining. When I arrived, they were just talking about this. One woman said, "I'm so fed up with life, I might as well just die." The other replied, "How hard can it be to die? But where would you die?" The first woman said, "I can't die in any way?" "If I can't live, maybe I can die?" The second woman countered, "What about your child if you die? What about your in-laws? What about everyone in your mother's house? I'd be the same. If I die, what about that paralyzed man of yours? Would you both go to die?" She said with a laugh, and the first woman laughed too. Their attitudes and states of mind surprised me greatly. This was the initial inspiration for my novel.
—Fang Fang, Casual Talk