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Trees Without Wind: A Novel
Unfolding in the tense years of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), Trees Without Wind takes place in a remote Shanxi village in which a rare affliction has left the residents physically stunted. Director Liu, an older revolutionary and local commune head, becomes embroiled in a power struggle with Zhang Weiguo, a young ideologue who believes he is the model of a true revolutionary. Complicating matters is a woman named Nuanyu, who, like Zhang Weiguo and Director Liu, is an outsider untouched by the village's disease. "Wedded" to all of the male villagers, Nuanyu lives a polyandrous lifestyle based on necessity and at odds with the puritanical idealism of the Cultural Revolution.

The deformed villagers, representing the manipulated masses of China, become pawns in the Party representatives' factional infighting. Director Liu and Zhang Weiguo's explosive tug-of-war is part of a larger battle among politics, self-interest, and passion gripping a world undone by ideological extremism. A collectively told narrative powered by distinctive subjectivities, Trees Without Wind is a milestone in the fictional treatment of a horrific event.
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Trees Without Wind: A Novel
Unfolding in the tense years of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), Trees Without Wind takes place in a remote Shanxi village in which a rare affliction has left the residents physically stunted. Director Liu, an older revolutionary and local commune head, becomes embroiled in a power struggle with Zhang Weiguo, a young ideologue who believes he is the model of a true revolutionary. Complicating matters is a woman named Nuanyu, who, like Zhang Weiguo and Director Liu, is an outsider untouched by the village's disease. "Wedded" to all of the male villagers, Nuanyu lives a polyandrous lifestyle based on necessity and at odds with the puritanical idealism of the Cultural Revolution.

The deformed villagers, representing the manipulated masses of China, become pawns in the Party representatives' factional infighting. Director Liu and Zhang Weiguo's explosive tug-of-war is part of a larger battle among politics, self-interest, and passion gripping a world undone by ideological extremism. A collectively told narrative powered by distinctive subjectivities, Trees Without Wind is a milestone in the fictional treatment of a horrific event.
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Trees Without Wind: A Novel

Trees Without Wind: A Novel

Trees Without Wind: A Novel
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Trees Without Wind: A Novel

Trees Without Wind: A Novel

Overview

Unfolding in the tense years of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), Trees Without Wind takes place in a remote Shanxi village in which a rare affliction has left the residents physically stunted. Director Liu, an older revolutionary and local commune head, becomes embroiled in a power struggle with Zhang Weiguo, a young ideologue who believes he is the model of a true revolutionary. Complicating matters is a woman named Nuanyu, who, like Zhang Weiguo and Director Liu, is an outsider untouched by the village's disease. "Wedded" to all of the male villagers, Nuanyu lives a polyandrous lifestyle based on necessity and at odds with the puritanical idealism of the Cultural Revolution.

The deformed villagers, representing the manipulated masses of China, become pawns in the Party representatives' factional infighting. Director Liu and Zhang Weiguo's explosive tug-of-war is part of a larger battle among politics, self-interest, and passion gripping a world undone by ideological extremism. A collectively told narrative powered by distinctive subjectivities, Trees Without Wind is a milestone in the fictional treatment of a horrific event.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780231162746
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication date: 12/18/2012
Series: Weatherhead Books on Asia
Pages: 208
Product dimensions: 5.70(w) x 7.10(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Li Rui (b. 1950) began publishing his fiction in the mid-1970s and achieved national prominence in the late 1980s. He has won numerous literary awards in China, Taiwan, and Europe and is widely recognized as an important voice in contemporary Chinese literature. Among his books are Deep Earth, a collection of short stories, and the novels Silver City and No Clouds for Ten Thousand Miles.



John Balcom is a professor at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and an award-winning translator of Chinese literature, philosophy, and children's books. His publications include Taiwan's Indigenous Writers: An Anthology of Stories, Essays, and Poems and There's Nothing I Can Do When I Think of You Late at Night by Cao Naiqian, both of which won a Northern California Book Award.

What People are Saying About This

Michael Berry

Li Rui is one of China's boldest literary voices, and after several decades, he continues to push the envelope. His bold literary experiments with dialect and tense, combined with his honest expose of the brutalities of modern Chinese history, have set him apart from his peers and crafted one of the most fascinating and unique literary landscapes in modern Chinese literature.

Carlos Rojas

A fascinating work by one of contemporary China's most influential and innovative novelists. Balanced on the fulcrum of politics, self-interest, tradition, and desire, the novel presents a distinctively original perspective on the political struggles that turned China upside down during the Cultural Revolution.

Goran Malmqvist

A true masterpiece by one of China's greatest writers. Li Rui's compassion and unique command of narrative skill, which is mirrored in John Balcom's translation, makes this novel the truest, most moving, and most terrifying portrayal ever written of the agony and suffering created by the Cultural Revolution.

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