Brian's Reviews > Chinese-English Readers series: Selected Short Stories from Contemporary China

This is a great collection of short stories from the writers Chi Li, Bi Shumin, Liu Qingbang, Hong Ke, Ma Yuan, and Su Tong. The stories could be about anyone from anywhere. They are not about the revolution of the culture kind. The stories are about common people facing common people problems… except maybe for the first one about a trucker left behind by his convoy to fix his truck. Like the straggling, weak animal of the pack that the lion targets, this trucker is stalked by a pack of wolves. It’s a face-off between the king of the wolves and the smart thinking trucker.

The other stories are about a hitchhiker in the desert and the concept of trust, holding on to principles during changing times, a poetic story of a butcher of sheep, a family held together by a telephone, and the encounters of a past famous director, Mr Sima, and his wife. The last written by Su Tong, the author of ‘Wife and Concubines’, which was made into the movie ‘Raise the Red Lantern.

There’s good stuff coming out of China. Not all is tainted with melamine.