China in One Village

China in One Village:The Story of One Town and the Changing World

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An unforgettable portrait of the tectonic shifts happening in rural China—told through the microcosm of one small town

After a decade away from her ancestral family village, during which she became a writer and literary scholar in Beijing, Liang Hong started visiting her rural hometown in landlocked Hebei province. What she found was an extended family torn apart by the seismic changes in Chinese society, and a village hollowed-out by emigration, neglect, and environmental despoliation. Combining family memoir, literary observation, and social commentary, Liang’s by turns moving and shocking account became a bestselling book in China and brought her fame.

Across China, many saw in Liang’s remarkable and vivid interviews with family members and childhood acquaintances a mirror of their own families, and her observations about the way the greatest rural-to-urban migration of modern times has twisted the country resonated deeply. China in One Village tells the story of contemporary China through one clear-eyed observer, one family, and one village.

Reviews

  • An engaging read, with lively first-person narratives … it is in these stories that the universality of people's hopes, fears and frustrations really shines through.

    New Internationalist
  • A lucid, accessible account of rural Chinese life, its stories worth far more than the statistics usually invoked in accounts of the pro­found change that has swept China.

    Jonathan ChatwinSouth China Morning Post
  • A true literary sensation ... [Liang] pulls no punches.

    Ian JohnsonNew York Times